US Patent 9749132 System and method for secure deletion of data

Systems and methods for secure deletion of data items in a storage system may support the deletion of stored data item. In response to a storage request, a storage manager may generate a key corresponding to the data item to be stored and encrypt the data item before storing the data item in a data store. The key may be stored in an index comprising metadata corresponding to the data item. In response to a delete request, the storage system may determine the corresponding metadata entry in the index and remove the key corresponding to the data item without accessing the data item.