Described herein are techniques related to shielding data, thereby enabling the shielded data to be distributively placed in untrusted computing environments for cost effective storage. A method and system may include a trusted agent operable in a trusted computing environment. The trusted agent includes a transformation knowledge key generator and a data transformer. The transformation knowledge key generator is operable to generate a transformation knowledge key, the transformation knowledge key being generated with at least two shielding algorithms to shield the data. The data transformer is operable to transform the data into N segments of shielded data using the transformation knowledge key. A communications agent securely coupled to the trusted agent is operable to securely transfer one or more of the N segments of shielded data to one or more storage devices in untrusted computing environments.