1. A system having a plurality participant devices for conducting a secure exchange of encrypted data within a community of interest using a three-party security mechanism consisting of: a cloud lockbox configured to: receive and store encrypted data submitted by at least one of the plurality participant devices; create a receptor providing transactional metadata and a file identification; and acknowledge the receipt of the encrypted data by communicating the receptor; a key master operated in a participant device of the plurality of participant devices of the community of interest, the key master configured to: generate a public-private key pair for each participant device of the plurality of participant devices in the community of interest; receive a participant device's data and related metadata; encrypt the received data and related metadata with the participant device's public key; create non-sensitive transactional metadata and associate the non-sensitive transactional metadata with the participant device's data and related metadata; transmit the encrypted data, metadata, and transactional metadata to the cloud lockbox; and maintain the participant device's private key required for decryption of the encrypted data; and retrieve the encrypted data and encrypted metadata by submitting the receptor to the cloud lockbox; a registry, remotely coupled to the cloud lockbox and the key master, configured to: establish unique identities for each participant device of the community of interest with the key master, wherein the registry is configured to communicate with additional registries if more than one registry is operational for the community of interest; establish a unique identity and authenticity of the cloud lockbox; maintain a directory of participants and the cloud lockbox, wherein the registry is configured to function as a clearinghouse for participant devices to retrieve public keys of other participant devices; and manage a participant-level access control list and communicate the list to the cloud lockbox for controlling access to stored data by the key master; record an IP address for each of the key master, the cloud lockbox and the registry for selectively restricting communications; wherein the key master and the registry are configured to update permissions for the plurality of participant devices to enable the plurality of participant devices to add or retrieve data based on the participant-level access control list; and wherein the three-party security mechanism is configured to be integrated with via an application programming interface.