Secure Cloud Computing

Abstract

The security risks of cloud computing include loss of control over data and programs stored in the cloud, spying out these data and unnoticed changing of user software by the cloud provider, malware intrusion into the server, eavesdropping during data transmission as well as sabotage by attackers able to fake authorised users. It will be shown here how these security risks can effectively be coped with. Only for preventing the cloud provider from wrong-doing no technical solution is available. The intrusion of malware into cloud servers and its malicious effects can be rendered impossible by hardware-supported architectural features. Eavesdropping and gaining unauthorised access to clouds can be prevented by information-theoretically secure data encryption with one-time keys. A cryptosystem is presented, which does not only work with one-time keys, but allows any plaintext to be encrypted by a randomly selected element out of a large set of possible ciphertexts. By obliterating the boundaries between data items encrypted together, this system removes another toehold for cryptanalysis.