Security Issues of Cloud Computing and an Encryption Approach

Abstract

The main security and privacy issues of cloud computing as well as the related implications are addressed, and a general framework for achieving the goals is summarized. This chapter basically considers scientific and educational employment of a cloud as a particular instance of a public cloud and its security, and as a potentially specific issue, a request for a heavy minimization of the costs implied by security is pointed out. Consequently, the problem of minimization of the overheads implied by security/privacy mechanisms is addressed. The main security requirements are given as well as the main recommendations, providing a framework for the security management. As a particular issue, data protection is considered and significance of data access control and encryption are discussed. Accordingly, an illustrative approach for achieving lightweight and provable secure encryption is shown. The considered encryption is based on joint employment of cryptographic and coding methods.