On the Significance of Cryptography as a Service

Abstract

Cryptography as a service is becoming extremely popular. It eases the way companies deal with securing their information without having to worry about their customer’s information being accessed by someone who should not have access to it. In this overview, we will be taking a closer look at Cryptography as a Service. The ground we will be examining is the effectiveness of it for mobile/wireless and desktop computing. Since we will be looking at something that operates as a service, we will need to first cover the application program interface (API) basics [1] or standard software as a service (SaaS) [2]. Next, what exactly cryptography as a service means for each of the aforementioned platforms. Lastly, other possible solutions and how they compare to CaaS. For the purpose of this review, we will be looking at CaaS in a cloud environment since typical SaaS is used that way. Subsequently most cloud environments utilize a UNIX based operating system or similar solution, which will be the target environment for the purpose of this paper. Popular algorithms that are used in CaaS will be the final part that will be examined on the grounds of how they perform, level of security offered, and usability in CaaS. Upon reading this paper the reader will have a better understanding of how exactly CaaS operates and what it has to offer for mobile, desktop, and wireless users in the present and future.