Data & IT security, a challenge for the cloud computing trend

Abstract

The most important and greatest global challenge in cloud computing is to be able to fulfill data privacy and compliance demands and ensure IT security. In its 2012 published study "On the Security of Cloud Storage Services", the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) mentions three potential security vulnerabilities it detected: Access by unauthorized third parties during data transfer, interception of the database itself, and possible abuse through the actual cloud service provider. Security experts consider the former two loopholes as closed, if 1. correct SSL/TLS encryption protects the data during transfer, and 2. cryptographic procedures secure the stored data. Present paper elucidates how basic Sealed Cloud technology covers the third security risk, in which the service provider has access to clear text data in processing servers.