Communications of the ACM
Confidential Computing: Elevating Cloud Security and Privacy
Credit: Omelchenko
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital security, a new technology—confidential computing9,11—is set to redefine our expectations of data safety and privacy. The advent of cloud computing has already resulted in a security infrastructure that surpasses most traditional on-premises systems. Confidential computing (CC) is poised to elevate these guarantees even further. It is a paradigm shift that marks the next stage in the evolution of cloud security, representing a leap forward that pushes the boundaries of what is achievable.
CC fundamentally improves our security posture by drastically reducing the attack surface of systems. While traditional systems encrypt data at rest and in transit, CC extends this protection to data in use. It provides a novel, clearly defined security boundary, isolating sensitive data within trusted execution environments during computation. This means services can be designed that segment data based on least-privilege access principles, that is, services where data is accessible only to the code that needs access to perform its function, while all other code in the system sees only encrypted data. Crucially, the isolation is rooted in novel hardware primitives, effectively rendering even the cloud-hosting infrastructure and its administrators incapable of accessing the data. This approach creates more resilient systems capable of withstanding increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, thereby reinforcing data protection and sovereignty in an unprecedented manner.
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