Communications of the ACM
ser-Controlled System Makes It Possible to Instantly Revoke Access to Files Hosted on Internet Cloud Servers
Researchers at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research say access to cloud-hosted data can be controlled in real time by securing data files with a proxy key.
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Access to cloud-hosted data can be controlled in real time by securing data files with a proxy key, according to researchers from Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR).
Cloud storage has become a rapidly deployed approach to data backup and easy file sharing, but the security of the cloud is not immune to cyberattacks or cloud provider misuse.
The A*STAR researchers, led by Jianying Zhou, developed a scheme in which a proxy key is deposited for each authorized user. The proxy key also requires another private key held by the cloud provider. By requiring two keys to decrypt files, a user's access can be instantly revoked by deleting one of the keys from the cloud.
The researchers say this method reduces the potential for files to be taken offline and accessed without authorization, and they note with lightweight user decryption, files can still be opened quickly on mobile devices.
"Our technology could be used to provide scalable and fine-grained access control to various bodies of data collected by different organizations and shared via the cloud, with natural applications in areas such as healthcare, finance, and data-centric cloud applications," Zhou says.
From A*STAR Research
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Abstracts Copyright © 2016 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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