Secure User Data In Cloud Computing With Modern Encryption Techniques

As cloud computing keeps on developing, organizations are never again seeing the cloud as a tool. By the end of 2019, just a little fraction of businesses will stay on the local server. Every year, cybersecurity experts foresee that the following year will bring bigger and advanced data breaches. Nevertheless, they’re correct! Last year, we met a breach of 150 million clients at Under Armor, 340 million records ruptured through Exactis , and 50 million user profiles traded off at Facebook.

Yet, we are halfway through 2019 and almost 100 breaches were identified by Identity Theft Resource Center. One of the top laboratory giants, LabCorp reported 7.7 million patients had their financial data as well as personal data stolen from the web payment page. Nearly 30 million records were stolen with the top breaches occurring in the business, medical/healthcare, banking/financial sector. 

With the yearly increase in cloud security threats, the data breach is a major concern of many organizations. Therefore, IT specialists are using encryption techniques in cloud computing to assure security. 

The advancement of technology is bringing awareness about cloud computing to companies and organizations gradually. Professionals are using several encryption techniques in cloud computing but cryptography is the most authentic method.

Identity-based encryption (IBE) uses Public-key cryptography where the third-party server simply uses an identifier to generate the public key. A public key may be an email address or a date. The generated key helps in encrypting the electronic messages as well as in the decryption process. symmetric encryption algorithms (e.g. Blowfish, Twofish) convert plain text into ciphertext.

Attribute-based encryption (ABE) allows flexible policy-based access controls that have many forms. Some of the most common ones are ciphertext attribute-based and key policy attribute-based encryption.

In a ciphertext attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) framework, when a sender scrambles a message, access policy and a key pair are assigned, expressing what sort of beneficiaries will unscramble the ciphertext.

In a key policy attribute-based encryption (KP-ABE) framework, the sender labels the ciphertext with policies. While the client’s private key is issued by the trusted third-party, defining the policies that determine which sort of ciphertexts the key can decode.

According to my research, Attribute-based encryption is the generalized form of IDE. In ABE, the degree of data protection is higher as a user must meet all the specified attribute values along with the key before decrypting the data. As in IDE, a user having the secret key can decrypt the ciphertext.

There are more than 50 cloud service providers in the world, but Microsoft Azure stands out from all of them. A Microsoft product, launched in 2010 provides services such as hosting solutions, service management, development, and data storage. The two big services of Microsoft i.e. Azure and Office 365 have given the tech giant a wider lead over its competitor (Amazon).

Microsoft Azure is suitable for all types of industries as it easily combines with a new or ongoing application or data center. It reduces the operational cost as it does not need physical servers on-site. The transfer of data from your database to the Azure cloud is easy and fast.

The services offered across the cloud are flexible and helps you change according to your preference. The technology which Azure uses offers various kind of models:

• Client-side encryption
• Server-side encryption
• Azure disk encryption
• Azure Storage service encryption

The client-side encryption model encrypts the data at the client’s end first. After the encryption has occurred, the data is then sent to the cloud platform.

Server-side encryption branches into three types of models.
• The data is encrypted and the key is provided to you by the cloud service providers.
• After the data is encrypted, you can choose your own key.
This model allows us to store our key outside the Microsoft platform after the data is encrunted This is also known as Host
Your Own Key (HYOK).

With the Azure disk encryption approach that uses the Microsoft BitLocker technique, you can now protect your Windows and virtual machines.

Azure storage service encryption’s process is transparent to its users as the data is automatically encrypted once you store it and decrypts as soon as you retrieve it.

In general, providing security is very difficult. To secure your data you need to follow the goals of information security which are availability, confidentiality, and integrity. In such a fast-paced environment of cloud services and mobility, organizations must take necessary actions to protect their data from intruders. Therefore, it is always necessary to consider what services are offered to you and whether they fulfill your requirements or not.

So, looking for a cloud service provider with years of excellence and trusted partnership?

Intelligenes is the right choice, an IT firm with its roots in Canada. Trusted Microsoft Partner (Azure Services Canada), we are one of the future cloud service provider working mainly on Microsoft Azure to keep your data secure and provide you with fast access to your credentials.