Semi-Decentralized File Sharing as a Service

Abstract

Files are the most widely used format for recording data in the modern world. Files are either exchanged through a storage medium or transported from one computer to another via a file sharing platform. In the latter case, most services are centralised meaning that a file copy is freely available to the platform provider exposing users to the risk of sensitive information leakage. Alternatively, some protocols ensure that a third party will not be able to maintain a copy of the data. This work presents a solution to this problem, providing a Peer-to-Peer, semi-decentralized file sharing system as a service enabling the end-user to share any file in a secure manner and ensuring no usable copy of the file is stored anywhere but the sender’s and recipient’s file system while the recipient can ensure that the file has not been tampered with in any way using digital signatures. A microservice-based novel application has been developed that implements this functionality while abstracting the complexity to a simple browser-based user interface.