A comparative study of applying real-time encryption in cloud computing environments

Abstract

The rapid growth of cloud computing as a newfound technology and many unclear security issues in it cause many challenges. These challenges are specified in service provider's cloud servers and transmission processes. Accordingly, this paper presents a model based on separate data and key cloud servers and a client-based data encryption service for increasing the reliability in cloud computing environments. In the proposed model, the key generation process is done in a separate cloud application and public and private keys are stored in key cloud servers. Moreover, the encryption and decryption processes are done in client side by a service that named “data encryption service”. For applying this encryption system a comparative study was done by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of six popular asymmetric key encryption algorithms (i.e. Original RSA, RSA Small-e, RSA Small-d, MREA, E-RSA, and EAMRSA) according to time, key size and security parameters. These algorithms were briefly described and redeveloped in the same situation for the simulation process to investigate the performance in client-based data encryption service. Furthermore, the security analysis was done by reviewing the performance of described algorithms against three popular attacks: Brute Force, Mathematical, and Timing Attack. According to the results E-RSA in the most appropriate algorithm for using in client-based data encryption service by achieving acceleration, accuracy, and security in this service based on compatibility issues in a client side service.