A comprehensive meta-analysis of cryptographic security mechanisms for cloud computing

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The concept of cloud computing offers measurable computational or information resources as a service over the Internet. The major motivation behind the cloud setup is economic benefits, because it assures the reduction in expenditure for operational and infrastructural purposes. To transform it into a reality there are some impediments and hurdles which are required to be tackled, most profound of which are security, privacy and reliability issues. As the user data is revealed to the cloud, it departs the protection-sphere of the data owner. However, this brings partly new security and privacy concerns. This work focuses on these issues related to various cloud services and deployment models by spotlighting their major challenges. While the classical cryptography is an ancient discipline, modern cryptography, which has been mostly developed in the last few decades, is the subject of study which needs to be implemented so as to ensure strong security and privacy mechanisms in today’s real-world scenarios. The technological solutions, short and long term research goals of the cloud security will be described and addressed using various classical cryptographic mechanisms as well as modern ones. This work explores the new directions in cloud computing security, while highlighting the correct selection of these fundamental technologies from cryptographic point of view

Mobile qualified electronic signatures and certification on demand

Despite a legal framework being in place for several years, the market share of qualified electronic signatures is disappointingly low. Mobile Signatures provide a new and promising opportunity for the deployment of an infrastructure for qualified electronic signatures. We analyzed two possible signing approaches (server based and client based signatures) and conclude that SIM-based signatures are the most secure and convenient solution. However, using the SIM-card as a secure signature creation device (SSCD) raises new challenges, because it would contain the user’s private key as well as the subscriber identification. Combining both functions in one card raises the question who will have the control over the keys and certificates. We propose a protocol called Certification on Demand (COD) that separates certification services from subscriber identification information and allows consumers to choose their appropriate certification services and service providers based on their needs. We also present some of the constraints that still have to be addressed before qualified mobile signatures are possible

Analysis Techniques for Concurrent Programming Languages

Los lenguajes concurrentes est an cada d a m as presentes en nuestra sociedad, tanto en las nuevas tecnolog as como en los sistemas utilizados de manera cotidiana. M as a un, dada la actual distribuci on de los sistemas y su arquitectura interna, cabe esperar que este hecho siga siendo una realidad en los pr oximos a~nos. En este contexto, el desarrollo de herramientas de apoyo al desarrollo de programas concurrentes se vuelve esencial. Adem as, el comportamiento de los sistemas concurrentes es especialmente dif cil de analizar, por lo que cualquier herramienta que ayude en esta tarea, a un cuando sea limitada, ser a de gran utilidad. Por ejemplo, podemos encontrar herramientas para la depuraci on, an alisis, comprobaci on, optimizaci on, o simpli caci on de programas. Muchas de ellas son ampliamente utilizadas por los programadores hoy en d a. El prop osito de esta tesis es introducir, a trav es de diferentes lenguajes de programaci on concurrentes, t ecnicas de an alisis que puedan ayudar a mejorar la experiencia del desarrollo y publicaci on de software para modelos concurrentes. En esta tesis se introducen tanto an alisis est aticos (aproximando todas las posibles ejecuciones) como din amicos (considerando una ejecuci on en concreto). Los trabajos aqu propuestos di eren lo su ciente entre s para constituir ideas totalmente independientes, pero manteniendo un nexo com un: el hecho de ser un an alisis para un lenguaje concurrente. Todos los an alisis presentados han sido de nidos formalmente y se ha probado su correcci on, asegurando que los resultados obtenidos tendr an el grado de abilidad necesario en sistemas que lo requieran, como por ejemplo, en sistemas cr ticos. Adem as, se incluye la descripci on de las herramientas software que implementan las diferentes ideas propuestas. Esto le da al trabajo una utilidad m as all a del marco te orico, permitiendo poner en pr actica y probar con ejemplos reales los diferentes an alisis. Todas las ideas aqu presentadas constituyen, por s mismas, propuestas aplicables en multitud de contextos y problemas actuales. Adem as, individualmente sirven de punto de partida para otros an alisis derivados, as como para la adaptaci on a otros lenguajes de la misma familia. Esto le da un valor a~nadido a este trabajo, como bien atestiguan algunos trabajos posteriores que ya se est an bene ciando de los resultados obtenidos en esta tesis.Concurrent languages are increasingly present in our society, both in new technologies and in the systems used on a daily basis. Moreover, given the current systems distribution and their internal architecture, one can expect that this remains so in the coming years. In this context, the development of tools to support the implementation of concurrent programs becomes essential. Futhermore, the behavior of concurrent systems is particularly difficult to analyse, so that any tool that helps in this task, even if in a limited way, will be very useful. For example, one can find tools for debugging, analysis, testing, optimisation, or simplification of programs, which are widely used by programmers nowadays. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce, through various concurrent programming languages, some analysis techniques that can help to improve the experience of the software development and release for concurrent models. This thesis introduces both static (approximating all possible executions) and dynamic (considering a specific execution) analysis. The topics considered here differ enough from each other to be fully independent. Nevertheless, they have a common link: they can be used to analyse properties of a concurrent programming language. All the analyses presented here have been formally defined and their correctness have been proved, ensuring that the results will have the reliability degree which is needed for some systems (for instance, for critical systems). It also includes a description of the software tools that implement the different ideas proposed. This gives the work a usefulness well beyond the theoretical aspect, allowing us to put it in practice and to test the different analyses with real-world examples All the ideas here presented are, by themselves, approaches that can be applied in many current contexts and problems. Moreover, individually they serve as a starting point for other derived analysis, as well as for the adaptation to other languages of the same family. This gives an added value to this work, a fact confirmed by some later works that are already benefiting from the results obtained in this thesis.Tamarit Muñoz, S. (2013). Analysis Techniques for Concurrent Programming Languages [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/31651TESI

Modeling and visualizing networked multi-core embedded software energy consumption

In this report we present a network-level multi-core energy model and a software development process workflow that allows software developers to estimate the energy consumption of multi-core embedded programs. This work focuses on a high performance, cache-less and timing predictable embedded processor architecture, XS1. Prior modelling work is improved to increase accuracy, then extended to be parametric with respect to voltage and frequency scaling (VFS) and then integrated into a larger scale model of a network of interconnected cores. The modelling is supported by enhancements to an open source instruction set simulator to provide the first network timing aware simulations of the target architecture. Simulation based modelling techniques are combined with methods of results presentation to demonstrate how such work can be integrated into a software developer's workflow, enabling the developer to make informed, energy aware coding decisions. A set of single-, multi-threaded and multi-core benchmarks are used to exercise and evaluate the models and provide use case examples for how results can be presented and interpreted. The models all yield accuracy within an average +/-5 % error margin

How to design browser security and privacy alerts

Browser security and privacy alerts must be designed to ensure they are of value to the end-user, and communicate risks efficiently. We performed a systematic literature review, producing a list of guidelines from the research. Papers were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to formulate a comprehensive set of guidelines. Our findings seek to provide developers and designers with guidance as to how to construct security and privacy alerts. We conclude by providing an alert template, highlighting its adherence to the derived guidelines

A HYBRID CLOUD APPROACH FOR SECURE APPROVED DEDUPLICATION

Information Deduplication is one of imperative information pressure systems for wiping out copy duplicates of rehashing information, and has been generally utilized as a part of distributed storage to decrease the measure of storage room and spare data transmission. To secure the secrecy of touchy information while supporting Deduplication, the concurrent encryption system has been proposed to scramble the information before outsourcing. To better ensure information security, this methodology makes the main endeavor to formally address the issue of approved information Deduplication. Unique in relation to customary Deduplication frameworks, the differential benefits of clients are further considered in copy check other than the information itself. It likewise exhibit a few new Deduplication developments supporting approved copy check in a half and half cloud engineering. Security examination exhibits that our plan is secure as far as the definitions indicated in the proposed security model. As a proof of idea, we actualize a model of proposed approved copy check plan and direct testbed tests utilizing model. It demonstrates that proposed approved copy check plan brings about insignificant overhead contrasted with typical operations

Reconfigurable media coding: a new specification model for multimedia coders

Multimedia coding technology, after about 20 years of active research, has delivered a rich variety of different and complex coding algorithms. Selecting an appropriate subset of these algorithms would, in principle, enable a designer to produce the codec supporting any desired functionality as well as any desired trade-off between compression performance and implementation complexity. Currently, interoperability demands that this selection process be hard-wired into the normative descriptions of the codec, or at a lower level, into a predefined number of choices, known as profiles, codified within each standard specification. This paper presents an alternative paradigm for codec deployment that is currently under development by MPEG, known as Reconfigurable Media Coding (RMC). Using the RMC framework, arbitrary combinations of fundamental algorithms may be assembled, without predefined standardization, because everything necessary for specifying the decoding process is delivered alongside the content itself. This side-information consists of a description of the bitstream syntax, as well as a description of the decoder configuration. Decoder configuration information is provided as a description of the interconnections between algorithmic blocks. The approach has been validated by development of an RMC format that matches MPEG-4 Video, and then extending the format by adding new chroma-subsampling patterns