SecNetworkCloudSim: An Extensible Simulation Tool for Secure Distributed Mobile Applications

Fueled by the wide interest for achieving rich-storage services with the lowest possible cost, cloud computing has emerged into a highly desired service paradigm extending well beyond Virtualization technology. The next generation of mobile cloud services is now manipulated more and more sensitive data on VM-based distributed applications. Therefore, the need to secure sensitive data over mobile cloud computing is more evident than ever. However, despite the widespread release of several cloud simulators, controlling user’s access and protecting data exchanges in distributed mobile applications over the cloud is considered a major challenge. This paper introduces a new NetworkCloudSim extension named SecNetworkCloudSim, a secure mobile simulation tool which is deliberately designed to ensure the preservation of confidential access to data hosted on mobile device and distributed cloud’s servers. Through high-level mobile users’ requests, users connect to an underlying proxy which is considered an important layer in this new simulator, where users perform secure authentication access to cloud services, allocate their tasks in secure VM-based policy, manage automatically the data confidentiality among VMs and derive high efficiency and coverage rates. Most importantly, due to the secure nature of proxy, user’s distributed tasks can be executed without alterations on different underlying proxy’s security policies. We implement a scenario of follow-up healthcare distributed application using the new extension

State of The Art and Hot Aspects in Cloud Data Storage Security

Along with the evolution of cloud computing and cloud storage towards matu- rity, researchers have analyzed an increasing range of cloud computing security aspects, data security being an important topic in this area. In this paper, we examine the state of the art in cloud storage security through an overview of selected peer reviewed publications. We address the question of defining cloud storage security and its different aspects, as well as enumerate the main vec- tors of attack on cloud storage. The reviewed papers present techniques for key management and controlled disclosure of encrypted data in cloud storage, while novel ideas regarding secure operations on encrypted data and methods for pro- tection of data in fully virtualized environments provide a glimpse of the toolbox available for securing cloud storage. Finally, new challenges such as emergent government regulation call for solutions to problems that did not receive enough attention in earlier stages of cloud computing, such as for example geographical location of data. The methods presented in the papers selected for this review represent only a small fraction of the wide research effort within cloud storage security. Nevertheless, they serve as an indication of the diversity of problems that are being addressed