Is Cloud Storage Secure by Encryption

Encryption and decryption keys are common practices to protect data and login credentials. They work together to prevent hackers from accessing data belonging to users and enterprises. This method of encrypting and decrypting data through the key method establishes a barrier to the hacker's attempt to attack. Cloud security providers emphasize the security advantages of encrypted data for their cloud service products, but the problem remains: is cloud storage completely secure through encryption?

Encryption is "the process of making legible data (plaintext) difficult to understand (ciphertext), the purpose of which is to ensure that plaintext can only be accessed by parties authorized by the data owner." The key is a translation algorithm, which converts plain text to ciphertext and returns plain text when users need to access their data.

Cloud service providers own, operate and manage keys most of the time. Some providers allow users to control the decryption key themselves, which is called zero knowledge encryption because service providers lack the knowledge to decrypt user files. Both the service provider and the user of the service provider are more likely to be responsible for the key. However, it is a trap. In the case of hacker attacks on cloud security providers, users cannot control the data, making them vulnerable. When choosing encrypted data, the first step that users or enterprises should analyze is the role of key management and decide who is responsible for managing and maintaining the decryption key.

In general, encrypting data can enhance cloud security and protect users' data. However, there are other security practices that work with encryption for optimal cloud storage security.

Encryption best practices

Enterprises can adopt a variety of encryption practices based on key management. One option is to encrypt the enterprise database completely. This prevents the ability to sort and search data when it is locked. Another option is to encrypt only the target data fields and not the entire database. A third option is to routinely rotate the decryption key with other keys to confuse it during the hacker's attempt to identify the correct key. A fourth way to enhance data protection is to use authenticated encryption (AE). AE adds an additional step to encryption - implementing an authentication process, such as a secure message authentication code (MAC), also known as a label. AE verifies the authenticity of the sender and the integrity of the message. Further, using authenticated encryption and related data (aead), "supports data to be encrypted and verified, and data that is not encrypted but requires authentication. "

Using other security methods, is cloud storage secure?
An alternative to encryption is tokenization. Symantec defines tokenization as "the process of randomly generating substitute values or markers to replace the actual data, where the markers are not calculated in any way, shape or form of the original data values." It is similar and complementary to encryption, but different from non computational encryption algorithm. Instead, tokenization relies on a database called a token library to access the raw data. Token keeping inventory stores the relationship between token and data. Tokenization can be used in combination with encryption, depending on the needs of the enterprise and security issues. Enterprises can choose to encrypt the data that resides in the token store, adding another level of data security.