An Integrated Architecture for Maintaining Security in Cloud Computing Based on Blockchain

Due to its wide accessibility, cloud services are susceptible to attacks. Data manipulation is a serious threat to data integrity which can occur in cloud computing – a relatively new offering under the umbrella of cloud services. Data can be tampered with, and malicious actors could use this to their advantage. Cloud computing clients in various application domains want to be assured that their data is accurate and trustworthy. On another spectrum, blockchain is a tamper-proof digital ledger that can be used alongside cloud technology to provide a tamper-proof cloud computing environment. This paper proposes a scheme that combines cloud computing with blockchain that assures data integrity for all homomorphic encryption schemes. To overcome the cloud service provider’s (CSP) ultimate authority over the data, the proposed scheme relies on the Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus to build a distributed network of processing CSPs based on the client requirements. After certain computations performed by all CSPs, they produce a master hash value for their database. To ensure immutable data is produced, master hash values are preserved in Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain networks. The master hash values can be obtained by tracking the block header address for verification purposes. A theoretical analysis of the overhead costs associated with creating master hash values for each of the cryptocurrencies is presented. We found that Ethereum leads to lower client financial costs and better online performance than Bitcoin. We also specify the data security requirements the proposed scheme provides, the ground-level implementation, and future work. The proposed verification scheme is based on public cryptocurrency as a back-end service and does not require additional setup actions by the client other than a wallet for the chosen cryptocurrency.