Maintaining User Control While Storing and Processing Sensor Data in the Cloud

Abstract

Clouds provide a platform for efficiently and flexibly aggregating, storing, and processing large amounts of data. Eventually, sensor networks will automatically collect such data. A particular challenge regarding sensor data in Clouds is the inherent sensitive nature of sensed information. For current Cloud platforms, the data owner loses control over her sensor data once it enters the Cloud. This imposes a major adoption barrier for bridging Cloud computing and sensor networks, which we address henceforth. After analyzing threats to sensor data in Clouds, the authors propose a Cloud architecture that enables end-to-end control over sensitive sensor data by the data owner. The authors introduce a well-defined entry point from the sensor network into the Cloud, which enforces end-to-end data protection, applies encryption and integrity protection, and grants data access. Additionally, the authors enforce strict isolation of services. The authors show the feasibility and scalability of their Cloud architecture using a prototype and measurements.