Hardware-based security approach for secure distributed cloud data storage and retrieval

The East African Community (EAC) recognizes the fundamental role of science and technology in economic development. This led the Partner States to promote cooperation in the development and application of science and technology within the Community. The adoption of cloud computing in East Africa Community member states may induce a number of paths for Internet-based service provisioning to satisfy various demands in the community. However, data privacy and security has turned into crucial issues that resist cloud adoption for the past decades in the area of computerized systems. The dominating issue regarding security and privacy is pointed out on the data accessibility whereby cloud service providers and consumers simply gain access to secret information (data). The issue resulted in the cloud service consumer’s fear and slowed down the adoption speed of cloud computing from diverse areas of applications, i.e., governmental, medical and financial institutions; therefore, in this article we address this issue and propose a robust Hardware-Based Security (HBS) approach, whereby the cloud service provider and consumers are limited to simply access any stored data in the cloud data centers. This approach halves data files into data segments and distributes encrypted file segments to different cloud data centers. Our approach is built on Secure Data Distribution (SDD) and Data Retrieval (DR) Algorithms described in a Secure Efficient Data Distribution Model (SEDD). The analysis shows robust data security and less computation power which can resist unauthorized data accessibility with less latency. Therefore, once the East African Community member states adopt a secure cloud services, the development and application of science and technology within the community will boost the sustainable economic development.