Data Security and Privacy Protection in Cloud Computing

Dear Colleagues,

Cloud Computing is a product of the integration of traditional computing technologies and network technologies, and includes distributed computing, parallel computing, utility computing, virtualization, and load balancing. Cloud computing provides a shared pay-as-you-go pool of configurable computing resources (including networks, servers, storage, application software, and services) over the Internet. Users of cloud computing services are most concerned about the privacy and security of their data; thus, data security and privacy protection in cloud computing are important issues that must be addressed. When users outsource their data to a cloud service provider, they lose physical control of their data, and their security and privacy depend on the security measures taken by the cloud service provider. If security measures are breached by external hackers or internal personnel of the cloud service providers, sensitive user data may be leaked, and data security and privacy will be seriously damaged. There are many ways to realize cloud computing data security and privacy protection, the most important of which is the use of cryptography methods and technology. However, this also brings two major challenges: the first is determining how to search the ciphertext data after they have been encrypted and how to accurately share the ciphertext with the specified user; the second is determining how to protect the differential privacy of data to prevent users from mining sensitive information from publicly released data.

This Special Issue aims to enable the industry and research communities to share information on all aspects of data security and privacy in cloud computing. Authors are encouraged to submit both theoretical and applied papers addressing new approaches, research results, case studies, and best practices.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Cloud computing security;
• Secure cloud resource virtualization;
• Secure data management outsourcing;
• Practical privacy and integrity mechanisms for outsourcing;
• Cloud-centric threat models to secure outsourced computation;
• Remote attestation mechanisms in clouds;
• Blockchain in cyber–physical systems;
• Secure solutions for healthcare, smart cities, smart grids, etc.;
• Trust and policy management in clouds;
• Secure identity management mechanisms;
• Cloud-aware web service security paradigms and mechanisms;
• Cloud-centric regulatory compliance issues and mechanisms;
• Business and security risk models for clouds;
• Cost and usability models and their interaction with cloud security;
• Scalability of secure clouds;
• Trusted computing technology and clouds;
• Analysis of software for remote attestation and cloud protection;
• Network security mechanisms for clouds;
• Security and privacy for cloud programming models;
• Privacy-enhancing machine-learning in clouds
• Secure and privacy-protecting IoT clouds;
• Accountable data analytics for clouds.
• Trust and policy management in clouds;
• Secure identity management mechanisms;
• Cloud-aware web service security paradigms and mechanisms;
• Cloud-centric regulatory compliance issues and mechanisms;
• Business and security risk models for clouds;
• Cost and usability models and their interaction with cloud security;
• Scalability of secure clouds;
• Trusted computing technology and clouds;
• Analysis of software for remote attestation and cloud protection;
• Network security mechanisms for clouds;
• Security and privacy for cloud programming models;
• Privacy-enhancing machine-learning in clouds
• Secure and privacy-protecting IoT clouds;
• Accountable data analytics for clouds.

Prof. Dr. Lianggui Liu
Prof. Dr. Chengnian Long
Prof. Dr. Yimu Ji
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Information is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cloud computing
• data security
• searchable encryption
• data privacy
• proxy re-encryption
• differential privacy