Bring-your-own-encryption: How far are we?

Abstract

In order to enhance adaption of Cloud computing, the concerns surrounding the security of data residing in Cloud needs to be addressed properly. In 2014, Bring-your-own-key and encryption emerged as a possible key management solution to problem of securing data at rest in Cloud. It is yet far from being practically implemented. At present, all available literature provides the consumer perspective of BYOK techniques. Very few have analyzed the research aspects in this field. This paper discusses the implementation issues of BYOE; challenges open for research and the technical requirements of a practitioner wishing to develop such methods. Also, this paper proposes how useful fully Homomorphic encryption is for implementation of BYOK/E. Thus, this paper aims to serve as a primer to BYOK/E for scholars and practitioners; and a record of state-of-art in the field.