Safeguarding Data Consistency at the Edge

Abstract

We propose to design and implement a secure edge storage system. Edge computing is a paradigm that extends cloud computing with storage and processing capacity close to the edge of the network, supporting new applications that require low latency. It assumes the availability of fog nodes that are located close to the edge. However, fog nodes are likely to be vulnerable to tampering. A malicious fog node can manipulate, create or delete data from edge applications, leading this application into a fail state, impacting the quality of service. Therefore, it is important to secure the functions fog nodes provide. To achieve our goal we plan to leverage the use of secure hardware (e.g., Intel SGX) as a means to harden the implementation. However, as we discuss here, SGX alone is not enough to achieve the qualities we consider necessary to support edge applications, such as low latency, scalability, and multiple models of data consistency. In this work, we present the main challenges in the design of a secure edge storage system and point to the research directions that we plan to follow to address these challenges.