Towards a Comprehensive Security Framework of Cloud Data Storage Based on Multi Agent System Architecture

Amir Mohamed Talib, Rodziah Atan, Rusli Abdullah, Masrah Azrifah Azmi Murad

Faculty of Computer Science & IT, University Putra Malaysia UPM, Serdang, Malaysia.

DOI: 10.4236/jis.2012.34036                

Abstract

The tremendous growth of the cloud computing environments requires new architecture for security services. Cloud computing is the utilization of many servers/data centers or cloud data storages (CDSs) housed in many different locations and interconnected by high speed networks. CDS, like any other emerging technology, is experiencing growing pains. It is immature, it is fragmented and it lacks standardization. Although security issues are delaying its fast adoption, cloud computing is an unstoppable force and we need to provide security mechanisms to ensure its secure adoption. In this paper a comprehensive security framework based on Multi-Agent System (MAS) architecture for CDS to facilitate confidentiality, correctness assurance, availability and integrity of users' data in the cloud is proposed. Our security framework consists of two main layers as agent layer and CDS layer. Our propose MAS architecture includes main five types of agents: Cloud Service Provider Agent (CSPA), Cloud Data Confidentiality Agent (CDConA), Cloud Data Correctness Agent (CDCorA), Cloud Data Availability Agent (CDAA) and Cloud Data Integrity Agent (CDIA). In order to verify our proposed security framework based on MAS architecture, pilot study is conducted using a questionnaire survey. Rasch Methodology is used to analyze the pilot data. Item reliability is found to be poor and a few respondents and items are identified as misfits with distorted measurements. As a result, some problematic questions are revised and some predictably easy questions are excluded from the questionnaire. A prototype of the system is implemented using Java. To simulate the agents, oracle database packages and triggers are used to implement agent functions and oracle jobs are utilized to create agents.

Keywords

Cloud Computing; Multi-Agent System; Cloud Data Storage; Security Framework; Cloud Service Provider

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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