A Proposal for Standardized Data Attribution and Ownership in the Cloud Environment

Since the earliest days of cloud computing there has been a steady migration of data from local data stores to the cloud. As more and more cloud platforms become available, this inflow of data has only increased dramatically. By some estimates, "the cloud" will hold 50% of all data by 2020. Localized management of data is typically handled using tools, policies and access control methods that are appropriate to the local environment in question. Once data has been migrated to the cloud, these local tools and policies are rarely applicable and a new approach must be taken. Other works have focused on the problems associated with cloud security. This paper try to determine attribution and ownership for data in the cloud. Just because data is stored in account X that does not necessarily mean that X owns all the data in that account. An approach based on the use of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is addressed to provide cryptographically strong data attribution and attestation for data in the cloud.