ENCRYPTED DATA - DATA INTEGRITY VERIFICATION AND AUDITING SYSTEM

There is provided methods and systems suitable for ensuring data integrity in encrypted data. Potential applications include, but are not limited to, secure and remote storage systems such as email servers and cloud servers, encrypted devices such as hard drives, usb flash drives and smart cards. The proposed solution combines the use of symmetric encryption and encrypted indices to provide searching and auditing capabilities. The entire auditing process is executed in the encrypted domain. This system provides assurance that the encrypted files were not modified or tampered with, and also incorporates search and contiguous search capabilities over the encrypted files. One such compatible system would be the private scanning solution outlined in "Encrypted Data - Computer Virus and Malware Detection System." Our approach involves the data owner encrypting and sending the data files and their indices, in accordance with an encryption scheme, to a storage repository, device, or cloud storage servers. Then, with or without the use of a third party auditor, the data owner can verify the integrity of the data set by performing random checks on any parts of the data set that is indexed. 2.0 FIELD OF INVENTION This disclosure relates to data integrity assurance and auditing for encrypted storage systems.