Cloud computing security: The scientific challenge, and a survey of solutions

► We survey approaches to protecting data from a cloud infrastructure provider. ► We explain some difficulties with using fully homomorphic encryption for cloud computing applications. ► We describe a method in which in-browser key translation allows a software-as-a-service application to run with confidentiality from the service provider. ► We explore how trusted hardware can be used to protect cloud-based data. We briefly survey issues in cloud computing security. The fact that data are shared with the cloud service provider is identified as the core scientific problem that separates cloud computing security from other topics in computing security. We survey three current research directions, and evaluate them in terms of a running software-as-a-service example.