User-Controlled Privacy Preserving Identity Management for Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing has recently reached popularity and developed into a major trend in IT world. Several challenges are being raised from the adoption of this computational paradigm including security and privacy. Identity Management (IDM) is one of the core components in cloud privacy and security which can ease some of the problems associated with cloud computing. Users must provide sensitive information i.e., Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which uniquely identifies them, to authenticate to Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in order to get the requested service. However, users can still experience privacy infringement because users cannot have direct control over the exchange of PII between CSPs. The approach proposed in this paper preserves the privacy in identity management. The technique is based on Zero Knowledge Proof of Knowledge (ZKPK) where a user is authenticated to CSP without disclosing PII. Once a user is authenticated, user releases appropriate PII based on computed trust level of CSP. Thereafter, CSP provides requested service to user.