A Study on the Public Auditing Mechanisms for Privacy Preserving and Maintaining Data Integrity in Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing in its various forms allows users to store their information at remote location and reduce the burden at their local systems. Even though this is an advantage for users but there are also many drawbacks because of this remote storage. The main drawback which needs to be dealt with is security. Recently, security is the major concern which most of the cloud service providers are facing. The users store their information in remote location with the hope of maintaining the privacy and integrity of data. In order, to maintain the privacy and integrity of users’ data auditing has to be done by the Cloud Service Providers (CSP). CSP uses the Third Party Auditor (TPA) for performing the auditing. The TPA performs auditing on behalf of the data owner using different auditing mechanisms. Many auditing mechanisms have been introduced in literature. Each mechanism varies from one another in one or more characteristics. In this paper we have provided a study on the different auditing mechanisms required to preserve the privacy and integrity of data in cloud. We have presented the advantages and flaws in each mechanism compared to another. Many auditing mechanisms are arising in literature with the aim to maintain the integrity of users’ data and preserve the privacy. This paper remains as the basis for different auditing mechanisms that are arising in literature. With the help of auditing mechanisms the TPA can best satisfy the needs of the users.