MoClo-IdM: A Framework for Secured Data Access in MobiCloud Environment

Cloud Computing (CC) is an emerging technology. Mobility is considered as a key technology in CC that shifts from traditional PC to smartphones, tablets, PDAs, etc. MobiCloud has arose as a subclass of CC to empower rigorous on-demand elastic computing and storage to the mobile users. As MobiCloud integrates CC with mobile computing and networks, all the issues are inherited while accessing the cloud services. Many researchers proposed security mechanisms, but not as a complete framework. The existing mechanisms could not perform well due to issues like security, computation overhead and poor accuracy. To overcome these problems, an IdM framework is designed to authenticate and authorize user’s data access in MobiCloud environment. The proposed IdM framework incorporates three mechanisms namely Key Based Mutual Authentication (KBMA), Pattern Based User Authentication (PBUA) and Optimized Role Based User Authorization (ORBUA). The three proposed mechanisms are given as a single service called Identity as a Service (IdaaS) by the CSPs. This MoClo-IdM framework can be used by the small, medium and large scale service providers