On the security of cloud storage services

Cloud storage applications like Mozy, Dropbox, Crashplan and many others are very popular. They offer to store any kind of data in a very reliable way, managed in highly protected data centers by professional administrators. In the pre-cloud era this was a privilege of big companies having a big financial background. Now, this is a new opportunity for private persons and for small and medium companies. They can use cloud storage to syncronize computers, to share data with friends and to realize a backup which is off-premise. The software producers provide easy to install and easy to use applications for the client side. The prices are moderate, in many cases small amounts of storage are even free. Allmost any application claims to be secure. However, in many cases it is not clear what is meant to be secure. The lecture analysis the security requirements of storage services in general and shows concrete securiy characteristics of some of the most important cloud storage applications.

Die Studie untersucht einige der bekanntesten Cloud Storage Dienste hinsichtlich Datenschutz und IT-Sicherheit. Es werden existierende Datenschutz-, Sicherheits- und juristische Probleme betrachtet. Hierzu werden zunächst Sicherheitsanforderungen aufgestellt, die für ausreichende Sicherheit zu erfüllen sind. Eine Analyse deckt dann die wichtigsten Schwachstellen auf und zeigt, ob bzw. inwieweit die Dienste diesen Anforderungen genügen.