CLOUDGUARD: ATTRIBUTE-BASED MODELS FOR SECURE AND PRIVATE DATA EXCHANGE

Abstract

With the rapid adoption of cloud computing, secure and privacy-preserving data sharing has become a critical concern for individuals and organizations outsourcing sensitive information to third-party infrastructures. Traditional encryption schemes, while effective in ensuring confidentiality, often lack the flexibility to handle dynamic access control requirements in multi-user environments. To address these challenges, this paper introduces CloudGuard, an attribute-based model designed to enhance security and privacy in cloud data exchange. Leveraging Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) and fine-grained access control mechanisms, CloudGuard ensures that data owners can define access policies based on user attributes rather than fixed identities, thereby supporting scalable, flexible, and context-aware data sharing. The model integrates encryption with policy enforcement to resist unauthorized access, collusion attacks, and privilege escalation, while preserving efficiency in computation and communication overhead. Experimental evaluation and security analysis demonstrate that CloudGuard effectively balances robust data protection with usability, making it a promising framework for secure collaboration in cloud environments.