Application Layer Encryption for Cloud

As we move to the next generation of networks such as Internet of Things (IoT), the amount of data generated and stored on the cloud is going to increase by several orders of magnitude. Traditionally, storage or middleware layer encryption has been used for protecting data at rest. However, such mechanisms are not suitable for cloud databases. More sophisticated methods include user-layer-encryption (ULE) (where the encryption is performed at the end-user´s browser) and application-layer-encryption (ALE) (where the encryption is done within the web-app). In this paper, we study security and functionality aspects of cloud encryption and present an ALE framework for Java called JADE that is designed to protect data in the event of a server compromise.