ENCRYPTION AND TOKENIZATION-BASED TECHNIQUES FOR SECURING CREDIT CARD INFORMATION ON THE CLOUD

Abstract

Cloud Computing is an emerging paradigm which has become one of the prominent research areas due to its ability to reduce the costs associated with computing and offer services to its users on demand over the Internet. Even though Cloud Computing is promising and efficient, there are some challenges for data security which have limited its pervasive deployment and adoption. This research work proposed an Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) encryption algorithm for securing financial data on the cloud. An RSA and tokenization-based algorithm is developed to enhance and ensure better security for data on the cloud. RSA algorithm is used to encrypt and decrypt users’ credit card information by generating two different security keys (public and private keys) for ensuring access control and data safety. The tokenization module authenticates the user by delivering a security token to the user on his/her mobile device so as to ensure secure user’s authentication. The implementation of algorithms was carried out using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) for interface design, Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) and JAVASCRIPT for server and client scripting and APACHE server as frontends while MySQL served as backend. Data on the system’s reliability, speed, security, effectiveness, usability, adaptability and user-experience were obtained using online survey of users. The obtained data served the basis of system’s performance evaluation with findings showing the practicality and adequacy of the system for the enforcement of the security of financial data on the cloud. Comparative analysis also revealed the system does well based on computation time, desired features and functionalities.