ECE cipher: Enhanced convergent encryption for securing and deduplicating public cloud data

Cloud computing offers scalable and cost-effective storage solutions, but concerns over data security, unauthorized access, and storage inefficiencies remain significant. Data deduplication is crucial in reducing storage costs by eliminating redundant copies, yet traditional encryption methods hinder deduplication by generating unique ciphertexts for identical plaintexts, leading to increased storage requirements. To address these challenges, this paper presents ECEcipher, an advanced symmetric block cipher encryption technique that integrates convergent encryption for secure deduplication while ensuring strong data security. It uses a 196-bit encryption key, generated from the plaintext data, and applies substitution and permutation operations for enhanced security. Unlike conventional encryption, ECEcipher dynamically determines encryption rounds, making it harder to break. Performance evaluation shows ECEcipher outperforms DES and Blowfish in encryption speed and efficiency, making it ideal for real-time cloud applications. Additionally, ECEcipher supports deduplication without compromising security, ensuring optimized storage utilization. Security analysis using the ABC Universal Hackman Tool confirms higher resistance to brute-force and dictionary attacks.