A SELF-RELIANT APPROACH TO SECURE DATA DELECTION IN CLOUD COMPUTING

Abstract - With the rapid growth of cloud computing, ensuring data security and privacy remains a critical challenge. Traditional encryption techniques provide data confidentiality but fail to guarantee complete data removal when necessary. A secure data self-destructing scheme in cloud computing addresses this limitation by enabling the automatic and irreversible destruction of sensitive data after a predefined condition is met. This scheme ensures that both the encrypted data and the decryption keys become permanently inaccessible, preventing unauthorized access even if the cloud infrastructure is compromised. The proposed scheme integrates time-based, policy-based, or event-driven mechanisms to trigger data self-destruction. By leveraging advanced cryptographic techniques such as ephemeral key management, attribute-based encryption, and secure key dispersion, the scheme ensures that no retrievable copies of the data or decryption keys remain after the self-destruction process. Additionally, block-chain and smart contracts can be incorporated to enhance transparency and verifiability, ensuring that the self-destruction process is executed as intended without external interference. This approach significantly improves data privacy, compliance with data retention policies, and protection against insider and outsider threats. It is particularly beneficial for applications requiring strict confidentiality, such as military intelligence, financial transactions, and healthcare records. By implementing a secure data self-destructing scheme, cloud service users can have greater control over their sensitive information while mitigating risks associated with unauthorized data persistence. Key Words: Data Self-Destruction, Cloud Computing, Ephemeral Key Management, Attribute-Based Encryption, Block-chain.