An Efficient Keyword-Based Search Mechanism in Encrypted Cloud Storage Using Symmetric Key Methods with Steganography

Abstract

Cloud is the primary platform that enables the users to upload their documents and allows searching and updating the documents on demand. It is vulnerable in providing security to the stored documents. Cloud service providers are the major contributors of data storage and query services that are maintained in cloud platforms. Searching and efficiently updating the document collection is possible by applying dynamic searchable symmetric encryption schemes. Existing schemes partially address on-demand information retrieval. This work focuses on a scheme which enables the user to search from a collection of dynamic documents in a cloud environment. It also integrates steganography to enhance the protection of sensitive information, adding an extra layer of security while concealing its presence from potential attackers. Furthermore, to insert the verifiable document into the top-k searches, a verifiable matrix and ranked inverted index have been constructed. This shows promising results by incorporating a cost-effective communication mechanism for the deletion of documents.