Post-quantum cryptography-driven security framework for cloud computing

Abstract Data security in the cloud has been a major issue since the inception and adoption of cloud computing. Various frameworks have been proposed, and yet data breach prevails. With encryption being the dominant method of cloud data security, the advent of quantum computing implies an urgent need to proffer a model that will provide adequate data security for both classical and quantum computing. Thus, most cryptosystems will be rendered susceptible and obsolete, though some cryptosystems will stand the test of quantum computing. The article proposes a model that comprises the application of a variant of McEliece cryptosystem, which has been tipped to replace Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) in the quantum computing era to secure access control data and the application of a variant of N-th degree truncated polynomial ring units (NTRU) cryptosystem to secure cloud user data. The simulation of the proposed McEliece algorithm showed that the algorithm has a better time complexity than the existing McEliece cryptosystem. Furthermore, the novel tweaking of parameters S and P further improves the security of the proposed algorithms. More so, the simulation of the proposed NTRU algorithm revealed that the existing NTRU cryptosystem had a superior time complexity when juxtaposed with the proposed NTRU cryptosystem.