Efficient Remote Data Possession Checking in Critical Information Infrastructures

TLDR

Checking data possession in critical infrastructure systems is essential, yet existing remote protocols permit only limited verifications or are computationally impractical. This work proposes a new remote data possession protocol that enables unlimited file integrity checks. The protocol allows the verifier to set a maximum running time at setup, trading it against storage overhead to support repeated verifications.

Abstract

Checking data possession in networked information systems such as those related to critical infrastructures (power facilities, airports, data vaults, defense systems, etc.) is a matter of crucial importance. Remote data possession checking protocols permit to check that a remote server can access an uncorrupted file in such a way that the verifier does not need to know beforehand the entire file that is being verified. Unfortunately, current protocols only allow a limited number of successive verifications or are impractical from the computational point of view. In this paper, we present a new remote data possession checking protocol such that: i) it allows an unlimited number of file integrity verifications; ii) its maximum running time can be chosen at set-up time and traded off against storage at the verifier.