Analysis of a Double-stage Encryption Scheme Using Hybrid Cryptography to Enhance Data Security in Cloud Computing Systems

Recently, network users have been scared of storing sensitive information, such as bank details, health records, and other vital information, on the Internet because it is vulnerable to attack by a third party. Several threat models are impacting the security of the cloud. Having a secure cloud system will help to be at ease in using cloud computing facilities. This study aims at providing a cryptography approach to eliminating the vulnerabilities in the cloud-based system, and making access and data storage in the cloud very safe. The system uses Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) to encrypt files and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) key to encrypt the encrypted files. The hash function is used for extra key security, and Python programming language was used to implement the system, and for cloud storage, MongoDB was used. Generally, results indicate that the Double Stage Encryption (DSE) takes an average time for encryption of 83% and decryption of 75% compared to RSA and AES singly. The RSA is 68% faster than AES during the encryption process, but there is no significant difference between the two during decryption. The Avalanche effect testing showed the DSE to be 17% higher than singly testing AES and RSA, which implies it is more secure than RSA and AES as single encryption schemes. Therefore, the study recommends using DSE to secure valuable data on the cloud.