A survey on cryptographic techniques for protecting big data security: present and forthcoming

Big data drive multidimensional convergence and profound innovations among industries and provide novel ways of exploring the world. As they significantly create economic and social value, big data meaningfully impact the implementation and management of information security and privacy protection. Cryptographic technologies are used to protect the security and entire life cycle of big data. The demand for this technology is multiplied when the data are stored in the cloud. They are stored in the cloud in the form of ciphertext, and the driving requirement for data retrieval, sharing, and manipulation places the security of data at risk. The all-or-nothing approach of traditional cryptography systems cannot realize the release and processing of data information with flexible and increasingly fine granularity. Consequently, dealing with the relationship between privacy protection and data utilization, as well as navigating the blurry boundaries between subverting either plaintext or ciphertext, has become a research focus of the current cryptographic trend for protecting big data security. Presently, there are many studies designed to solve these limitations. First, security requirements and source encryption mode for future big data systems and applications are elaborated. Then, focusing on the practical security and functionality of the big data life cycle, including storage, retrieval, sharing, calculation, statistical analysis, and utilization, the research being conducted based on those functions is reviewed. For each cryptographic technology that meets the requirement of each type of big data security or application, security and efficiency comments and sufficient comparison analyses of cryptography schemes or protocols are provided; moreover, the current general problems and development trends are expounded. Because the current innovative research on cryptographic technology was primarily based on the development or improvement of a single solution, the study on the security of the entire big data life cycle from a holistic perspective is extremely limited. Finally, based on surveys and integration of cryptographic techniques, a compatible and comprehensive reference cryptographic architecture for big data security (Z-CABDS) is proposed, which can be used to guide each sub-direction to cooperate with each other to achieve the full life cycle security of big data. Moreover, certain challenges, open problems, and thoughts on future research related to the cryptography of big data security from the viewpoint of the entire big data life cycle are addressed, including views on information theory, the intersection and fusion of technologies, and new technology derivation, which aims to provide a good reference and inspiration for follow-up research.