Microsoft Unveils New Cloud Security Tool; Manuel Costa Comments

Microsoft has developed a cloud security tool intended to help security providers safeguard data stored in the cloud.

The Verifiable Confidential Cloud Computing technology works to protect data while an authorized user gains access to the storage system for calculations, Microsoft said May 18.

“The cloud provider cannot see the data or the code that the customers are using for the analysis,” said Manuel Costa, a principal researcher with Microsoft Research Cambridge in the U.K.

VC3 technology is designed to prevent unauthorized access to what Microsoft calls a lockbox that is accessible only via secure hardware.

A user will be able to load, decrypt and re-encrypt data in the cloud to make calculations without exposing the data to third-party users, Microsoft says.

Microsoft presented the technology among its other research projects at an IEEE symposium in San Jose, California.