Multiparty Computation in Practice: Increasing Security of Documents in Enterprise Content Management Systems

Abstract

Multiparty computation is undoubtedly one of the most interesting research topic in information security field, developing dynamically over the last decade. In this work we analyze an application case in which multiparty computation protocols are used to increase the security level of digital resources stored encrypted in cloud environments that are constantly exposed to network threats. The distribution of the cryptographic secrets with the use of multiparty computation modules provides analyzed Enterprise Content Management system with the increased resistance to attacks on key confidentiality. With the proposed approach there is no need to choose between hardware-based cryptographic modules that are secure but expensive and traditional software-based centralized cryptographic modules that are affordable but vulnerable. Due to mass scale of application of Enterprise Content Management, the deployment of the solutions built similarly to the presented prototype may become a factor that significantly minimizes the security risks and business costs. The presented architecture can be used as a solid starting point for building secure enterprise systems that generate negligible costs in relation to their counterparts based on hardware-based cryptographic modules.