Title: Vanishing files: protocols and regulations for immaterial documents

Authors: Rosario Culmone; Maria Concetta De Vivo

Addresses: School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, Piazza dei Costanti 4, 62032 Camerino, Italy ' School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, Piazza dei Costanti 4, 62032 Camerino, Italy

Abstract: Regulatory and technological aspects of cloud technology are showing both opportunities and gaps in the rules on security and accessibility. Our proposal aims at addressing a problem that has not yet manifested using a protocol and discussing the normative aspects regarding the possibility of rendering a document completely immaterial. Our article proposes a protocol that uses the network in an unconventional way to make a document fully immaterial. By immaterial we mean that is not localisable anywhere in its entirety. If we continue the analogy to climate, we want to realise a fog of files rather than a cloud. The files are distributed on a public or private network and only the injectors and extractors can access them. The inaccessibility by others, the non-location, and the dynamics of the system offer significant advantages in terms of security but raise some legal problems.

Keywords: network security; cloud architecture; network protocols; legal aspects; normative aspects; protocols; regulations; immaterial documents; cloud computing; cloud security.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2017.081770

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2017 Vol.9 No.1, pp.45 - 61

Received: 15 Jun 2016
Accepted: 09 Sep 2016
Published online: 24 Jan 2017 *

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