Chaos Theory and Systems in Cloud Content Security

Introduction

Chaos theory is the study of complex nonlinear dynamic systems. These systems follow deterministic laws themselves, yet the behavior of these systems appears to be random and unpredictable. Chaotic systems are known for their sensitivity to initial conditions. The creation of minuscule changes in the initial state of a copy of the same system will exhibit large differences in both of them. Systems becoming so disparate due to small amounts of change is why it only makes sense to predict these systems within a certain time period. Beyond that time period, the predictions become highly inaccurate. Dependence on initial conditions is illustrated in the “butterfly effect” where a tornado in Texas could be traced back to something as minor as a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa.

Chaos is found in all sorts of places from planetary motion, to chemical systems, population growth, electrical circuits, and encryption schemes. Its ability to generate seemingly random numbers and extreme sensitivity towards the initial state is what makes it exciting in security.

Cloud Content Security refers to the protection of the data and the processing in the cloud from external attacks. Cloud is a third party application used to provide storage, servers and the processing at the network, and ease the user of the load of handling those locally.

The objective of the chapter is to understand the ways in which chaotic systems can be used in cloud content security. This chapter is organized as follows: a background of chaotic systems is given in the first section. The next section introduces cloud content security. This is followed by a detailed study highlighting different methods of using chaos for security in the cloud. Lastly, there is a case study on Chaos Engineering, followed by the Conclusion and Future Scope.