SecureC2Edit: A Framework for Secure Collaborative and Concurrent Document Editing

Cloud-based online document editing services, such as Google Docs and Office 365, provide an inexpensive and efficient means of managing documents. However, storing data on the cloud also raises certain security and privacy concerns, especially when the data is of confidential and sensitive nature. We argue that in online editing environments, user data should never be exposed to the cloud in plaintext form. Significant prior work around secure collaborative editing has several limitations and is not practical. Thus, in this paper, we propose a secure online editing framework, called SecureC2Edit, which is based on structured peer-to-peer architecture, uses hybrid differential synchronization, allows collaborative and concurrent access to the document, yet ensures security and privacy by encrypting the data before storing it on the cloud. The framework is evaluated for security, operability, and performance.