Enhancing Cloud based Data Platforms for Smart Cities with Authentication and Authorization Features

The protection and securing of data platforms and related services plays a major role in the development of safety critical infrastructure for Smart Cities. Therefore, this paper specifies and develops an Integerated Component for Cloud Services (ISCS) that enables secure and trusted access to data and related services in the cloud. That means that the ISCS controls and handles access-related aspects such as authentication, authorization and registration. Furthermore, it is deployed and used in a large scale research project, in which it secures cloud services relating to electric mobility. ISCS is realized using OAuth and OpenID, whereas both are implemented by existing open source libraries. OAuth is a standard allowing services and applications to access safety critical resources in the cloud using a trustworthy infrastructure. OpenID is a popular standard originating from the web community, facilitating cross-domain authentication for portal users. The combination of both standards provides rich functionality, covering substantial aspects related to cloud service protection and security.