Toward better data veracity in mobile cloud computing: A context-aware and incentive-based reputation mechanism

As a promising next-generation computing paradigm, Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) enables the large-scale collection and big data processing of personal private data. An important but often overlooked V of big data is data veracity, which ensures that the data used are trusted, authentic, accurate and protected from unauthorized access and modification. In order to realize the veracity of data in MCC, specific trust models and approaches must be developed. In this paper, a Category-based Context-aware and Recommendation incentive-based reputation Mechanism (CCRM) is proposed to defend against internal attacks and enhance data veracity in MCC. In the CCRM, innovative methods, including a data category and context sensing technology, a security relevance evaluation model, and a Vickrey-Clark-Groves (VCG)-based recommendation incentive scheme, are integrated into the process of reputation evaluation. Cost analysis indicates that the CCRM has a linear communication and computation complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the CCRM compared to existing reputation mechanisms under internal collusion attacks and bad mouthing attacks.