Discuss about the major security risks in cloud computing and what are the preventive measures to save the information present in the clouds.
Cloud computing generally consists of the cloud, which generally means the Internet. This is associated with facilitating the users to get access of the device, which are residing at place of the internet and this is done mainly in order to share various types of information in different forms. Along with this, the cloud-computing environment is also used for accessing different kind of software and database. This type of accessing is mainly done by making use of the SaaS or the Software as a Service [1]. Besides this, users would also be capable of using updated software without any kind of need of installing the software in the system of the user.
Cloud computing is responsible for reducing the costs associated with the installation and purchasing of new devices at a drastic rate. This mainly has happened due to presence of a singular network where all the devices are connected and they share the network amongst themselves.
Cloud computing has some outstanding features and this mainly includes the following:
Along with all this cloud computing also, favor a lot in various type of processes and for this reason it is very much popular amongst the users of the internet.
Along with the various type of benefits and its popularity, the cloud computing technology has been associated with various type of drawbacks, which are unavoidable, and this has ultimately resulted the technology to face various type of security breaches. Some of the common security challenges for the cloud technology mainly involves the breach of the data, loss of the data, hijacking of the traffic, APIs which are unsecure, Denial of service attack, attacks from the malware, abuse of the clouds knowledge’s which are insufficient and the vulnerabilities related to the haring of the technology [3].
The security challenges of the cloud technology has been discussed I brief in the following section of the report.
Breach of the data: In case if the backups of the data are stored in offline form then the risks related to the loss of data is relatively less whereas this would be greatly increasing the risk related to the exposure of the data. It is possible for the virtual machine to get easy access of the side channels timing information in order to derive the private cryptographic keys. These keys are generally used by the other virtual machines, which are present in the same network. In case when the designing is not done in a proper way then the attacker would become capable of reaching out to the data of the user and use it for various malicious purposes [4].
Abuse of the clouds: IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service is one of the feature of the cloud computing is associate with providing virtualization of the devices as well as the storages and the networks. However, this providing of virtualization does not consist of any type of secured registration process. Which means that it is possible for anyone who is having the correct credentials can sign up for the cloud and are capable of using the cloud services instantly. For this reason, many of the cloud network can become a victim of various type of malicious attacks, spam mails and many more [5].
API, which are insecure: API or the Application User Interface along with the software and other type of interfaces generally gets shared by the users present at a particular cloud network. The security, which is present for this type of shared resources, are mainly dependent upon the different type of security policies, which are used by the respective software and the APIs. Therefore, it is very much essential to have a tight security in the APIs and the software that are going to be shred on the clouds [6].
Attacks form various malwares: The visibility is less and the exposure is more in the cloud networks. Due to this reason the cloud networks are prone to various type of malware attacks. In many cases it has been seen that the cloud providers are not associated with providing of a detailed information about various aspects like the ways by which they would be granting access to the software and the other functionalities, how they would be associated with tracking of the users and many more. Due to the presence of a loophole like this, it becomes very easy for an attacker to inject various kind of malicious software, viruses and many more into the system [7].
Issues due to the shared technology: The clouds along with the IaaS functionality has been associated with the providing of scalability at the high-ends. This is mainly done by allowing the users to get access to the devices, which are generally shared. Besides this, the Hypervisor is associated with allowing a single guest in the OS to be connected to the other physical resources. Due to this reason the clouds are placed at risk whenever a guest OS have an access to the various unnecessary levels which are responsible influencing the other systems which are present in the network.
Data loss: The deletion, alteration, unlinking of the records, storing of the data on various unreliable mediums might lead to compromise of the important data, which acts as one of the major security threats for the cloud environment. This is ultimately the main reason for the loss of the important data, reputation, customers trust and sometimes might lead to loss of the customer. Several legal as well as policy compliance issues might be caused due to loss of data [8].
Service hijacking or Account Hijacking: Various types of attacks, which are included in under this treat are the Phishing, fraud and the exploitation of the software and many more. This type of attacks are mainly done by means of stealing the credentials and this might lead to severe amount of destruction to the integrity and reputation.
The security threats in the cloud can be eliminated very easily if certain simple steps are considered. The elimination of the treats is possible by folling the steps listed below:
Prevention of the data breach is possible by selecting a cloud provider which is proper along with being reliable. Besides this, proper encryption systems can also be installed in order to ensure the security of the data [9].
The treats related to cloud abuse can be eliminated by having authorization registration processes followed by validating the processes as well. The credit card processes are also to be monitored in order to any type of fraud. The network traffic should also be examined properly. Besides all this, an eye should be kept upon the blacklisted staffs.
Inspection of the security standards are to be done thoroughly which are provided the cloud providers. Along with this it is also to be made sure that there exists strict authentication along with transmission of the data in an encrypted form [10].
In order to prevent the malware attacks a supply chain management plan is to be made which would also be authorized. Besides this the human resource requirements should be included in the legal contracts [11].
Along with the above-mentioned solutions there should also exist absolute visibility in the mechanism for the security as well as in the compliance.
Best security measures are to be achieved in order to install and configure the clouds. The non-authorized changes and activities also needs to be audited along with the promoting of the SLA or eth service level agreements in order to install all the vulnerability assessments. Time to time scanning should be done in order to find out the vulnerabilities.
Powerful API securities are to be enforced along with the Securing of the data by making use of the SSL encryption is to be done. Besides this, the integrity of the data running time is to be checked along with the time duration of designing. The users should also explore the backup plans and collection plans of the providers [12].
Fig 1: Basic traits of Cloud computing
Fig 2: Loss of Control over the data
Fig 3: Solution for malware attack
Fig 4: Survey on the security of the Cloud
Fig 5: Basic Architecture of Cloud Computing
The Security model known as the Security Access Control Service is proposed for the cloud computing. This design would be using the tool known as the Hadoop in order to do all the analysis.
After consideration all the security challenges it is understood that there is a need of practical approach. The proposed design has been has been shown in the figure provided below:
Fig 5: System model for the proposed design
The elements of the model has been discussed below:
Conclusion
The spread of cloud computing is increasing day by day. This technology is associated with providing of various kind of facilities like saving of costs and many more. However, the security problems related to cloud computing acts as a major drawback for the users. Due to this reason, it is much necessary to explore the cloud computing services before adopting them. This paper has been associated with identifying the major security issues related to the usage of the cloud computing. The paper have also been associated with providing certain solutions by which the security threats can be eliminated very easily.
References
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