Security threats in cloud computing and preventive methods
Currently, the world is using one of the highly developing and growing technology in the field of computing which is referred to as cloud computing (Sinha, 2016). This technology has changed many people’s vision. Cloud computing is a technology which is developed on grid computing, virtualization, and distributed computing. This technology provides services to the people using it through models such as software and platform as service around the globe. Many people use cloud computing on a daily basis.
Cloud computing is one of the most crucial technologies that has come with a better prospect in the modern world. It is an internet based computing program that depends on the sharing of resources like storage, server, and applications via the internet with the view of providing faster computer performance. Cloud computing is differentiated from other technologies by its demand, elasticity and the services that are managed by the service provider. A cloud can be designed to be either a public cloud or a private cloud. Public clouds provide services to users who are within the provider’s network, e.g., Amazon while private clouds services are limited to the people who operate within and or with the provider such as data centers. This technology has achieved a lot of popularity as a result of its convenience and low operating costs of cloud computing and has influenced many people’s lives positively.
Despite having numerous advantages, cloud computing has been associated with numerous security threats in its operations (Kumar, 2013). For instance, hackers use some tactics to have access to clouds without legal authority from the bearers of the information with the view of attaining their personal motives. This calls for a good knowledge and skills in cloud security policies so that the service provider can ensure that cloud users information is secure.
This paper looks at the understanding of cloud computing by gathering information from two cohorts.
The aim of this research report is to;
Data loss- data loss is a crucial security threat of cloud models. Companies’ use applications to process firm data and keep customers information in data centers SaaS model. Developers use data to test software fitness when developing an SDLC in PaaS (Shaikh & Haider, 2011, December). These models are faced with the challenge of being accessed by unauthorized hackers and internal employees through accessing databases and access data accessing data internally or accidentally respectively.
Misuse of computational resources- hackers can misuse the computing skills and capability and use the cloud for illegal activities (Arif & Islam). IaaS has a higher vulnerability of being attacked by hackers because it supports some virtual machines.
Service hijacking- this has been a persistent problem in cloud computing, but efforts have been employed to curb it. Hackers gain access to user details which they use to access their accounts and manipulate data in a way that it may bring confusion between the user and the service provider.
Data breaches- security threats may occur within and outside the organization. Inside attacks are as a result of access and use of organization information. Also, data on cloud computing can be breached through cyber theft activities and drop box spam attacks (Sabahi, 2011, May).
SaaS is a prevalent model in technology the support web services and service oriented architecture and other development approaches (Kavis, 2014). The model supports software application such as Office suite, CRM, Email, etc. Via the internet. The applications are hosted on an infrastructure that is available through the internet so that users can access it through the internet by the use of normal we, and with no need for software in the computers they are using.
Infrastructure as a Service is a method of providing cloud computing infrastructure servers, bandwidth, memory, storage space, and storage through the use of self- service console without incorporating the information and technology team. This model enables people to access monitor and control their businesses from a remote data center. It has an advantage over other software in that it uses less electricity.
Platform as a service is an integrated and abstracted cloud-based computing environment that aids in the designing, operating and management applications. Developers design the applications code and the avail it to a platform in the form of a service on the cloud infrastructure (Catteddu, 2010). PaaS assists the developers to measure their application without considering the building of the infrastructure. Enterprise PaaS presents a line business software designers with a self- service account that manages computing infrastructure from a common centralized IT operation and platform that high in the hardware.
Many projects initiated in the recent past have greatly influenced IT more specifically in the field of cloud computing. Cloud computing technologies in different organizations are measured through assessing the setup and operations of the cloud infrastructure, applications, and platforms. Some of the technologies in cloud computing include;
This is a main open source technology for businesses and developers. Millions of persons from more than 144 countries support this infrastructure development. This has seen the popularity of this technology hike at a high rate. Open Stack is used by organizations to develop their private clouds that are more secure. Other people may opt to access the Open Stack application directly and use it to develop their applications.
Cloud Foundry is leading in the fast developing platform as a service. This project was started by pivotal, a spin-off by VMware and EMC. This technology is widely used by organizations to develop a private PaaS for internal developers (Swain, et al, 2015, January). Contained service providers use this technology to provide PaaS in the environment where it is hosted.
The KVM is the recommended hypervisor of infrastructure solutions such as open QRM or open stack and enjoys a great opportunity in the source environment. KVM is a powerful and cost efficient and also a powerful choice to commercial such as Microsoft Hyper. It enjoys a market share of about 12 percent as a result of utilizing this hypervisor in its virtualization solutions (Erl, Puttini, & Mahmood, 2013). Most businesses are likely to adopt this technology in future because of its affordable cost and suitable ability to virtualize an organization’s infrastructure.
This is a container technology that comes out as a byproduct at the time when the platform as a service “dot Cloud.” At present, it has witnessed a lot of support and momentum from Amazon web services, Microsoft and Google (Avram, 2014). It enables multiple movements of apps that are bundled in containers through some Linux servers thus improving portability of apps.
As seen from the cohorts’ information about cloud computing security threats, applications, technologies, challenges, and problems, many people do not trust the cloud with their information as it is prone to hackers and other people such as internal workers. Therefore, Cloud computing should come up with more modified measures such as increasing more encryptions to peoples’ data within their environment to ensure that their data is not accessed even when hacking take place.
Also, cloud computing has numerous merits in business and other activities. The cloud service providers should conduct campaigns in all their platforms and enlighten people about the benefits of using this technology in their businesses.
Conclusion
Cloud computing is a constant development that brings about different levels of demand and services available for clients. As many individuals and organizations enjoy benefits from cloud computing, the security issue is still a major challenge. More challenge comes from hackers who continually access security freaks.
To avail high-quality services to the cloud users, security holes must be identified and rectified. In this paper, we have examined the problems and challenges of security threats to cloud computing and gave recommendations on some measures that can be taken to counter these threats.
References
Arif, M., & Islam, N. Security Threats In Cloud Computing.
Avram, M. G. (2014). Advantages and challenges of adopting cloud computing from an enterprise perspective. Procedia Technology, 12, 529-534.
Catteddu, D. (2010). Cloud Computing: benefits, risks and recommendations for information security. In Web application security (pp. 17-17). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Erl, T., Puttini, R., & Mahmood, Z. (2013). Cloud computing: concepts, technology & architecture. Pearson Education.
Kavis, M. J. (2014). Architecting the cloud: Design decisions for cloud computing service models (SaaS, PaaS, AND IaaS). John Wiley & Sons.
Kumar, P., & Kumar, L. (2013). Security Threats to Cloud Computing. International Journal of IT, Engineering and Applied Sciences Research (IJIEASR), 2(1).
Puthal, D., Sahoo, B. P. S., Mishra, S., & Swain, S. (2015, January). Cloud computing features, issues, and challenges: a big picture. In Computational Intelligence and Networks (CINE), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 116-123). IEEE.
Sabahi, F. (2011, May). Cloud computing security threats and responses. In Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN), 2011 IEEE 3rd International Conference on (pp. 245- 249). IEEE.
Shaikh, F. B., & Haider, S. (2011, December). Security threats in cloud computing. In Internet technology and secured transactions (ICITST), 2011 international conference for (pp. 214-219). IEEE.
Sinha, A. (2016). Cloud Computing in Libraries: Opportunities and Challenges. Pearl: A Journal of Library and Information Science, 10(2), 113-118.
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