Cloud Computing Security and Privacy

This report describes the security and privacy concerns associated with cloud computing and the importance of implementing proper measures to protect data.

ITNE2002 NETWORK AND INFORMATION SECURITY ASSIGNMENT 2
Cloud security and privacy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Introduction
The report aims at describing the security and privacy concerns associated with the cloud
computing. The report will address the entire important concept associated with cloud computing
security and privacy measures. The main benefit that is offered with cloud computing is that it
supports proper business process. The major security challenge that is faced with the cloud
computing is that it impacts the data storage and there is a high chance that the data may get
breached. Thus it becomes essential to identify the cloud computing knowledge effectively so
that it can be implemented properly within the technology. The report will focus on describing
the importance of cloud computing security.
Cloud computing security and privacy
Cloud computing offers several feature towards the users. These feature includes on
demand self service, scalable architecture, easy storage and better computing power. With the
evolution of technology the cloud architecture has earned a huge importance. Thus it becomes
essential to determine the security and privacy concerns associated with cloud computing.
Security concept has become one of the major concern for the cloud computing as the data stored
within the system can be accessed by the vendors (Sen 2015). This increases the threats
associated with the cloud computing technology. The main reason behind implementing proper
security mechanism within the cloud storage is that it helps in protecting the data from breaches.
It becomes essential to implement proper security within the cloud storage as the storage stores
confidential data related to the user. This data needs to be maintained with high security and
integrity as it possesses the capability of harming the user to a huge extent. Thus it becomes

essential to implement proper measures that will protect the data from major thefts and
challenges. The main challenges that are faced with the use of cloud computing is that improper
control over the system will lead to impacting the overall performance of the cloud. Thus it
becomes essential to identify proper measures that will enhance the cloud computing security
and privacy. Cloud computing offers different ways for enhancing the security structure within
the cloud storage. This security measure helps in protecting the data from the access of
unauthorized persons. Cloud computing security and privacy is mainly referred to the broad set
of technologies, application, controls and policies that helps in protecting the data that are stored
within the cloud storage. Cloud privacy ensures that only authorized set of people ahs the ability
to get the access over the data (Rittinghouse and Ransome 2016). Hence it becomes essential to
have proper control over the cloud infrastructures. In order to maintain proper security within the
cloud system CSA model is being implemented that helps in managing the security of the data
stored within the system. Cloud security alliance model defines different boundaries between the
service models so that proper security can be maintained throughout the system.
Challenges faced with security and privacy
Cloud computing is referred to the way of storing users data effectively within the data
centres. It has been observed that different organization uses different cloud model for their
system. Mainly the challenges that are faced by cloud users are divided into two parts that is the
issues faced with cloud providers and the issues faced with customers. While choosing a
provider for cloud it becomes essential to ensure that proper infrastructure is provided towards
the user with high security. The major components associated with a data security and privacy in
cloud computing includes maintaining proper data integrity, data confidentiality, data privacy

and data availability (Rao and Selvamani 2015). The main concern is to ensure that the data
stored within the system is secured and protected from further breaches and thefts. The major
challenges that are faced by the cloud infrastructure are described below:
 DDoS attack: with the extensive growth of cloud computing it has been observed that
maximum business turns to cloud computing process for the purpose of performing their
operations. This is making the cloud providers a bigger target for the purpose of
performing malicious attacks. DDoS attacks are mainly performed for making the
website unavailable towards the organization (Ibrahim et al.,2016). This can cause huge
loss towards the revenue of the organization and will also impact the trust of the
customers.
 Data breaches: cloud storage tends to store huge amount of data related to the user. This
can impact the overall performance of the system. Data breaches mainly occur within the
cloud storage due to lack of privacy aspects within the cloud. This has the ability to
impact the overall performance of the cloud. Thus it becomes essential to implement
proper measures that will protect the data from further threats.
 Human error: it has been observed due to human errors the cloud storage can get
impacted (Wang et al.,2015). This leads to loss of sensitive data. Hence it becomes
essential to implement proper measures that will protect the system from further
breaches.
Cloud computing turns to be one of the most beneficial architecture for enterprises as it
offers implementation of system with low cost and helps in managing the activities effectively.
In addition to this it has been observed that cloud computing removes the need of hardware and
offers a great way of storing the confidential data (Hussein and Khalid 2016). Based on the cloud

security alliances the top threats that are faced with the cloud includes insecure API’s, data loss
and leakage and hardware failure. These threats possess the ability to impact the overall
performance of the cloud and will eventually lead to huge loss of data. Apart from this it had also
observed that the security threats also arise due to human errors and improper control over the
cloud.
Security and privacy in cloud computing
The main issues that are faced with cloud computing is related to improper control over
the resources that turns to be the greatest risk. In addition to this the cloud storage also fails to
maintain proper security, integrity and confidentiality throughout their data (Almorsy, Grundy
and Müller 2016). Thus it becomes essential to ensure proper protection towards the data stored
within the cloud storage. The ways in privacy can be maintained within the cloud are as follows:
 The user should avoid storing sensitive information within the cloud. This will help in
minimizing the impact of data breaches.
 Before integrating with cloud provider it becomes essential to for the user to ensure that
proper cloud storage is being maintained by the provider.
 User should use proper and strong passwords that will protect them from possible threats.
 In order to maintain proper data within the cloud storage it becomes essential to use
proper encryption method. Proper encryption will ensure better way of storing the data
within the cloud storage.
Apart from all this it becomes essential to maintain proper data integrity so that data
stored within the cloud can be protected from unauthorized persons. One of the main concept
that is needed to be maintained by the cloud providers is that proper confidentiality should be

implemented so that they can ensure better service towards the system (Ali, Khan and
Vasilakos 2015). This will enhance the performance of the system by improving the
confidentiality feature of the system. The cloud storage needs to ensure that the transfer of
data is being done securely so that third party does not get access over the system. With the
help of cloud security alliances the software interface needs to enhance so that they can
protect the data stored within the cloud effectively. CSA recommends that it becomes
essential to understand the performance of cloud so that the risks can be determined at early
stages. With the help of cloud security alliance it become easy to control the security
measures and protects the data at the time of transactions.
Conclusion
Thus form the above report it can be stated that the cloud security and privacy is turned to
be important strategies that helps in enhancing the performance of the system. This ensures that
proper safety is maintained towards the data stored within the cloud storage. With the increase in
demand of cloud computing it becomes essential to have proper security and privacy within the
system. The main reason behind implementing proper security within the cloud is that it ensures
that the data is not access by unauthorized person, prevents the data from exposure, and ensures
that the system is able to overcome the challenges. The report has described the concept of cloud
computing. In addition to this the report has also focused on describing the major challenges that
are faced within the cloud storage. Lastly the report has included the steps that will protect the
system from security breaches.

References
Ali, M., Khan, S.U. and Vasilakos, A.V., 2015. Security in cloud computing: Opportunities and
challenges. Information sciences, 305, pp.357-383.
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J. and Müller, I., 2016. An analysis of the cloud computing security
problem. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
Hussein, N.H. and Khalid, A., 2016. A survey of cloud computing security challenges and
solutions. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, 14(1), p.52.
Ibrahim, A.S., Hamlyn-Harris, J. and Grundy, J., 2016. Emerging security challenges of cloud
virtual infrastructure. arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.09059.
Rao, R.V. and Selvamani, K., 2015. Data security challenges and its solutions in cloud
computing. Procedia Computer Science, 48, pp.204-209.
Rittinghouse, J.W. and Ransome, J.F., 2016. Cloud computing: implementation, management,
and security. CRC press
Sen, J., 2015. Security and privacy issues in cloud computing. In Cloud Technology: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1585-1630). IGI Global.
Wang, B., Zheng, Y., Lou, W. and Hou, Y.T., 2015. DDoS attack protection in the era of cloud
computing and software-defined networking. Computer Networks, 81, pp.308-319.