Cloud Computing Security Challenges and Issues

This assignment delves into the multifaceted world of cloud computing security. It requires a thorough analysis of the various threats and vulnerabilities that cloud environments face, such as data breaches, unauthorized access, and lack of compliance. Students are expected to examine existing security solutions and propose strategies for mitigating these risks. The analysis should draw upon relevant research papers and industry best practices to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state and future directions of cloud security.

Report
IT Risks

Executive Summary
The focus of the work is to handle the IT Risks Management for the Aztec Company which
works over the operations in the different Australian Financial Service Sector. It has been seen
there are different executives who look forward to work on the e-business growth and the
technology to take hold of the strategy as well as the funding set for the deployment. The case
study focusses on the technology decisions that are for operating the Australian Financial Service
Sector along with working over the collection of the projects. They are set for the potential
funding for the deployment which includes that the employees can bring their own laptops or the
mobile phones in the working place. Along with this, there is an easy migration of the business-
critical applications and the other associated forms of the data sources that are set for the cloud
hosting solutions. The outsourcing of the key IT functionality is set with the network,
management of the desktop and the applications. The IT infrastructure is based on handling the
needs of the business and then work on the delivery forms of the system. The technology
includes how the organisation can easily instil and host the services for the cloud vendors with
the co-location facilities. The services are based on the matching to the private cloud physical
resources with the standards set to meet the patterns of computing. It also enables the computer
networks, servers and the storage of the applications with minimising the range of the
management effort. The cloud computing solutions are mainly to take hold of the storage and
then processing the data at the effective level.
The cloud computing is important for the company as it will include the solutions which are
related to the users and working over the different capabilities to store. The range is set to allow
the distance from the areas of the different scale economy mainly to advocate and work on the
cloud computing services. It allows the companies to work on the system efficiency and then
holding the demands of the business as well. the check is also on the avoidance of the up-front
infrastructure costs like the server purchasing. The components are based on the applications and
how it is easy to work through it in the fast and the effective manner. The demands are mainly
based on making use of the pay-as-go-model which defines the requirements when the
administrators do not mainly adapt to the change in the pricing model of the cloud. It is mainly to
meet the higher capacity of the networks with the lower costs only related to the storage devices.
The services oriented architecture is based on the standards which includes the defined
scalability and the accessibility pattern, where the cost of the cheap services is define with the
high performance and scalability. The cloud computing is important and helpful as it can cover
the different schematics and then work over the benefits about the expertise by the different IT
obstacles.
The operating system level is set with the virtualisation that includes the scalability of the system
m with the multiple computing of the device. It includes the involvement of the automation
process with the speeding of the process and then working on the cost of the labour with the
reduction and handling the human errors as well. The migration of the business applications with
the proper assessment of risks is based on the needs to review about the different sources of the
data and then work over the system with the data sources to the external cloud hosting. Aztec
management is important for the assessment through the cloud computing with the hosting
solutions. Here, the users are also able to work on the benefits with the technologies that aim to

the costs as well as the business needs. With this, the technology change is through virtualisation
where the software is based on working on the software of the operating system levels with the
easy maintenance of the scalability of the system. The virtualisation provides the agility with
easy needs to handle the IT operations and then working over the reduced costs of the increased
utilisation of infrastructure. The process is depending upon the resource on demand where the
user involvement and the automation speeding is important for the processes that will reduce the
user involvement with easy service oriented architecture
The resources are also able to provide with the easy access to the growth of the cloud services in
a proper standardised manner, where the cloud model structure can allow the scalability of the
demands to work on the automatic recovery of the prices. Some of the techniques and the
problems which needs to be discussed are:
a. The client server model needs to be accessed depending upon the application that would
be completely different from the other service providers.
b. The forms of the computation with grid computing includes the distributed setup with the
parallel computing structure that includes the network structure with easy coupled to act
and then perform some of the larger tasks.
c. The computation is also based on the IoT applications which includes the real-time
access and how the network configuration process could easily handle the lower level
services.
d. The utility computing with the resource packaging is based on the computation with the
storage set for the public utility that is a major factor for the computation and the peer-to-
peer standards.

Table of Contents
Financial Services Sector Review...................................................................................................4
Security Posture for Aztec...............................................................................................................7
Threats, vulnerabilities and consequences.....................................................................................11
Data Security.................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

Financial Services Sector Review
As per the setup of the cloud computing factors, there is a need to take hold of the changes with
handling the customer interaction process. The information exchange is based on how the
information in between the organisations need to work with the financial industry. The
understanding is about the cloud adoption with data digitisation which includes the examination
of the financial customer base impacts. The approach is based on the change in technology where
it is important to work over the private, pubic and the hybrid cloud environment. The
deployment models take hold of the cloud strategies with the use of the public and the private
clouds (Jonkers et al., 2016). The additional standards can take hold of the different additional of
the comfort and assure about the practices in the cloud with encouraging the sign in the cloud.
The regulatory standards and the compliance is set to aspire and believe about the achievement
of the efforts to make sure of the different laws and the regulations. The increased regulations
with the consolidation control are mainly to make sure of the necessary governance and how it is
possible to meet the requirements with duplication of efforts. In this, there is a need to check on
the:
a. The assessment is based on how the gap analysis can handle the IT projects which
includes the different set of the laws and the regulation.
b. The communication assessment is to make sure of the regulatory where the assurance of
the quality is mainly through the introduction files to meet the requirements with the
regulators.
c. The target models are defined to operate on the IT infrastructure with easy processes and
the organisation development that leads to the development of the compliance factors.
The financial sectors are mainly for working over the controlled rights and work with the
designing, implementation and then controlling the effectiveness of the system. The forms are
related to understand about the awareness, and the challenges which is mainly related to the
compliance obligations. The market needs to be set with the major impacts highlighting about
the profit and the loss. It comes with the financial services in the organisation that are important
for the short-term consequences. The data accessing is based on the performance where the e-
discovery request needs to be handled through easy encryption of the data with the setup of the
stronger authentication (Buttyan, 2016). The classification of the data, encryption and the
authentication of the users is mainly to make sure of applications that includes the management
and setting the backup as needed.

Figure: Measure the Capital Investment on Cloud Computing
The changing contemplations where the investments are depending upon the return and the
surplus savings is displayed in the time of 5 years. It also includes the details of the investments
with the price for the development as $50,000 with the gain of $400,000.
Figure: Cost Benefit Analysis
It is important to understand about the cost benefit analysis, where the standards are mainly to
check about the different investments which are being done in the time of 6 years. The

consideration is also about how the amount of $50,000 can work with the different factors at a
much-discounted price.
Figure: Payback Analysis Scenario.
The financial standard services are depending upon the different areas of the cloud adoption. It
includes that there is a need to handle the financial services with the core solutions that are set in
premise. The external cloud factors with the hosting solutions are mainly for handling the data
exchange which is set for the cloud services, along with the management of the revenue and then
billing the cloud services as well.

Security Posture for Aztec
As per the management of Aztec, it has been seen that there are different IT applications and the
resources which needs to be defined properly for the security posture. The access is mainly done
to the organisation information resources which is being connected to the network of the
company and managed, operated and worked on by the Aztec. The employees have been
working with the remote management, with the operations that are operated by the Aztec. Hence,
for this, the focus is on the accessing and working over the monitoring, managing and changing
the frameworks of the security. The security standards are set with the different risks that are for
the organisation under the assurance that the data is being secured.
For this, the check is also on providing the huge benefits with the ability to check and handle the
access to the system to properly monitor, manage and then change the framework of security. It
includes the different kinds of the security standards where the risks are in the organisation with
the assurance that the data is being secured (Fernandez et al., 2016).
When Aztec works on deciding about the information standards, there is a need to focus on the
application and the database structure that includes the different kinds of the impacts with the
migration of cloud. The major impact has been on the security which depends on the deployment
model and the service model (Modi et al., 2013). The Public cloud deployment and the
community cloud deployment tend to extend with the security perimeters with the organisation
working to provide the cloud infrastructure with the easy management of the resources. The
forms are set to define the public cloud deployment model and the community cloud which

includes the provider resources (ISO 27005:2008), which is critical to understand about the
security related obligations. The use of the SLAs and the reporting, networking security
arrangements are based on the obligations which need to be understood with the communication
in the contract. For this the responsibility of the security is based on the forms where the provider
and the consumer can handle the system communication (Almorsy et al., 2016). With this, the
hosting of the critical data like the personal and the payroll is for the employees or the account
details of the customers who try to focus on the cloud that can easily highlight about the
responsibility sharing methods and the other critical cases. The public cloud could be set with the
viable choices when the organisation tends to migrate the information which is made available
for the different consumption process of the public that also tend to carry the lower risks.
The public cloud infrastructure is set when there are equipped security measures for the
information which can easily improve the security posture that is related to the infrastructure
development. It is related to the improvement of the security measures and the postures which
are for the infrastructure when compared to the current posture. The community cloud methods
take hold of the different measures of the security requirements, where the high risks data like
the handling of the customer account information could not be easily trusted with the public or
the community cloud (Cavelty et al, 2016). This is based on the fact how the public cloud is
found to be the best option for handling the different information patterns which are found to be
sensitive. Here, this also includes the versions for minimising the risks and the challenges which
are related to the negative impact on the current postures of the security.
There are some of the benefits which need to focus on:

a. The security and the scaling benefit which includes the large scale which includes the
investments that are followed with the better security quality.
b. The management of the services and the security standards are based on working over the
standardised forms which includes how it is possible to create the open market with the
view that is accessible to the services and the availability system (Islam et al, 2016).
c. The smart scale methods are set for the resources and the rapidness where the dynamic
problems like DDoS are handling the filtering, traffic sharing and for the encryption.
d. The evidence is based on the gathering of the system and the auditing which includes the
use of the images of the virtual machine which could be important for the virtualisation
standards. The forms are set to take hold of the forensic analysis and mainly without
working over the infrastructure in the offline format (Inukollu et al., 2014).

Threats, vulnerabilities and consequences
The security and the scale benefits are mainly taken into consideration for the small one which
becomes cheaper. It includes the better quality of the security with the other defensive measures
like the handling of the patch management. Through this, there is a possibility to handle the
hardening of the hypervisors and the virtual machine, filtering that is important for working on
the different multiple locations. With the forms, there are edge networks that are for handling the
information which could be easily delivered or processed depending upon the destination which
is closer to take hold of the timeliness (Islam et al., 2016).
The forms are set with the management of the security services with the other standardisation
processes of the interface. Aztec mainly focus on the different computing system which can
create the open market with the view of the security of the services and then working on the
availability of the system as well (Shahzad, 2014). The check is on the scaling of the resources
and then working of the resources with the rapid forms, where the use of authentication, filtering
and the traffic shaping is set for the DDoS attacks which is the major issue related to the cloud
system.
The evidence is based on the system that includes the gathering system and the auditing which is
depending upon the useof the images for the cloud computing. It is also based on the
virtualisation which could be set for the forensic analysis and mainly without any of the
infrastructure change that has been set in the offline mode.
The governance loss in the cloud computing system is when the customers are trying to work on
the system security and the control which is based on the cloud standards and then working over
the security breach change (Moncayo et al, 2016). This is based on the system change which is
set for the different system of defence.

There are some of the lock in measures which could be used for handling the standard data
formats which are for the different procedures and the point of view. The forms are based on the
portability and the data guarantee which is important for improving the service operations. The
things are evaluated based on the customer to handle the providers, with the data migration that
is set into the data for the house information technology environment (Mavi, 2016). This is based
on working over the cloud providers when there is a portability in the system.

The failure forms are the standards which is mainly due to the isolation. It also includes the
forms that work on the sharing capability with the multi-tenancy in the system. There is a need to
take hold of the memory, routing and the storage separation systems which are mainly for the
guest hopping attack. The study is also for the resources which works for the resources of the
cloud and then work on the traditional forms of the OS systems as well.
It works on the system standards which includes how the cloud provider is not able to handle the
services for the requirements. For this, the check is also on the auditing by the cloud customers

which is found to be not accepted by any type of the cloud provider (Korir, 2017). The cases are
related to work on the PCI DSS which could not be achievable by any of the public cloud
infrastructure.
Considering the management of the interface, the customer interface and the management in the
cloud system is considered to hold the broader accessibility of the resources through the internet.
This is found to be broader way than the other traditional way, where the risk is increased when
the vulnerabilities is set with web browser combined with the remote access. The protection of
data is for the customers and how cloud provider can handle the risks for the protection of the
data. There are issues related for the customer when the data controller is to check to handle the
data in a lawful manner. The data is routed with the multiple transfer ways with the federated
clouds where the policy and procedures are set for easy handling of data. the providers need to
provide the certificates on data processing and control the place of SAS70 certification. The
insecure and incomplete deletion of data is depending upon the requests which is made in the
cloud which is not only about the deletion of the data. the timely deletion of the data is not
desirable and not desirable mainly due to the requirement times which could not be accessed
with free spacing for the other customers (Almorsy et al., 2016).
The insider of the malicious nature is set with holding the big threats for the cloud and the
architectural development depending upon the responsibility to design the cloud with viewing
the CP system with easy management of the security services. It is important to take not of the
customers to transfer the risks for the CP which depends on the loss of business or the reputation
which is a serious damage or the problem. It is not for the risks which could not be transferred
into the cloud as per the customers. The outsourcing is depending upon the responsibility and not
accountability only.

Data Security
This is based on working over the handling of risk assessment which is carried through the
demands that take hold of the different risks which are related to data security. It includes the
migration of services and how the outsources are set with the different cloud service providers
that tends to provide with the different service models and the hosting based on different types of
the applications. The minimisation forms are related to the information with single provider that
leads to the data loss risks which could be minimised. The services are linked with means related
to the federated management solutions with identity forms that include the cloud hosting model
which is termed as federated cloud.
The model for the cloud provider is based on providing the cloud infrastructure like the SaaS
model for the applications like the different applications of the desktop, messaging and the
systems of email. The centre of the data is for the applications which are related to the locations
that are set in and across the globe (Hashizume et al., 2013). The forms are related to the cloud
service provider which tends to offer the services to host PaaS model which includes the hosting
of the development and then working over the customised applications execution. The cloud
service provider works on offering the infrastructure development with the hosting application
and then working over the data sources that includes the HR CRM, accounting and the financial
development. It is mainly set under the model of IaaS.
The forms are set with the use of Aztec that works with easy responsibility to handle the disaster
recovery with easy business continuity of applications. This includes the applications which are
under the IaaS and PaaS models that include the infrastructure development. The applications are
mainly for the provider which includes the different services and the data for a specific data. the
medium and the long term, with the easy disaster recovery and the backup services could easily
take hold from the different service models (Puthal et al., 2015).
The cloud service providers have the liability to take hold of the different IT services,
applications and the infrastructure. This is based on working for the organisation and then
checking over the effectiveness of the system. For this, there is a need to take note of the
different measures which include the solution of the Single Sign on/off with the unified directory
for the services. The applications and the interface is for the identification of the management
needs and then handling the secured management.
The forms are related to the single application and interface which works for the secured
management of the encryption keys and the signature where the enforcement is for the access of
different access control policies (Hashem et al., 2015).
The solution could easily be guaranteed with the users of the IT systems that works for the
employees, vendors and the customers. This is easily complied for the different security policies
and the requirements which includes the Aztec which is needed in the long run. For this, the
policies are also enforced with the different user profiles and the setup is based on the fulfilment
of the requirements. The organisation need to compensate towards moving towards the federated
identity which includes the management solution that interlinks for the different security
accounts depending upon the cloud hosting providers.

Aztec focus on the services where the contemplated implementation with the different types of
IT projects. The cost saving methods includes the data storage and processing of the software,
where the new services are found to be free and on-demand. The situations are related to the
reliability and the flexibility that is mainly to handle the key ingredients which is the major target
for the effectiveness for viewing the scaling (Rong et al., 2013). The assessment is based on the
scenarios or the models which is hold the migration of applications and the data sources with the
external cloud computing system. The cloud is mainly within the organisation with the reduction
of cost with the flexibility that work on the acceptance by the different organisation. The reach is
about the secured forms where there is a need to set the information with easy handling of the
data protection and privacy. The policy and the legal implications are based on the integral parts
of the system which is for the SaaS or the software applications as a service. The forms are
mainly related to the assurance for the cloud customers to check on the risks assessment with
adoption to the cloud systems, acquisitions set with the assurance of the selected service
providers. The check is based on the different points of view where the services are related to the
laws which needs to be based on the service providers in the market according to the offers that
is given to the individual (Ahmed, et al., 2014).

References
Buttyán, L. (2016). Introduction to IT Security.
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv
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Cavelty, M. D., & Mauer, V. (2016). Power and security in the information age: Investigating the role of
the state in cyberspace. Routledge.
Islam, T., Manivannan, D., & Zeadally, S. (2016). A classification and characterization of security threats
in cloud computing. Int. J. Next-Gener. Comput, 7(1).
Mavi, S. (2016). Cloud Computing: Security Issues and Challenges. IITM Journal of Management and
IT, 7(1), 25-31.
Korir, A. (2017). Cloud Computing Security Issues and Challenges. Mara Research Journal of Computer
Science & Security, 1(1), 100-106.
Almorsy, M., Grundy, J., & Müller, I. (2016). An analysis of the cloud computing security problem. arXiv
preprint arXiv:1609.01107.
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Hashem, I. A. T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N. B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A., & Khan, S. U. (2015). The rise of “big
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and challenges: a big picture. In Computational Intelligence and Networks (CINE), 2015
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