Security Threats in Cloud Computing and Preventive Methods

SECURITY THREATS IN CLOUD COMPUTING AND PREVENTIVE METHODS
Student Name
ITC595 MIT, School of Computing & Mathematics, Charles Sturt University
[e-mail]
ABSTRACT – Cloud computing is a beneficial
technology because of its ability to reduce costs,
increase flexibility, convenience and scalability. It is
therefore the next generation technique that will
facilitate dynamic storage structures, pooling of
resources, and virtualization. It makes it possible to
share resources for geographically distributed
organizations making it possible for them to follow
common goals and build relationships without
depending on a central location. As a result, in the
last decade, a lot of people and businesses have
increasingly adopted cloud computing. Data and
information stored in the cloud has dramatically
increased. Growth and adoption of the technology is
also increasing security threat. For instance data
breaches are increasing every year as hackers who
are working hard to search for and exploit system
vulnerabilities. This paper begins by providing a
detailed overview of cloud computing including
technologies and applications. Security challenges in
cloud computing such as data loss, braches, insecure
APIs and online cyber theft have been discussed.
The main areas not included as a concept that makes
the technology insecure has been mentioned. In
addition, preventive measures to curtail security
threats have been discussed including access
management, security policies and procedure
enhancement and data protection. A lot of research
and studies have been done on cloud computing
security. However, cloud computing is an emerging
technology, some of its concepts are new to many
people and organizations. This paper also presents
some areas requiring further research in cloud
computing developments with regards to reducing
insecurity levels.
Keywords— cloud computing, cloud security, data
breach
INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing is an emerging technology that
facilitates access to services including software’s, IT
infrastructures including storage structures, servers
and platforms via the Internet (Mell & Grance,
2011). The technology is involved in many people’s
lives and provides services and applications services
for free or minimal costs. Many people use cloud
computing services daily. For instance, we use mail
servers including Google and Yahoo to send and
receive emails. We also use social networking
platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
more to connect and share information with friends,
family and business partners. Additionally we pay
for on-demand subscription services such as Netflix
to access movies and TV shows. Furthermore, we
store our information including documents, music,
videos and pictures on the cloud through the use of
Google drive or Dropbox and more. We also use
collaboration applications such as Google docs.
Therefore, if you send and receive mail, edit
documents, watch TV or moves, play online games
or store your photos online, you are implementing
cloud computing. Cloud computing can be accessed
through web apps, blogs, on-demand software’s,
data analysis and more (Microsoft Azure, 2018).
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing provides a lot of benefits for both
individuals and business corporations. It allow
efficiency and convenience. It also reduces IT costs
significantly since there would be no need to but IT
infrastructure. It is fast as many cloud computing
services are on-demand services. Cloud computing
also provides reliability as data backup, recovery and
business continuity become less expensive. It also
provides business flexibility and scalability
(Microsoft Azure, 2018).
Technologies and Applications used in Cloud
Computing
According to (Cecil, Arul, & Arockiam, 2014),
cloud computing can be offered in any one of the
following service architectures
Cloud Computing Service Models
 Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS model allows a user to access and use software
applications running on the cloud via the Internet
(Chou, 2013). The software applications are usually
accessible using various devices including laptops,
desktops, and smart phones, tablets through a client
or program interface. The end-user has no idea or

control of the fundamental infrastructure comprising
of servers, OS, storage or application settings.
 Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS allows for an end-user to run applications on
the cloud infrastructure or to acquire services using,
libraries, API’s, tools and services with support from
the service provider. The end-user only controls
installed applications and configuration settings but
doesn’t manage the primary cloud infrastructure
such as the network, OS, servers, or storage.
 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS allows an end-user to process, store, and access
computing resources in the event that he/she can
deploy and execute necessary applications such as
OS. With IaaS, users have no business managing the
basic cloud infrastructures but can control OS,
storage, and installed software’s with restricted
control of networking components such as firewalls.
Cloud Computing Deployment Models
Cloud computing technology can be deployed in a
number of ways including public, private,
community and hybrid.
 Private cloud
In a private cloud, exclusively a single company
provisions IT applications. Private cloud can be
possessed, controlled, and operated by a third party
provider, a company or both (Techopedia, 2018). A
private cloud can be hosted internally (on-site) or
externally (off-site).
 Public cloud
A public cloud is open for utilization by the general
public and not limited to a single company. It can be
possessed, controlled and managed by a commercial,
or governmental agency, or both (Techopedia,
2018). It is usually hosted by the cloud provider.
 Community cloud
A community cloud is used by a group of users or
enterprises that share a common goal or with similar
concerns such as mission, policies, compliance
standards or security requirements. It can be
possessed, controlled and activated by one or a
group of organizations, a managed services provider,
or both. It is hosted on or off premise.
 Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud combines two or more cloud
structures that are separate but integrated by
standardized technology to enable operations
portability. An organization can use a hybrid model
to benefit from the different infrastructures.
Security Issues in Cloud Computing
Data Loss
Deploying cloud computing is important because it
provides low cost benefit, computing and
convenience. Additionally, being able to access
applications and information through a cloud model
facilitates remote working. The challenge is however
is that data and information stored on the cloud can
get lost. If there was no backup procedures set in
place, organizations can suffer from losing critical
information used to run their operations.
Cloud Outages
There is no guarantee that cloud computing provides
100 percent system uptime. Some disasters are
inevitable. For instance, in June 2012, a storm
destroyed one of Amazon’s data center cutting off
their services. All the cloud spaces hosted in the data
center were hence affected. Cloud outages can make
business operations come to standstill which
eventually has long lasting effects on the business.
Data breaches
Data breaches have become so common with more
technology developments including cloud computing
(Ahmed & Hossain, 2014). They can come from
both inside and outside an organization. Research
has already shown that over 20 percent data breaches
come from within a business which is even more
damaging and costly. Data breaches have become a
critical area to deal with on cloud computing
adoption and companies are spending millions to
protect against security breaches.
Insecure API’s and Interfaces
Insecure Application Programming Interfaces (API)
in cloud computing are increasingly becoming a
threat to cloud systems. APIs are applications that
are used by third party providers and computer
programmers to facilitate users with a way to
interact, control manage, and get information from
cloud technologies. For instance, APIs can be used
to provide database integration, with storage
components, maintain application logs, or control

cloud resources. APIs also enable mobile
applications to interact with websites or back end
systems and provide users with the ability to validate
users. That said, APIs create links between a private
and trusted boundary with a public IP address. As a
result, hackers and other intruders target them to
breach a business.
Cyber Theft
Cloud computing provides powerful services for
users including high processing capabilities and
huge amounts cloud storage spaces. For instance,
Netflix gets cloud computing space from Amazon
Web Services to facilitate TV and movie
subscription services for users. Dropbox provides
massive amounts of cloud storage for users. Cloud
based services are becoming a critical part of life,
however, sensitive data in cloud storage is a targeted
for cyber theft (Chou, 2013). Zappos an online
retailer owned by Amazon suffered cyber theft
where over 20 million user accounts were
compromised including names, phone numbers
addresses, shipping addresses, credit card numbers
and encrypted passwords. LinkedIn, a professional
networking site reported a security breach where
about 6 million encrypted passwords were
embezzled and published online. Of the stolen
passwords, over 200000 have compromised. Cyber
thieves take the advantage of the computing
technology to steal information.
Research Gap
The weakest link with regard to the security of a
system is the human factor. Organizations have been
known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to
secure their systems but still become victims of
cyber-attacks because hackers targeted the workers
and not the systems. Therefore a lot research needs
to be done about studying how employees can
become much more keen and aware of their
interactions especially with outsiders who sometimes
are potential hackers. As such, some of the social
engineering tactics that hackers use need to be
studied in order to enable users become aware when
they experience such and enhance security for cloud
computing systems.
Preventive Methods and Solutions
Cloud computing provides untold benefits for
organizations. However, it comes with its share of
security issues and concerns as discussed above. It is
this critical for organizations to implement measures
to combat against such insecurities for safe data
transmission and storage. Some of the preventive
ways to lessen cloud space data security threats
include the following:
Enhancement of Security Policy and Procedures
The first method that helps reduce cloud computing
insecurity issue is working policies and procedures
set to secure computer networks and systems. The
implementation of such mechanisms reduce the risk
of abusing cloud computing power. Rules and
regulations on how to use and access systems can
help network administrators manage the cloud
infrastructures in a more effectively manner
(Ghebghoub, Oukid, & Boussaid, 2013). For
instance, Amazon Web Services has laid out a well-
defined user policy that terminates any criminal
activity in the event of a spam or malware complaint
through their Amazon EC2 application.
System Access Management
Data and information stored in the cloud space is
private and sensitive. It is therefore important to
implement access control mechanisms to warrant
that only accredited users have access to associated
data. Additionally, data access should be regulated
by secure procedures that should be continuously
monitored in order to identify illegal attempts to
systems access (Angadi, Angadi, & Gull, 2013).
Intrusion detection systems and firewalls should also
be installed to inspect inbound and outbound traffic
as well as monitor malicious activities.
Data Protection
Data breaches are some of the major threats
affecting cloud systems. Those coming from within
the company can be accidental or intentional. To
curb insider threats, organizations should apply
proper security applications such as biometrics
systems, tools to detect anomalous behavioural
patterns, data loss prevention applications,
encryption tools, and authentication, identification
and authorization procedures.
Future Research Areas
Cloud computing is an emerging technology offering
on-demand services to clients. While people get to
enjoy the benefits provided with cloud computing,
the issue of security continues to widen and there’s a
lot of vulnerabilities with the clouds. Hackers are
more and more become tactical and exploit security
susceptibilities in cloud computing to illegally
access systems, steal and compromise information.

Companies therefore need to guard themselves by
implementing security techniques against cloud
computing insecurities. Additionally, some areas to
so with cloud security such as how insider access to
unauthorized systems happens. It is important to
study the human factor as one of the major security
threat for cloud systems in depth. Organizations
should then familiarize themselves with the outcome
of the analysis to ensure security from within and
outside the company. This will greatly enhance the
security of cloud computing infrastructure.
REFERENCES
Ahmed, M., & Hossain, M. A. (2014). Cloud Computing AND Secuirty Issues In The Cloud . International
Journal of Network Security & Its Applications (IJNSA), Vol.6, No.1, January 2014, 28-30.
http://airccse.org/journal/nsa/6114nsa03.pdf
Angadi, A., Angadi, A., & Gull, K. (2013). Security Issues with Possible Solutions in Cloud Computing - A
Survey. ternational Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology
(IJARCET) Volume 2, Issue 2,, 655-657. http://ijarcet.org/wp-content/uploads/IJARCET-VOL-2-
ISSUE-2-652-661.pdf
Cecil, D., Arul, O., & Arockiam, L. (2014). International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology
(IJEIT) Volume 3, Issue 1, July 2013. Mobile Cloud Security Issues and Challenges: A Perspective,
401-402.
https://www.academia.edu/10701384/Mobile_Cloud_Computing_and_its_Security_Issues_A_Perspe
ctive
Chou, T.-S. (2013). Security Threats On Cloud Computing Vulnerabilities. International Journal of
Computer Science & Information Technology (IJCSIT) Vol 5, No 3,, 79-85.
http://airccse.org/journal/jcsit/5313ijcsit06.pdf
Ghebghoub, Y., Oukid, S., & Boussaid, O. (2013). A Survey on Security Issues and the Existing Solutions
in Cloud Computing. International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Vol 5, No. 6,
December 2013, 588-589. http://ijcee.org/papers/778-S0007.pdf
Mell, P., & Grance, T. (2011). The NIST Definition of Cloud. Gaithersburg: National Institute of Standards
and Technology. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-145.pdf
Microsoft Azure. (2018, April 2). What is Cloud Computing? Retrieved from Microsoft Azure:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-cloud-computing/
Techopedia. (2018, May 2). Private Cloud . Retrieved from www.techopedia.com:
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/13677/private-cloud