Analysis of Security Threats in Cloud Computing and Preventive Methods

This report provides an overview of cloud computing technology, its applications, and associated security threats. It delves into challenges such as shared technology vulnerabilities, DDoS attacks, data loss, APTs, and insider threats. The report also addresses issues that have not been adequately explored, like the full scope of the technology and the abuse of cloud services. It highlights the importance of data protection and proposes preventive measures, including careful selection of cloud service providers, encryption, authorized validation, network traffic examination, and monitoring. Furthermore, the report discusses future research directions, such as increasing system energy efficiency, improving resource scheduling, and utilizing renewable resources. The report concludes with a reflection on critical issues and a proposed design for mitigating security risks in cloud environments.

Running head: SECURITY THREATS IN CLOUD COMPUTING
SECURITY THREATS IN CLOUD
COMPUTING AND PREVENTIVE
METHOD
Name of the University
Name of the student
Author Note
EMAIL ADDRESS

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to my teachers and lecturers who have provided me this
opportunity of performing this research project. I would also like to thank my parents and
friends for helping me in certain section of the finalized project within the limited time frame.

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ABSTRACT
In the following report, an overview of the cloud technology has been provided. The report
mentions the application of the mentioned technology and discusses the security threats that
are associated with it. The future research direction of the technology has been mentioned
and the challenge gaps of the technology that is not mentioned properly has been discussed.
Moreover, the report also includes a section where a reflection of the critical issues has been
mentioned. Lastly, in the proposed design section of the report the preventative measures of
the mentioned security threats has been evaluated and discussed conclusively.
Keywords— cloud computing, cloud computing threats and security threats of cloud
computing

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................5
Research Problem...................................................................................................................6
Research Justification.............................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................................................6
Overview of cloud technology...............................................................................................6
Relevant technologies and applications of cloud computing.................................................6
Security challenges/problems of cloud computing................................................................7
Issues that have not been mentioned appropriately................................................................9
Personal views on the critical issues....................................................................................10
Future research directions of the technology.......................................................................10
PROPOSED DESIGN..............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................14

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INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing has continuously has transformed the way in which companies
share, store and use their workloads, applications and data. This has also resulted in the
creation of a number of security challenges and threats. As the cloud hosts a huge number of
services and involves the transfer of data into the public cloud services, the particular
resources become a common target for all the attackers [7]. As the number of cloud service
utilization increases, the process of protecting the complicated data also becomes more
complicated and risky. The data that is present in the cloud environment should be protected
not only from the cloud service providers but also from the prospective cloud users. In the
following report, the various security threats of cloud environment has been discussed and
assessed. The preventive method for such security threats has also been mentioned in the
report conclusively.
Research Problem
Cloud computing has changed the landscape of modern technology. It has
revolutionized the way enterprises operate and has provided the industry with a lot of
advantages. The research problem is aimed at providing the relevant issues that are associated
with this technology and has proposed preventive measures for addressing these particular
issues.
Research Justification
Although previous researchers have been carried out on the topic of security threats of
cloud computing, the present research is aimed at providing information about the security
issues that has happened recently and relevant to the topic.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of cloud technology
Cloud Computing refers to the process by which the resources that are provided by
Information technology are retrieved through the web based tools from the internet instead
from a directly connected server. The cloud computing technology helps to save the file in a
remote online cloud based database instead of a physical local storage device [9]. There are
different types of cloud computing namely SaaS, IaaS and PaaS.
Although cloud computing provides a number of benefit to the user it comes with its
own share of security risks. It is one of the emerging innovations of the technological
landscape and modern internet. Large corporations such as Google and Amazon use cloud
services on a day to day basis along with their customers. The technology provides several
organizations with the added benefit of reduction in cost and more features leading to
innovative solutions. But like most technologies, this also comes with some risks that needs
to be addressed for proposing the technology as 100% secure.
Relevant technologies and applications of cloud computing
Cloud computing is used for maintaining IaaS and PaaS which helps the organizations
to save on investment cost to maintain, manage and acquire an IT infrastructure. Cloud based
environment are also deployed for hybrid and private clouds. It is also used for test and
development purposes as the cost of setting up physical assets and manpower is not involved
[1]. Nowadays, cloud computing is used with bug data analytics for extracting and analysing
customer information. It is increasingly used for file storage systems as users can access data
from virtually anywhere. It is also used in backups as well as disaster recovery.

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Security challenges/problems of cloud computing
There are several security threats and challenges of cloud computing that are have
been addressed in the following literature review.
The first challenge is the business threat that comes with the integration of shared
technologies. The cloud service provider shares the applications, platforms and infrastructure
of cloud computing [17]. The shared environment brings in the potential of a single security
breach that has the capability to expose the total cloud environment to compromises. The
security breach can also affect other shared systems such as shared storage, database services
and CPU caches. Lack of in-depth defensive processes is the main reason for this security
threat to the cloud environment.
The second security challenge is the DDoS Attack [2]. These application level attacks
have the capability to target database vulnerabilities as well as web servers. These involve a
huge number of automated requests for service that impairs the cloud service without
properly shutting it down. Over the years, the attackers have improvised their way of
conducting DDos attacks and have managed to conduct the attacks with sophisticated and
distributed ways.
The third security challenge is the possibility of data loss. Whenever a person uploads
a file to the cloud environment, there lies the chance of the data being intercepted by another
authorized individual or unscrupulous attackers. This loss of data can cost the organization
millions of dollars. According to a report backed by Health Information Trust Alliance, the
data loss security factor has cost enterprises more than 4 billion dollars in cost.
The fourth security threat that is related to the cloud environment is the presence of
APTs or Advanced Persistent threats. These threats are difficult to detect and conducts the
attack in a parasitic form.

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The threat from malicious insider is also a serious security issue for cloud computing.
Often there are several employees in an organization who gets access to the cloud
environment [4]. If the employees want to transfer vital information of the cloud to a
competitive enterprise, then it can cause a lot of problems for the organization. The attackers
can manipulate the data and shatter the entire infrastructure of the cloud environment with
this vulnerability [10]. This attacks happen due to the lack of proper user access monitoring
system and encryption process control mechanism.
Sometimes, the attackers can eavesdrop on financial data and compromising
information. They can hijack the accounts of several individuals within the cloud
environment and modify them. This can cause irreparable damage for the entire organization.
Lack of multifactor authentication is the prime cause of this security issue. Moreover, they
can serve malware into the cloud environment and distribute pie=rated software through the
network.
The people who are working for an organization using cloud environment are given a
well-defined authentication and identify verification system to provide the right amount of
access information to the right person [16]. Often, these verification systems are not removed
properly even when the person is not working for the organization. That person can
compromise the entire cloud environment by stealing critical information about the business
process of the organization or obtain their credentials for illicit purposes.
Another critical security threat for cloud environment is the insecure APIs. The cloud
service providers have always faced the dilemma of providing the service to millions of
people as well as properly preventing the damages that these anonymous users can do to the
cloud environment [15]. To prevent this, application programming interface has been created
which determines the process by which third party connects with the network and provides

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legit verification for accessing the services. An open authorization service created by Google
and Twitter and collaboration named OAuth was designed for this purpose. Recently, security
researchers has warned the organizations using open authorization service that there are still
no secure APIs that can prevent a security breach 100% despite the controls and protection
systems [5]. The researchers argue that the APIs can be made secure by designing them to
withstand problems faced from activity monitoring, encryption and access and authentication
controls. This prevents the users from gaining access to the application from a public service
and restricts their authentication access. But nowadays, APIs add layers for value added
services and makes them more complex which provides the attackers to find an exposure to
breach the system.
Issues that have not been mentioned appropriately
The security threats which has not been addressed properly are the incapability of
understanding the full scope of the technology. Many enterprises accommodate the cloud
environment in their business structure without properly analysing the environment of the
service provider and protection mechanisms.
Another issue that has not been adequately discussed is the nefarious and abuse of
cloud services by an unscrupulous attacker. Application and system vulnerability of cloud
services is another issue that has not been highlighted properly.
Personal views on the critical issues
In my opinion, the loss of data is a critical issue for cloud computing technology as
most of the times consumers use this technology for saving their private and critical data.
Enterprises use cloud computing as a storage service for critical information as well as
disaster recovery. If the data that is being stored gets compromised, I think it totally tarnishes
the concept of cloud computing.

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Future research directions of the technology
Based on the identified gaps and challenges, the future research directions of cloud
computing are mentioned in the following literature.
First of all, the system energy efficiency needs to be increased by designing the
software at various levels such as applications, operating systems, algorithms and compilers.
The resources need to be integrated with the application according to its performance level to
maintain the trade-offs related to energy and consumption [7].
The cloud providers need to measure and understand the present data centre power,
cooling designs, cooling requirements and server power consumption to achieve green cloud
computing. Tools need to be developed to measure the energy consumption of cloud services
and components.
Third, to gain proper resource scheduling, the factors such as CPU usage, cooling
processes, memory and network need to be considered for designing efficient cloud
computing systems.
Fourth, before implementing the cloud computing in an institution, proper overhead
analysis need to be conducted before adding latest technologies such as Virtualization to
achieve maximum power efficiency [6].
Lastly, to reduce the energy consumption of cloud services, the service providers need
to consider using renewable resources.
PROPOSED DESIGN
Based on the mentioned security threats, the proposed preventive measures are written
as follows.

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To prevent the data breaches from happening, the cloud service providers need to be
selected properly and checked if they are reliable or not. This prevents the attackers from
using the side channel attacks for getting the cryptographic keys which is used by other
virtual machines present in the same cloud network [14]. Proper encryption system need to be
installed to ensure proper data security.
To prevent cloud abuse, authorized validation and registration processes need to be
implemented. This prevents anyone with a credit card from availing the cloud based services
making the system prone to spam mails and malicious attacks. Credit card processes need to
be monitored carefully to prevent frauds. Network traffic need to be examined carefully.
Moreover, the blacklisted stuff of a particular network need to be checked carefully from
time to time.
To prevent the threats from Insecure APIs, the cloud provider’s security standards
needs to be inspected carefully. The encrypted transmission and strict authentication need to
be checked carefully periodically to prevent malicious tacks from happening [8].
To prevent malware attacks from occurring, authorized supply chain management
system need to be planned. The cloud providers need to provide information to the users
about how they grant access to particular softwares and how they track the users. The human
resource management need to be included in legal contract. Security compliance and
mechanism need to be absolutely transparent to prevent misuse of the system.
To prevent the issues that arise with shared technology, best security measures need to
be adopted for the purpose of configuration and installation of the services. The non-
authorized activities ad changes need to be audited. The authorization process for certain
administrative operations need to be checked and improved. To install vulnerability

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assessments, service level agreements need to be promoted. Moreover, the vulnerabilities
need to be scanned from time to time.
To prevent the loss of data, the strong API security need to be enforced to retain
customer trust as it can lead to policy and legal compliance issues. The data needs to be
secured with SSL encryption [13]. The integrity of data needs to be checked for designing as
well as running time duration. The collection and backup plans of the service providers need
to be explored as well.
To prevent account hacking, the sharing of credential information between users need to be
restricted. The two way strong authentication need to be implemented in every service
processes in the cloud environment. Employees need to be tracked for detecting activities
which are unauthorized. Moreover, data logs need to be carefully stored and the details of the
infrastructure need to be properly secured.
CONCLUSION
To conclude the report, it can be stated that the cloud computing has a number of
security threats that it has to address before it can be truly stated as a secure alternative to
other physical relevant technologies. In the following report, an overview of the cloud
environment has been mentioned. The relevant applications and technologies related to cloud
computing has been assessed and discussed in the literature review section of the report. The
possible security threats of cloud computing has been evaluated and discussed accordingly.
Next, the relevant gaps of the literature review which has not been addressed properly is also
mentioned as well. A personal reflection of the security threats of cloud computing has been
provided and the related preventive measures of the mentioned security threats has been
assessed.