MITS5002: Critical Analysis of Data Security in Cloud Computing

This report provides a critical analysis of an article focusing on data security in cloud computing. It examines key aspects such as data security, integrity, and availability within cloud environments. The report discusses the characteristics of cloud computing, including its on-demand nature, global accessibility, and various service and deployment models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, private, public, and hybrid clouds). It identifies and analyzes potential threats like data loss, insider threats, and denial-of-service attacks, particularly concerning data privacy and the risks associated with cloud virtualization. The study also delves into data integrity, exploring methods to protect outsourced information from unauthorized access and modification, including the use of MAC algorithms and human oversight. Furthermore, the report addresses data availability and confidentiality, providing mitigation strategies like advanced access controls and encryption to enhance data security. The conclusion highlights the benefits and limitations of cloud computing in data sharing and information management, emphasizing the importance of addressing security concerns to improve the overall cloud experience.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE BASED ON DATA SECURITY IN CLOUD COMPUTING
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE BASED
ON
DATA SECURITY IN CLOUD COMPUTING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

1Cloud Computing
Introduction:
The fundamental objective of this report is to critically analyze the journal which is
based in the topic of the data security, integrity as well as the availability of the data utilizing
the concept of cloud computing. Followed by the above aspects this report has effectively
discuss the focused area which has been discussed in the selected topic. After successfully
analyzing the research mentioned in the article in has been observe that the article in
fundamentally focused on the services of cloud computing. Followed by this aspects the
researcher has discussed about the security and privacy factors related to the services of cloud
computing in organizational framework. In order to support the research findings the
researcher has effectively analyzed the current as well as the future scope and issues in this
article. Considering all the above aspects this paper will address all the key points which has
been discussed in this article as well as it will also provide a brief knowledge on those areas
by elaborating the research methodologies, observations as well as the findings which has
been identified by the author [2]. Lastly, it will be concluded by stating the strengths and
limitations of this study and how it may help to gain knowledge about the operation of cloud
computing.
Discussion:
According to the study it has been noticed that Cloud computing holds one of the
significant impact of the services of small as well as in the large businesses by providing
effective solution related to the fast data access, cost effectiveness as well as it helps the
organization of reduces their man power which was previously needed for information
handling. In order to effectively discuss the aspect related to the data availability, data
security, integrity the researcher has effectively discussed about the characteristics of the
cloud computing in which it has identified that cloud computing is a on demand service
which means that the customer will pay for the resources which they have utilized not for the
resources which they have not utilized yet. Followed by this it has also mentioned that cloud
is based on the concept of global data accessibility as it offers to access the required data
from anywhere any place. Along with these there are several other characteristics also present
in the services of Cloud computing which includes the resources pooling, measured services
as well as the aspect of rapid elasticity by which it can extend the resources which is essential
for the rapidly growing organizations [1]. Followed by the discussion on the characteristics it
has also discussed about the service models and the deployment models of cloud computing.
According to the studies the cloud computing holds three services model and four

2Cloud Computing
deployment models. The service models includes Software as a Service, Platform as a
Service and the Platform as a service, in which the SaaS offers to utilize the cloud
infrastructure to performs the organizational services, PaaS also works similarly by providing
the cloud platforms to the organizations however the major difference is it offers to deploy
the application into the cloud platform. Along with these IaaS offers the to utilize the cloud
infrastructure for entire computing operations which includes the utilization of cloud
operating system in order to deploy the application for organizational use [2]. Followed by
this four service model includes the private cloud, community cloud, public cloud, hybrid
cloud, in which the private cloud offers the accessibility to the cloud only to an organization,
Community cloud offers the accessibility of cloud services among a group of organization
which are internally connected however physically separated. Along with that the public
cloud offers an open accessibility as well as the hybrid cloud offers the cloud services by
combining three of the cloud deployment models [3]. Followed by the above aspects in the
selected paper it has effectively discussed about the threats related to the services of cloud
computing which has been identified by analyzing the previous organizational activities as
well as by analyzing the reviews. Those threats includes the data loss, infective insiders, as
well as the DoS attacks in which the researcher has discussed that since the organizations are
effectively utilizing the cloud services in order to store and manage their data there is a
significant risk present related to its data privacy as by analyzing the market threats it has
been noticed that any sort of cyber-attack significantly harm the information resource. Along
with that the study has also stated that there is a significant risk present related to the data loss
as if any attack happens the attacker can permanently delete the organizational data thus,
from this analysis the researcher has stated that there is a significant impact related to its data
privacy and loss [4]. Along with that while discussing the security issue of the cloud
operations one of the impactful concept of cloud computing has been accounted by the
researcher which includes the cloud virtualization. In order to discuss about the issues related
to the cloud virtualization in this article it has been mentioned that there is a significant risk
present in the concept of virtual machines. Those threats includes the cross attack of virtual
machine, image sharing of the virtual machines as well as the hypervisor issues which
represent the attacks by which the criminal infects the targeted cloud of an organization [5].
After successfully analyzing the article it has been noticed that along with the discussion
about the issues present in cloud virtualization there is a detail elaboration related to the data
integrity concept of cloud computing. The investigation on the concept of data integrity
present in this article has provide a knowledge that data integrity stands to protect the

3Cloud Computing
outsource information from the unauthorized access as well as the unauthorized modification.
In order to support the research the author has evidently classified the issues of data integrity
which include the data loss or data manipulation, unauthorized access of the stored data by
the cyber criminals as well as the performance of the untrusted remote server [6]. Along with
the identification of the limitation in this article it has also discussed about the protection of
data integrity in the cloud application which includes the utilization of the MAC algorithm
which will opt to protect the data by encrypting the information present in the cloud.
Followed by this it has also recommended to operate the stored information by the human
interaction as the automatic technique needs an expert supervision order to avoid the
unauthorized operations. Followed by providing the protection to the concept of data integrity
this paper has also described the aspects of data availability in the cloud operation as in case
if any failure in the cloud server can cause a significant issue in the data availability [8].
Along with that the concept of the data availability. It has been also discussed that there is
significant issue present related to the data confidentiality as the data stored in the cloud is
always handled by the third party thus, the confidentiality issue is still there. Along with that
it has also provided a knowledge about the data analysis by which the data present in the
cloud is being analyzed for any organizational purpose however, the utilization of user data
without concerning with the owner of the information causes a significant issue related to the
data confidentiality [7]. Along with the identification of the issues related to the data
confidentiality it has also provided a mitigation process in which it has mentioned that by
incorporating advance access control as well as the incorporation of the encryption key can
help to mitigate the identified risk as due to the incorporation of the encryption process the
sender and the receiver will only have key to access the information which is present in the
cloud. Followed by the above aspects the researcher has lastly concluded by stating that
incorporation of cloud computing into the business platform has several benefits related to
the data sharing as well as the information management however, there are several limitations
are also there which needs to be effectively mitigate by the mentioned approaches in order to
reduce the threat factors present in the services of cloud computing which will effectively
enhance the services of cloud computing relate to the data security, privacy, information
integrity, information availability as well as the data confidentiality.
Conclusion:
After a successful investigation on the selected article it can be concluded that the
researcher has effectively discussed the targeted topic in which it has addressed all the key

4Cloud Computing
aspects which needs to the elaborated in order to get a complete overview on the service of
cloud computing. However, the fundamental focus are of the article was to concentrate on the
data security, privacy, information integrity, information availability as well as the data
confidentiality it can be state that the author has effectively discussed all the points which is
essential for elaborating the targeted focus area. Hence, a successful analysis of this paper
will surely meet all the aspects which needs to be addressed in order to elaborate the
limitations of the services of Cloud Computing.

5Cloud Computing
Reference:
[1]M Ahmed, MA Hossain. Cloud computing and security issues in the cloud. International
Journal of Network Security & Its Applications. 2014 Jan 1;6(1):25.
[2]S Aldossary, W Allen. Data security, privacy, availability and integrity in cloud
computing: issues and current solutions. International Journal of Advanced Computer
Science and Applications. 2016 Apr 1;7(4):485-98.
[3]M Almorsy,J Grundy, I Müller. An analysis of the cloud computing security problem.
arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01107. 2016 Sep 5.
[4]M García-Valls,T Cucinotta, C Lu. Challenges in real-time virtualization and predictable
cloud computing. Journal of Systems Architecture. 2014 Oct 1;60(9):726-40.
[5]K Hashizume, DG Rosado, E Fernández-Medina, EB Fernandez. An analysis of security
issues for cloud computing. Journal of internet services and applications. 2013 Dec 1;4(1):5.
[6] R Jain, S Paul. Network virtualization and software defined networking for cloud
computing: a survey. IEEE Communications Magazine. 2013 Nov;51(11):24-31.
[7]RV Rao, K Selvamani. Data security challenges and its solutions in cloud computing.
Procedia Computer Science. 2015 Jan 1;48:204-9.
[8]MD Ryan. Cloud computing security: The scientific challenge, and a survey of solutions.
Journal of Systems and Software. 2013 Sep 1;86(9):2263-8.
[9]Y Sun, J Zhang, Y Xiong, G Zhu. Data security and privacy in cloud computing.
International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. 2014 Jul 16;10(7):190903.

6Cloud Computing