Research Report on Security Threats and Preventive Methods in Cloud

This report identifies and discusses several security threats prevalent in cloud computing environments, along with methods to prevent them. The threats covered include data breaches, cloud abuse, malware attacks, and data loss. Data breaches involve unauthorized access and retrieval of data, preventable through reliable cloud providers and encryption. Cloud abuse arises from insecure registration processes in IaaS, addressable via authorized registration and fraud monitoring. Malware attacks exploit the cloud's visibility and exposure, countered by supply chain management and security mechanism visibility. Data loss, stemming from deletion or unreliable storage, can be mitigated with API security, SSL encryption, and data integrity checks. The report references academic sources to support its findings and recommendations. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: SECURITY THREATS AND PREVENTIVE METHODS IN CLOUD COMPUTING
Security Threats and Preventive Methods In Cloud Computing
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1SECURITY THREATS AND PREVENTIVE METHODS IN CLOUD COMPUTING
There are various benefits of cloud computing but there also exists some threats. Some of
the major threats are listed below along with the way by which this threats can be eliminated.
1. Data Breach: This incident involves the unauthorized or illegal viewing of the data of an
individual or a system or a service along with accessing and retrieval of the data. The
main aim of this attack is to steal or publish the data in an unsecured location or in an
illegal location (Chang, Kuo & Ramachandran, 2016). This can be prevented by selecting
a proper and reliable cloud provider and by installing proper encryption system so as to
ensure data security.
2. Cloud abuse: IaaS or Infrastructure as a service is one of the cloud functionality which is
associated with providing various types of services does not have any secure registration
process which means anyone is capable of sighing up for the cloud if they have proper
credit card and this initially leads to cloud networks becoming victims of malicious
attacks and many more (Khalil, Khreishah & Azeem, 2014). Prevention can be done by
following authorized registration and validation process, preventing frauds by mean of
proper monitoring of the credit card processes, keeping an eye on the blacklisted staffs
for a network.
3. Malware attacks: Because of less visibility and high exposure of the cloud networks it has
been seen that the cloud networks are prone to malware attacks (Ali, Khan & Vasilakos,
2015). This can be prevented by means of proper planning of forced authorized supply
chain management, including of human resource requirements in the legal contracts,
proper visibility of the security mechanism and compliance.
4. Loss of data: This happens due to deletion, alteration, unlinking a record and storing of
the data in the reliable mediums. This might lead to loss of data, reputation, customer’s

2SECURITY THREATS AND PREVENTIVE METHODS IN CLOUD COMPUTING
trust and many more (Chang, Kuo & Ramachandran, 2016). Prevention is possible by
enforcing the powerful API security, securing of the data by using SSL encryption,
checking of the integrity of the time duration for running data and also the time for
designing and lastly by exploring the backups and collections clans of the provider.

3SECURITY THREATS AND PREVENTIVE METHODS IN CLOUD COMPUTING
References:
Ali, M., Khan, S. U., & Vasilakos, A. V. (2015). Security in cloud computing: Opportunities and
challenges. Information sciences, 305, 357-383.
Chang, V., Kuo, Y. H., & Ramachandran, M. (2016). Cloud computing adoption framework: A
security framework for business clouds. Future Generation Computer Systems, 57, 24-41.
Inukollu, V. N., Arsi, S., & Ravuri, S. R. (2014). Security issues associated with big data in
cloud computing. International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications, 6(3), 45.
Khalil, I. M., Khreishah, A., & Azeem, M. (2014). Cloud computing security: A
survey. Computers, 3(1), 1-35.