Cyber Security and Ethical Hacking: Cloud Computing Risks Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of cyber security and ethical hacking, focusing on the vulnerabilities and advantages of cloud computing. It begins by emphasizing the importance of protecting confidential data against the increasing threat of cyber attacks, highlighting the role of software and cloud computing in mitigating these risks. The report explores the benefits of cloud computing, such as reduced hardware costs and enhanced collaboration, while also addressing its drawbacks, including security concerns, service changes, and internet reliability issues. It further examines security risks like data breaches, loss of intellectual property, and contractual breaches. The report also provides measures to safeguard computer systems against attacks, including data backup, employee training, antivirus software, and system updates, and concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the significance of cyber security in the digital age. The report also includes a brief discussion on ransomware attacks and methods to protect against them.

Cyber Security and Ethical
Hacking

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY:.................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION:...............................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
In present era it is very important for organisation to protect confidential data and
information. Cyber attacks are becoming very popular these days. They attack the system with
malicious activity and damages the entire network. So in order to protect system certain software
have to installed. These software's detect and remove malicious activities. Besides this, a
common term is used known as cloud computing (Nocetti, 2017). It is a software that is very
useful in protecting the system from cyber attack. It upgrades and manages software off the site.
This helps in reducing the cost of hardware and increasing the efficiency of network. This report
will show benefits and drawbacks of cloud computing and security risk involved with this. Also,
how ransomware named as Wanna Cry attacked the global systems.
MAIN BODY:
The digital world must be protected against various cyber attacks that can occur anytime.
These attacks harms and damages entire system and steals sensitive and confidential information.
So organisation needs some software to protect their network. Cloud computing is now emerged
as a software for providing hosted services over internet. It enables companies to use application
or storage for building a network. In this company do not have to maintain computing
infrastructure in house . There are many cloud services providers that gives these services.
Benefits :-
Reduced support and hardware needs- By using cloud computing there is no need of
upgrading the systems frequently. Apart from this a cloud computing infrastructure requires
small staff to manage resources (Conteh, and Schmick, 2016). This reduces cost of company.
Anywhere, anytime collaboration- It creates a network that can be accessed anytime and
anywhere with a wi fi. This makes possible to collaborate employee with organisation. Also, it
helps in sharing videos, messages and files.
A green choice- They are very environmental friendly. As few resources and infrastructure is
required, it consumes less electricity. Also, large service providers optimise less energy. This
overall contributes in saving the environment. Thus,
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Drawbacks:-
Security and availability- The main drawback of cloud computing is security measures.
Although it can not be easily breached, but human errors can be possible for breaking security
measures. Along with this, cloud service needs highly experienced experts to manage them. So
organisation prefers to use traditional IT management.
Change in services- The service providers often change their services due to change in
technology. So with a sudden change in service it becomes difficult for business to deal with it.
Also, these changes occurs frequently making business to back up and extract data accordingly
(Mirkovic and et..al 2015).
Not a reliable internet service- Organisation needs more bandwidth with increase in their
operations. But sometimes, cloud computing fails due to poor internet network. If organisation is
already having good internet access and speed then there is no use of cloud computing.
There are many benefits of using cloud computing. It helps in reducing business expenses
as very little infrastructure is required. Also, it helps in connecting with company anytime and
anywhere. For example- if any employee is working outside organisation and if he wants to share
any information with company than, he can access network easily. Also, if there is an urgent
meeting called by management than it can be done through video conferencing. This increased
efficiency in business operations and improving performance of employees.
Furthermore, a virtual private network (VPN) is created that allows only people
connected with organisation to access that network. This makes it easy for everyone to share
information (McAlaney, Taylor and Faily, 2016). Also, a person is given authorised access to
enter in this network. Cloud computing reduces the requirements of hardware components. This
results in reducing cost and increasing profits of business. Moreover, there is no need of
managing and updating software and system as cloud computing automatically do all this. This
saves time and cost. A VPN restricts unauthorised access and reduces chances of cyber attack.
All people are provided unique ID and password. So no one can access other person ID. These
all are benefits that are provided by using cloud services.
There are different security risks involved in cloud computing. This can lead to loss of
sensitive information or data on the network.
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Loss of intellectual property- companies store confidential data on cloud. So while sharing
files, cyber attack can occur in between leading to breach of data. Besides this, services can also
be breached if terms and conditions are not followed.
Loss of control over user- Employee using cloud services may download or access information
with unauthorised access. This will lead to sharing of sensitive data over the network. For
example- a sales employee before resigning may download all customer data.
Contractual breaches- Business deals with suppliers, partners, etc. so they can restrict the data
into network. This will lead to breaching of contract and leading to legal action (Nocetti, 2017).
PART 2
Measures taken to safeguard computer against attacks that are caused by legacy software without
updates.
When ransomware attacks the system it can be protected by taking various measures.
First of all taking back up of data will protect sensitive information from getting leaked. So if
any data is lost it will be easy for organisation to retrieve that data. Also, providing training to
employees about different cyber attacks and its security measures. It will be very helpful for
organisation to secure their system from cyber attacks. Also, employee will know what actions
have to be taken in case of any cyber attack (Mirkovic and et..al 2015).
If there is an option of software update then computer can be safeguard from malicious
attacks by taking measures like using anti virus software before and after updating software. It
will detect malicious activities and remove them. Moreover, system can installed with fingerprint
scanners. This will protect and secure the computer. Besides this, system can be updated with the
latest software to reduce chances of malware attack. This will make system design in such a way
that it can easily detect malware. Patches can applied to reduce impact of attack.
CONCLUSION:
From this report it is concluded that cyber attacks are major issue in cloud computing.
Also, cyber attacks harms and damages entire system and steals sensitive and confidential
information. Cloud computing is now emerged as a software for providing hosted services over
internet.
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REFERENCES:
Books and Journals:
Conteh, N.Y. and Schmick, P.J., 2016. Cybersecurity: risks, vulnerabilities and countermeasures
to prevent social engineering attacks. International Journal of Advanced Computer
Research.6(23). p.31.
McAlaney, J., Taylor, J. and Faily, S., 2016. The social psychology of
cybersecurity. Psychologist.29(9). pp.686-689.
Mirkovic and et..al 2015. Evaluating Cybersecurity Education Interventions: Three Case
Studies. IEEE Security & Privacy.13(3). pp.63-69.
Nocetti, J., 2017. The cybersecurity dilemma: hacking, trust, and fear between nations.
Online:
Cloud Computing security risk, 2018. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.skyhighnetworks.com/cloud-security-blog/9-cloud-computing-security-risks-
every-company-faces/>
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