Security of Data in the Cloud: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report delves into the critical topic of data security within cloud computing environments. It begins by highlighting the importance of data as a vital asset for organizations, emphasizing the need to protect it from potential threats. The report explores the hesitations of companies regarding cloud adoption due to security concerns, focusing on challenges faced by Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Two primary security challenges are examined: data loss, caused by hardware failures, software corruption, human error, and malware; and data breaches, where unauthorized individuals access sensitive data. The report then outlines the measures taken by CSPs to address these challenges, including antivirus installations, regular backups, data encryption, multi-factor authentication, user education, intrusion detection and prevention, vulnerability scans, monitoring of insider behavior, systematic software patching, and data audits. The conclusion underscores the shared responsibility of organizations and CSPs in securing data and the importance of thorough research when selecting a cloud provider. The report references several research papers to support its findings.

SECURITY OF DATA IN THE CLOUD 1
Security of data in the cloud
Student’s name
University
Date

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Introduction
Data is a vital asset in each and every organization. It assists a company in decision making
when it has been processed into relevant and accurate information. In modern world where
technology has taken over, most companies entirely rely on data on their day to day operations
(Ali, Bilal, Khan, Veeravalli, Li & Zomaya, 2018). Therefore there is a need to safeguard it from
intruders especially hackers who might use it for malicious reasons.
Most companies hesitate keeping their data in cloud due to security risks which remains a top
reason as to why several organizations still doubt engaging cloud services providers. These CSPs
provide services to their customers on a leased basis since they have the infrastructure which
assist them in offering those services. Engaging CSPs has a lot of advantages but it also has
many drawbacks. CSPs are facing a lot of challenges when it comes to offering their cloud
services to their clients due to risks which comes with whole idea. Most companies are very
worried when it comes to handing over their data to CSPs questionable security.
Discussion
It is crystal clear that security of data has hampered most companies when it comes to embracing
the use of cloud computing. There are quite a number of security challenges facing CSPs, but
here I will focus on two of them: Data loss and data breaches.
a) Data loss - This is a condition whereby data is altered either when processing, during
storage, or transmission. This renders information either unavailable,
temporarily/permanently lost. According to surveys conducted, it was realized that most
data loss occurs when there is hardware or system failure. The following are also causes

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of data loss; software corruption, human errors, natural calamities, and also
viruses/malware (Thota, Sundarasekar, Manogaran, Varatharajan & Priyan, 2018).
b) Data breaches- This a situation whereby an intruder who can be a hacker gets sensitive
data or information by stealing and releasing it to unauthorized personnel. This intruder
can either access the computer physically in which data is stored or successfully bypass a
network hence compromising the security of such a system. Before this occurs, a
cybercriminal needs to do a thorough research on how to execute the task.
Survey shows that last year, roughly 1 billion people were greatly affected by data
breaches. This occurs due to: theft or loss of company’s computing or storage devices,
hacking or virus attacks and also insider leaks (Li, Zhang, Chen & Xiang, 2018).
Therefore for CSPs to guarantee security to their clients, they need to look for ways to curb the
aforementioned challenges. They have put up the following measures to avoid such scenarios;
 Installation of antiviruses in their system(s).
 Carrying out of regular backups.
 Encryption of their data.
 Use of multifactor authentication to verify the identity of a user.
 Educating their clients on how to secure their systems by avoiding falling victims of
social engineering.
 They have installed the use of intrusion detection and prevention.
 CSPs tend to perform consistent vulnerability scans to each and every system in their
network.
 Regular monitoring of insider behavior- Somebody authorized to access the system(s)
might have a bad intention hence sabotaging the tremendous effort being put in place.

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 Systematic patching of software immediately there are other options available.
 CSPs also carries out data audits in order to see if there are violations in their systems.
Conclusion
The issue of securing data is a responsibility of both the organization and CSP. It is not a one-
man show. Therefore it’s quite important to research on security of CSPs when choosing your
cloud provider. Otherwise you can reap a lot from cloud computing if their systems in place are
secure (Esposito, De Santis, Tortora, Chang & Choo, 2018).
References
Ali, M., Bilal, K., Khan, S.U., Veeravalli, B., Li, K. and Zomaya, A.Y., 2018. Drops: Division
and replication of data in cloud for optimal performance and security. IEEE Transactions on
Cloud computing, 6(2), pp.303-315.
Esposito, C., De Santis, A., Tortora, G., Chang, H. and Choo, K.K.R., 2018. Blockchain: A
panacea for healthcare cloud-based data security and privacy?. IEEE Cloud Computing, 5(1),
pp.31-37.
Li, J., Zhang, Y., Chen, X. and Xiang, Y., 2018. Secure attribute-based data sharing for resource-
limited users in cloud computing. Computers & Security, 72, pp.1-12.
Thota, C., Sundarasekar, R., Manogaran, G., Varatharajan, R. and Priyan, M.K., 2018.
Centralized fog computing security platform for IoT and cloud in healthcare system. In Fog
Computing: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 365-378). IGI Global.