ISSUES OF CLOUD SECURITY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Cloud computing provides an effective computing model for institutions to access information technology and related functions with minimal investment and makes use of the resources to the maximum extent. The reduced complexity and cost of Cloud computing has attributed to it’s popularity and success. The users of this phenomenon range from an individual customer to huge organizations. Though there has been major advances in cloud computing, the security concerns surrounding it cannot be ignored and remedial measures has to be taken to ensure the confidentiality and the integrity of data stored in the cloud. Hence, it is inevitable to obtain a thorough understanding of the risks and threats involved in cloud computing along with the possible remedies before it is implemented by any stake holder. In this paper the authors have provided a comprehensive understanding of the issues in cloud security, it’s implications and the various remedial measures to address the same. A critical observation of the security of cloud is undertaken from the perspective of the cloud architecture, cloud stakeholder and cloud characteristics. The prime security issues that have been scrutinized in this paper include the security with respect to cloud carrier, malware injection problem, accountability problems in cloud, challenges in cloud integrity, securing data transmission in cloud, elasticity, cloud multi-tenancy, service level agreement and compromise on the integrity of the information in cloud. The possible counter measures to these issues have also been highlighted in this paper. There are number of unresolved issues that need to be dealt with respect to security and privacy in a cloud computing environment. This paper aims to elaborate and analyze the numerous threats faced and also provide solutions for most of the mentioned problems.