According to Cloud Computing Security, authored by Danish Jamil and Hassan Zaki (4 April 2011), the cloud is relatively new to our generation. Cloud computing has helped shape our technological dependent lives for the better. Cloud computing is an internet based technology that allows users and businesses to share resources with friends and coworkers and also allow accessibility remotely. This technology helps eliminate the need for physical maintenance of local machines and data.
There are three variations of cloud computing:
Software as a service (SaaS) – SaaS providers host applications in their own data centers and allow paying users to access those applications.
Platform as a service (PaaS) – PaaS providers provide development environments for paying users over the internet.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – IaaS providers provide the hardware and software that users need over the internet.
Just like networks and computing systems, cloud computing is open to attacks. Distributive denial of service (Ddos) and man in the middle attacks are just a few of the ways hackers can attack the cloud. Some more advanced attacks that could cripple services are SQL attacks, buffer overflow attacks and network sniffing. All of the listed attacks can lead to stolen data or loss of data integrity and unfortunately some of these attacks are very easy to perform by novice hackers.
The following are considered high risk in cloud computing:
Loss of governance – The customer hands control over to the cloud provider on some security issues and this could lead to a gap in defenses.
Lock In – Once a customer picks a cloud provider, that customer is virtually locked in to an agreement with the provider. Since there are no reforms or easy ways to transfer data between providers, it’s virtually impossible to switch.
Data Protection – Since the data is handled by another company, it is hard for users to check the integrity and data handling procedures to make sure everything is lawful and correct.
Insecure or incomplete data deletion – If you want to delete your cloud data, you have to put in a request and trust that the third party will follow procedure to delete it.
Private clouds can be formed to increase security measures(Jamil & Zaki, 2011). Private clouds allow companies to bridge their infrastructure to the infrastructure of the providers and this would greatly enhance the security of the cloud. To secure your data and infrastructure, you want to do the following, identify assets that need to be protected, identify what threats exist and identify what counter measures can be used.
Virtual private networks (VPN) and Virtual local area networks (VLAN) can be used to provide counter measures to attacks. Strong encryption and firewalls are advanced counter measures for protecting data. The listed defenses are imperative for the protection of data and should be used whenever possible.
Cloud computing is a technological breakthrough that more and more users adopt every day. Using the cloud allows users and companies to become more efficient in accessing and changing data as well as saving and backing up the data. The main benefits of cloud computing are reduced Cost, increased Storage, highly Automated, flexibility and more Mobility.
Cloud computing provides great benefits but it also provides flaws. Security of the data is the main flaw. The data is prone to attacks if the security measures and procedures are not followed. The speed of your connection can play a big role in security and accessibility of your data. Even if cloud computing has security flaws, the benefits outweigh the flaws in flexibility and lower cost of infrastructure.
Reference Page
Jamil, D., & Zaki, H. (2011). Cloud computing security . International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology , 3(4), 3478-3483. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.dtcc.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&sid=198fc4ce-8524-4850-9c7d-d2ff6028b8d0@sessionmgr14&hid=10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
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