Security in the Cloud Essay

Significance: This topic is important to my audience because of the increasing number of people accessing the internet. Implementing virtualization

Virtual Machine Security - Full Virtualization and Para Virtualization are two kinds of virtualization in a cloud computing paradigm. In full virtualization, entire hardware architecture is replicated virtually. However, in para virtualization, an operating system is modified so that it can be run concurrently with other operating systems. VMM Instance Isolation ensures that different instances running on the same physical machine are isolated from each other. However, current VMMs do not offer perfect isolation. Many bugs have been found in all popular VMMs that allow escaping from VM (Virtual machine). Vulnerabilities have been found in all virtualization software, which can be exploited by malicious users to bypass certain security restrictions or/and gain escalated privileges. ation software running on or being developed for cloud computing platforms presents different security challenges. It is depending on the delivery model of that particular platform. Flexibility, openness and public availability of cloud infrastructure are threats for application security. The existing vulnerabilities like Presence of trap doors, overflow problems, poor quality code etc. are threats for various attacks. Multi-tenant environment of cloud platforms, the lack of direct control over the environment, and access to data by the cloud platform vendor; are the key issues for using a cloud application. Preserving integrity of applications being executed in remote machines is an open

This survey paper first provides an overview on the current state of virtualization. Although many forms of virtualization exist, this paper will primarily focus on virtualization techniques that are used in modern data centers and clouds. In addition, this paper will discuss the security vulnerabilities brought about by different virtualization techniques. Specifically, the paper will address the forms of possible attacks on a virtualized machine, the advantages of using virtualization, and some current challenges. Lastly, the paper will present plausible solutions to the security vulnerabilities of virtualization. The solutions will incorporate theoretical defense mechanisms on the architecture and infrastructure, and examples of current virtualization security products developed by security firms.

Cloud computing security or, more simply, cloud security is an evolving sub-domain of computer security, network security, and, more broadly, information security. It refers to a broad set of policies, technologies, and controls deployed to protect data, applications, and the associated infrastructure of cloud computing.

We would like to provide the benefits of cloud computing without any troubles to propel in the direction it is designed for. This is to be achieved by preventing the owner's data from all risks associated and providing a cloud model that is more secure and efficient. The proposed model shall overcome the security risks defined by the security functions over cloud computing, as follows in (Passent M. et al., 2015):

Cloud infrastructure attacks, where the attacker tries to gain access directly to your cloud resources, such as the ability to launch containers, create functions or modify permissions. One common vector that is gaining momentum is where attackers find access keys to a cloud account that have been inadvertently posted somewhere on the internet, and use those to attack the cloud

The economic case for cloud computing is compelling and at the same time there are striking challenges in its security. The concepts of cloud computing security issues are fundamentally new and intractable. What appears new is only relative to traditional computing that has been practiced since several years. Many such security problems have been giving attention since the time-sharing era. Cloud computing providers have and can build datacenters as large due to their expertise in organizing and provisioning computational resources at

The scope of this memorandum is to develop a research project on the subject of cloud computing security and specifically the innovative ways developers are trying to secure data in the cloud. I will briefly describe the current cloud computing security structure and discuss measurement protocols that have been developed recently in order to test and measure the effectiveness of cloud security (Yesilyurt, et al.,

Firstly, the Cloud computing and virtualization add multitude of security vulnerabilities, including, virtual machine (VM) attack where a new instance of VM is continually created to try to place it in the specific target area; and the malware injection attack, where the attacker tries to inject the malware within the metadata communication between the web browser and the web server, ultimately leads to deadlock of the cloud environment. Further, session riding and hijacking is performed by the attackers by sending a small email or triggering a malicious website by tricking the users; and vendor lock-in vulnerability is related to the relationship of the cloud provider and the client, where due to various contractual obligations, the client is tied to an undeveloped vendor and gets exposed to various cloud related risks. Moreover, resource exhaustion and denial of service attacks are based on the principle of exhausting or filling up the service queues so that the environment stops responding to client requests. Extensible Markup Language (XML) signature element wrapping attack is possible when the attackers interfere the request before the transport layer service (TLS) layer, and updates or changes the request before reaching to the server. Finally, in the Sybil attack the attacker creates multiple distinct identities and pretends to be a genuine user and makes relationships with other users on the network to create multiple attack paths

The high regard to cloud computing is on the rise due to its ability to improve flexibility, expand access to data, and lower costs. Cloud computing release organizations from being required to have their hardware and software infrastructure from being acquired and maintained (Holt, Niebuhr, Aichberger, & Rosiello, 2011). On the other hand, while there is much noise being made about the benefits of cloud computing, questions have been brought up with respect to whether cloud computing is safe especially when it comes to its privacy, security, and reliability. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the different general controls and audit approaches for software and architecture, cloud computing, service-oriented architecture, and virtualization. This paper gives a summary analysis of the recent research that is available. Additionally, risks and vulnerabilities associated with public clouds, private clouds, and hybrids have also been researched. Within the research conducted, there are important examples provided. Recommendations are shown on how organizations could implement and mitigate these risks and vulnerabilities. This paper even outlines a list of IT audit tasks that focuses on a cloud computing environment due to the results of the analysis, the risks and vulnerabilities, and the mitigation controls.

The intermediary or third parties of cloud computing resources is so well-known now-a-days. These intermediaries lease a Virtual Machine to a client. A solitary physical machine can provide the functions of numerous Virtual Machines. The current paper clarifies how the existence of various VMs on a solitary physical machine be defenseless against assaults by considering the systems the authors have utilized here as the Amazon EC2 for their contextual analysis. This paper predominantly concentrates on an issue that leads to inter channel information disclosure or leaks (which might happen for the

One of the most important issues related to cloud security risks is data integrity. The data stored in the cloud may suffer from damage during transition operations from or to the cloud storage provider. Cachinet al. give examples of the risk of attacks from both inside and outside the cloud provider, such as the recently attacked Red Hat Linux’s distribution

Over the past several years the term cloud computing has become common in homes and organizations alike. Cloud computing can be defined as a pooled set of computing resources that are furnished via the internet. There are three types of cloud services typically available, these services are Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Organizations can benefit greatly from cloud services because they eliminate the need to buy and manage physical resources. Although such an action cuts cost it leaves organization victim to the vulnerabilities and threats that exist in cloud computing. Throughout this paper I will discuss the vulnerabilities and threats that come

The VMM and hypervisor software layer provides security challenges that should be addressed in order to protect resources and data within virtualization. For example, this additional layer of technology opens up new paths which an attacker can use to break into and interrupt a system or network. The VMM can also be a single point of failure in a virtualized environment [1, pp. 33]. If the VMM is compromised, then the virtual environment managed by the VMM could be compromised as well.

Cloud computing has become so famous; there is much widespread news about the cloud these days. This is mainly because of the exponential shift of the business applications from traditional models of software towards the Internet, and now through mobile devices. Cloud computing is a model that uses the network of remote servers that has been hosted on the internet rather than on a specific hardware. This would enable a better shared pool for storing, accessing and processing of data. With the huge information being available in the internet, the security for cloud computing has been challenging and this paper would elucidates the security threats of cloud computing also stating the possible countermeasures for them.