Are Cloud Applications and Data more Vulnerable to Attacks?
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The document discusses the security vulnerabilities associated with cloud applications and data, emphasizing that while cloud computing offers significant data transportation capabilities, it also exposes data in storage to increased risks of attacks. It highlights the challenges posed by different cloud service models, particularly IaaS, due to their inherent freedoms and potential for misuse. Recommendations include focusing on protective measures for storage servers and considering the implications of virtualization on security.
Are Cloud Applications and Data more Vulnerable to Attacks?
- 1. Are Cloud Applications and Data more Vulnerable to Attacks? Cloud computing is a trillion dollar business to eliminate organizational IT Storage infrastructures. And “The Cloud” has a great capacity for transporting terabytes of data at very fast speed. The risks are dependent on the security risks’ assessment, mitigation, and response, i.e., Disaster Recovery Plan, Number of Data Centers’ accesses and locations, Fallback Recovery and or Protection systems, and Regulatory Compliance Measures. By Sonia Usih 1
- 2. Once a Cloud internet communication protocol is established, it is possible to share services of Client’s Application, Platform, Infrastructure, and Server, including all Data (information). “Data in storage” of the Cloud environments are more “Vulnerable to Attacks.” Explained in the Technet magazine in July 2013 by Dan C. Marinescu, Professor of Computer Science, http://technet.microsoft.com/en- us/magazine/dn271884.aspx “The most significant challenge is security…Highly sensitive applications related to critical infrastructure management, health-care applications and others will most likely be hosted by private clouds … The Software as a Service (SaaS) model faces similar challenges as other online services required to protect private information, such as financial or health-care services … Still, such services are vulnerable to DoS attacks and malicious insiders. Data in storage is most vulnerable to attack, so devote special attention to protecting storage servers. The data replication necessary to ensure continuity of service in case of storage system failure increases vulnerability. Data encryption may protect data in storage, but eventually data must be decrypted for processing. Then it’s exposed to attack … The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model is by far the most challenging to defend against attacks. Indeed, an IaaS user has much more freedom than the other two cloud delivery models. An additional source of concern is that the considerable cloud resources could be used to initiate attacks against the network and the computing infrastructure … Virtualization is a critical design option for this model, but it exposes the system to new sources of attack. The trusted computing base (TCB) of a virtual environment includes not only the hardware and the hypervisor but also the management OS. You can save the entire state of a virtual machine (VM) to a file to allow migration and recovery … Yet this possibility challenges the strategies to bring the servers belonging to an organization to a desirable and stable state. Indeed, an infected VM can be inactive By Sonia Usih 2
- 3. when the systems are cleaned up. Then it can wake up later and infect other systems. This is another example of the deep intertwining of desirable and undesirable effects of basic cloud computing technologies.” By Sonia Usih 3