Table 6- 2 Different cloud service applications with different security management
focus
Information
security focus
SaaS
PaaS
IaaS
Key
management
area
Application
process for end
users and
enterprise users
Deployment and
trusteeship of
platform and tool
development
As the virtual infrastructure
for service delivery (e.g.,
CPU , storage)
Responsibility Operators and
service providers
own security
management
responsibility
Operators and
users own
security
management
responsibility
Operators or service
providers are responsible
for security management of
network and cloud platform;
users responsible for the
security of their own
business systems.
Source: Deloitte, cloud computing security and privacy considerations, CACS Oceania 2012
Reports by the research institutions indicate that security concerns are the main reasons
that cloud applications are not widely adopted. When the enterprises and organizations are
making policy decision to proceed, they not only need to evaluate the operation models, but
also need to consider the security risks that the particular application clouds may have. For
the business model that the risks are confirmed to be high or uncontrollable, it is suggested
that private clouds are used instead of the public cloud for their key operations.
The following discussed the cloud application security domain in the field of communications.
The main cloud application in communication is to treat cloud computing as the extension of
the next generation data center. The software and hardware for cloud computing include the
server, storage, backup equipment, network, and key technologies. Virtualization and
automation technology are all part of the data center.
Table 6- 3 Potential Threats of Cloud Computing
Features of Cloud Computing
Security Threats
Information and outsourcing
1.
Privacy leakage
2.
Data leakage
3.
Password leakage
Multi-tenant & shared-domain
1.
Difficulty in establishing trust,
management, and maintenance
2.
More complex service authorization and
domain control
3.
Cloud abuse of anti-government,
obscene, and phishing messages
Virtualization
1.
Via renting of massive virtualization
services made cyber attacks more
powerful and harder to find
2.
Housing of different virtualization users
on the same hardware allowed
malicious user to conduct side-channel
attack via shared resources
Source: cloud computing system security issues "Gui Xiaolin, 2011
