enterprisesecuritymag

What are the Security Challenges in Cloud Computing?

Enterprise Security Magazine | Monday, September 30, 2019

Much emphasis is being put in maintaining the security level of the data that are stored so that it fulfills every rule and regulation of the government as well as the organization's internal policies.

FREMONT, CA: The increasing level of data volumes has made data handling the talk of the town. Companies are moving towards the cloud, which has increased the chances of safety and security and has reduced the risk of data hacking or breaching. With the cloud, people do not have to invest in hardware and software, but they can also gain flexibility and data agility. However, the cloud is shared by many users, thus making security a matter of concern for the cloud owners.

The cloud vendors put a layer of security for the user's data, but it is still not enough as the privacy of the data can be at risk. There are many types of attacks that range from password guessing and man-in-the-middle attacks to shoulder surfing, phishing attacks, and insider attacks. Here are some of the security challenges that are present within the cloud.

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1. Data Protection and Misuse

When various organizations use the cloud for storing their valuable data, the risk of data misuse often increases. For avoiding such risks, companies need to secure the data repositories immediately. However, to achieve this, users can make use of data authentication and restrict access control for their cloud's data.

2. Locality

In the world of cloud, data is often distributed over a series of the region, and it becomes a challenge to find the precise location of the data storage. The information is also moved from one country to another due to which the rules regarding the data storage also changes, bringing compliance issues and data privacy laws in the matter related to the data stored within the cloud. The cloud service providers must inform their users about the data storage laws and the exact location of the data storage server.

3. Integrity

The system has to be assembled in such a manner that it provides security and also access restrictions. In other words, only authorized persons must have access to data. In the cloud environment, it is necessary to maintain the data integrity for avoiding any valuable data loss. Besides restricting the entrance, the permissions granted to make changes in data must also be limited to specific people, so that companies do not suffer from widespread access problem in the future.

4. Access

In the long-run, data security policies regarding the access and control of data are essential. The authorized data owners can give their employees access to a part of the cloud so that they can have entrance to only that portion of the data stored within the data mart. When the companies start to control and restrict access to the data, the security of the data stored will automatically increase.

5. Confidentiality

There are many sensitive data that is stored in the cloud, and this type of data has to have extra layers of security so that the chances of breaches and phishing attacks are reduced. The providers and organizations can only maintain the safety of the data, and however, as a precaution, data confidentiality must be the priority for them.

6. Breaches

Data breaches within the cloud is a common factor. The hackers have the potential to breach security boundaries within the cloud and steal the data that may be considered as confidential for the companies. On the other hand, the breach can also be an internal attack, so it is essential for the organizations to track the actions of their employees to avoid any unwanted cyber attack.

7. Storage

The companies stores their data, and it is available virtually. For the service providers, it is vital to store their data in physical infrastructures, and this makes the data vulnerable and open for physical attacks.

Some security issues come as a part of the cloud environment. However, those issues are not difficult to overcome with the full range of technology available these days.

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