Free Essay on Cloud Computing Issues: Security, Privacy, and Memory

Abstract: This document focuses on various aspects of cloud computing, mainly the those related to security, privacy and memory. On the security and privacy, the paper look at several weakness of the technology, while at the same time considering the advantage of the technology in making good use of memory.

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Keywords - Cloud computing

INTRODUCTION

Cloud Computing is the provision of communications and computing-related service through a network and remote-based resources that are owned by different people or organizations that are not the user. The network usually used in this kind of computing service is the internet in most cases. In cloud computing, the services provided include a wide range of services such as software, storage, data, security and so on. Example of this service includes watching movies online, shopping at Amazon, using an email service, and using DropBox to store digital files. There are several strengths and limitations associated with cloud computing. This paper focuses on issues, such as strength and constraints on the memory, security, and privacy in cloud computing.

The popularity of cloud computing is because the technology is more promising regarding cost-effectiveness, scalability on the use by the users without the need for substantial investment in acquiring and maintaining the

required infrastructure. Cloud computing, therefore, brings significant benefits to both the users and service providers due to its characteristics. Cloud computing is enabled by virtualization, a key innovation for enabling sharing resources on the cloud. Without virtualization, the idea of cloud computing would not have been imaginable, thus, making virtualization management an essential task (Chorafas, 2011).

Since the key aspect of cloud computing is the sharing of resources and information on the internet, the confidentiality, the security and the storage capacity of the resources used is critical for effective use of cloud computing. Confidentiality of storing data is, therefore, an important alarm for assurance of the data security so that cloud computing should ensure that there is the robust privacy of data. To achieve this, the entire data migration details in the cloud are often hidden from the users. The main problem experience in cloud computing is, therefore, the security of the environment that support cloud computing service. There are various challenges in providing an entirely secure cloud computing environment, and the service itself is characterized by various security hazards representing a danger to the service.

II. SECURITY

There are several common security issues and hazards in cloud computing. These hazards include; distributed-denial-of-service attacks (DDoS; shared cloud computing service, employee negligence, data loss, and inadequate data backups; social engineering and phishing attacks and lastly system vulnerabilities.

A. DDoS

A DDoS attack is a mischievous attempt to interrupt the normal active traffic of the targeted service, network or server by overpowering or crushing the target or the infrastructure surrounding it with the congestion of internet traffic. To achieve this, DDoS uses several compromised computer system to attack the targeted traffic. Exploited computers system may include networked devices including IoT devices as well as computers themselves.

B. Shared Cloud Computing

Shared cloud computing service as a cloud computing security threats is experienced when cloud computing service and cloud hosting solutions are not equal. Several cloud solutions do not provide sufficient security between different clients, because of the sharing of applications, systems, and resources. In this case, a security threat may arise from clients who will target their fellow clients.

C. Employee Negligence

The third security threat is employee negligence. This is the number one security issue in all systems but particularly harmful in cloud solutions. In this case, employees may log in to their company's cloud system using their home computers, tablets or even smartphones this leaving the vulnerable because their gadget may not have sufficient security protection similar to those of corporate organization.

D. Data Loss and Inadequate Backup of Data

The fourth security threat arises from Data Loss and Inadequate backup of data. This has made many cloud users to be victims of ransomware. In ransomware, the data of users are locked in encrypted files and can only be accessed after the company makes ransom payment for the attackers so that data is released.

E. Phishing and Social Engineering

The fifth security threat is phishing and social engineering where the attackers malicious obtain cloud computing login information of the user or other sensitive, confidential information that can later be used to break into the system with little difficulty. Lastly, cloud computing faces several system vulnerabilities caused by the complexity of the infrastructure used as well as several third-party platforms that facilitate the provision of the service.

III: PRIVACY

The second issue of discussion in this paper concerning cloud computing is the issue of data privacy stored in the cloud. Since almost all aspects of information communication technology are affected by cloud computing (Tajts, 2012). There are two main privacy threats that can be seen. The first threat is the loss of control over data, the second arises from the fact that cloud computing provider easily has access to data that they store on behalf of their clients. These two issues have the potentiality of leading to many legal and security concerns related to access control, overdependence on cloud computing providers, identity management, infrastructure, legislative and regulatory compliance, logging and auditing, and integrity control.

Loss of Data Control

There are many issues in cloud computing concerning the loss of data control. In this case, customers, though aware of the danger, let their data be controlled and stored by outside providers of cloud computing service. As a result of this, the privacy of the data is compromised by the cloud service providers or other competitive third parties which may use the service providers to acquire the data from the service provider against the wishes of the owners of the data (Omar, n.d). The second problem associated with the bridge of privacy is the fact that many cloud computing providers often undertake data mining techniques with the aim of analysing the data. This is a sensitive activity since users usually process and store sensitive data while using a cloud computing service. This is especially common in social media where the services providers tend to encourage users to share much of their private information including their place of residence, likes, dislikes, and photos. This information is often sold to advertisers who specifically target the users themselves. This information can as well be used by malicious people to harm the users.

The other privacy concern in the use of cloud computing loss of data control regards to the deletion of data. One of the problems with cloud computing usage is that it is difficult to delete all electronic data because it is almost impossible to find all copies. It is, therefore, impossible to assure users of the complete removal of their data when deleted. The users of cloud computing should always know that once they use cloud computing to process or store their data, those data may never get out of the system ("Conclusions: Perspectives Of Trustworthy Cloud Computing," 2016). The last but not the least problem in the loss of control of data arise from the problem that services providers often operate internationally and that the data privacy and protection legislation is always not similar in many countries (In Pearson & In Yee, 2013). As a result, the legislation concerning data privacy and protection may only be applicable in countries where the cloud computing providers who have their servers within the country and may not apply if the servers are stationed in different jurisdictions.

Overdependence on Cloud data Provider

The second aspect concerning data privacy is too much dependence on cloud service provider for their data. As a result, the data stored are only available as long as the service provider is available. If the service provider stops providing service or becomes bankrupt, the customer will eventually experience a problem in using the stored data, since the data may be inaccessible ("Towards a Quantitative Model of Cloud Computing Risks and Benefits," 2016). Lastly, most free cloud service providers such as GoogleDoc hardly include any form of contract between the users and the service providers. As a result, customers have nothing to use it as a ground for complaining in case a problem arises.

III . MEMORY

The third and the last issues of discussion in this paper concerning cloud computing is memory usage.

Large Amount of Memory for Storage

Perhaps the main advantage of cloud computing era is the availability of indefinite amount of memory for documents storage at a relatively lower cost compared to buying and installing own infrastructure necessary for storage (Weinman, 2012). As a result of these, use often enjoys an unlimited amount of memory to store their data. Data that takes a lot of storage space such as videos can easily be stored online, and be retrieved any time, or even used online without the data being downloaded to the user's computers.

Availability of Backup

The other advantage cloud computing storage is that there are several backups available for the users. This is because cloud providers have backup services that can be used if the primary server is not working. As a result, the user need not worry because each time they use the same; multiple copies are generated, stored differently and updated every time the user makes some changes in their data (Hugos & Hulitzky, 2011).

With the current trend towards cloud computing, many computer service providers are offering cloud storage facilities to their customers. The computer operating system providers such as Microsoft windows have turned towards cloud computing for their product users. This has become of much benefit to users who in the past used to experience data loss when their computer crashes (In Munir & IGI Global, 2017). In the previous years, before the invention of cloud computing people had travel with heavy hardware such as laptops so that they can access their data whenever they want. The problem though was that such hardware was hardly reliable because they were prone to damage, or could be stolen. In the case of such instances, the data world is lost forever (Marinescu, 2013). However, with cloud

computing, things are now much easy for users who can access and process their data on the cloud using Smartphone that are easily portable, while at the same time, the loss of such gadgets no longer poses any problem to the accessibility of the data, because cloud storage facilities can be accessed and used by any gadget.

IV. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it is clear that the impact of cloud computing has a great impact on the users. There is the countless advantage of using cloud computing compared to the traditional computing system where data were stored and processed offline on the user's computers. On the contrary there exist several weaknesses and limitations of using such technology, especially when it comes to the security and privacy of data usage.