This document discusses security risks and recommendations for cloud computing. The top threats to cloud security are data breaches, data loss, account hijacking, insecure interfaces and APIs, denial of service attacks, malicious insiders, insufficient due diligence, abuse of cloud services, and shared technology vulnerabilities. Virtual machines (VMs) are also vulnerable via VM attacks between VMs on the same physical server, increased attack surface from multitenancy, and hypervisor attacks that can control all VMs and systems. The document recommends security measures like security information and event management (SIEM), identity and access management (IAM), data dispersion, data leakage prevention (DLP), bit splitting, cloud monitoring, load balancing, effective exit processes, and

1. CLOUD SECURITY
BY PURVA DUBLAY

2. CLOUD
INFRASTRUCTURE

3. THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS THE
POSSIBLE COMMUNICATION
PATHS BETWEEN FIVE ACTORS.

4. RISK ASSESSMENT IN CLOUD COMPUTING
 TOPMOST THREATS IN CLOUD COMPUTING –
 DATA BREACHES -
 DATA LOSS -
 ACCOUNT OR SERVICE TRAFFIC HIJACKING -
 INSECURE INTERFACE AND APIS –
 DENIAL OF SERVICE –
 MALICIOUS INSIDERS -
 INSUFFICIENT DUE DILIGENCE -
 ABUSE OF CLOUD SERVICES -
 SHARED TECHNOLOGY VULNERABILITIES -

5. VIRTUAL MACHINE VULNERABILITIES
 DRAWBACKS OF VIRTUAL MACHINE : -
 VM ATTACKS - CLOUD SERVER CONTAINS MORE THAN ONE VMS. ONCE VM IS
COMPROMISED, VMS ON THE SAME PHYSICAL SERVER CAN ATTACK EACH
OTHER AS THEY SHARE THE SAME RESOURCES.
 MULTITENANCY - BY DESIGN, CLOUD SHARE THE SAME SOFTWARE AND
HARDWARE SOURCE TO RUN THEIR VMS. AS A RESULT, INFORMATION LEAKAGE
AND INCREASE IN THE ATTACK SURFACE CAN OCCUR.
 HYPERVISOR ATTACKS - ATTACKER OFTEN CONSIDER HYPERVISOR AS A
POTENTIAL TARGET BECAUSE OF ITS ABILITY TO CONTROL OVER ALL INSTALLED
VMS, THE PHYSICAL SYSTEM AND THE HOSTED APPLICATIONS. EX. HYPER
JACKING, VM ESCAPE.

6. SECURITY STANDARDS RECOMMENDATIONS
 SIEM -
 Identity Access Management (IAM) –
 Data Dispersion –
 Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) –
 Bit Splitting –
 Cloud-watch -
 Load Balancer –
 Ensure Effective Exit Process –
 Disaster Recovery Plan -

7. REFRENCES
 Guidelines on Security and Privacy in Public Cloud Computing -
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-
144.pdf
 Cloud Security Alliance - https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/group/security-
as-a-service/#_downloads
 Cloud standards Customer Council - http://www.cloud-council.org/
 Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and
Organizations -
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-53r4.pdf