On Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing (CC) gained a widespread acceptance as a paradigm of computing. The main aim of CC is to reduce the need for customers' investment in new hardware or software by offering flexible cloud services, with a user reaping the benefits of the pay per use approach. CC demands addressing many security and privacy issues: both problems (vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks) and solutions (controls). The thesis discusses all these classes of problems and solutions, categorizing them as either security-related issues, privacy-related issues, or intertwined security and privacy issues. The main contributions of the thesis are twofold: first, using the above categorization of the issues; and second, the literature review of the security and privacy issues in CC within the categorization framework. The major lessons learned during this research include confirmation of the decisive role that security and privacy solutions play and will continue to play in adopting CC by customers; understanding numerous vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks; and identifying controls for these problems. In addition, the sheer number of references to trust (in both problems and solutions), demonstrated a significant role of trust in CC.