topic- wireless security in cloud computing

Wireless Security In Cloud computing

Alwa Sandhya Reddy

IST 8101

Master of Science in Information Systems Technology

Wilmington University

July 2018

Conflicting results

This paper finds that cloud computing has indeed helped to transform businesses and processes across sectors. It has now been easy, efficient and cost-effective to do business since people are connected and communication is fast than ever before. Virtualization and the internet of things have contributed to the further revolution of the corporate sector. Therefore it can be argued that indeed cloud computing is a vast technological achievement; it is a mixture of varied technological components and models which then is a key enabler for a lot of future advancements. However, it is also true that these complexities come with a wide range of security issues as well. The unique features of cloud make it a key enabler of advancements but also a cause of threats and trust issues.

This paper finds that cloud has transformed businesses but has also put them in grave danger than ever before. For example, it is worthwhile to consider the fact that the cloud is indeed a multi-tenant third party phenomenon thus it does not have transparency. Cloud also lacks user control which is very risky since third parties are responsible for managing the data. Service providers may end up sub-contracting aspects of the resources to parties that have questionable trust levels. Another issue of concern is the fact that technical control is bestowed upon the service provider which means that customer data is under the management of third parties who may do anything they wish with it. Thus if an organization is inside a cloud environment its data might not be very secure which then puts it at information risk which may impact the business negatively.

Also while users have permissions and rights with regard to their data management concerns within the cloud environments it is true that they do not have the technical control power over this data, thus it can be argued that they have the right but they lack the power to make decisions concerning how their data should be handled inside the cloud environments. This paper, therefore, finds that the regulatory framework has failed to address this gap even though it has been able to put forth a number of user rights and permissions within the cloud environments. For example, it is a right of customers to request external audits of service providers but still, the providers have the technical capabilities to control logging and auditing as well as verification. Therefore it is difficult to comprehend if indeed cloud has helped to transform businesses or if it has made them prisoners of some kind (their critical data is in the hands of untrusted people thus putting them at information risks which can cost them dearly).

Unexpected results

While the paper was based on the premise that much of the risks are due to policy gaps, the results revealed that insufficient knowledge is indeed one of the major causes. For information systems to be secure, generally all users have to be involved.For example, even if policy measures dictate that there be strong authentication, no such thing as smart cards, passwords or even biometric techniques can be successfully applied if safety practices are not followed by users for example non-disclosure of authentication details to third parties. Thus there is a need to educate users on security issues. Achieving high levels of user awareness can ensure that security plans are successful.

This paper, therefore, finds that while third-party service providers play a significant role in the success of security plans, organizations and users themselves also need to adopt best practices in data handling to ensure that these plans are successful. There is the need to come up with an awareness culture for example through seminars and campaigns.There is also the need to include a security attitude the incentive and performance program of the employer. This research answers the research questions and meets the premise of the hypothesis that by standardizing security policies and the regulatory framework, the wireless security challenges in cloud computing can indeed be tackled.