Traditional Security

These concerns involve computer and network intrusions or attacks that will be made possible or at least easier by moving to the cloud. Cloud providers respond to these concerns by arguing that their security measures and processes are more mature and tested than those of the average company.  Another argument, made by the Jericho Forum is:  "It could be easier to lock down information if it's administered by a third party rather than in-house, if companies are worried about insider threats… In addition, it may be easier to enforce security via contracts with online services providers than via internal controls".

Concerns in this category include:

Traditional security Threat #1. VM-level attacks

VM-Level Attacks

 Potential vulnerabilities in the hypervisor or VM technology used by cloud vendors are a potential problem in multi-tenant architectures.  Vulnerabilities have appeared in VMWare, Xen, and Microsoft’s Virtual PC and Virtual Server. Vendors such as Third Brigade mitigate potential VM-level vulnerabilities through monitoring and firewalls.

Fear of Security in Clouds

Organizations are rapidly turning to the Cloud to reduce costs, provide greater flexibility and quickly ramp up support of business needs. But as more data, applications and infrastructure move to the Cloud, security remains a top concern. In fact, according to the Cloud Security Alliance, security is cited as the number one barrier to adoption of Cloud services among organizations.

Organizations use the Cloud in a variety of different service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) and deployment models (Private, Public, Hybrid). Regardless of how your organization leverages the Cloud, Cloud Security Threats can help your organization manage the security, risk and compliance concerns.