Ontology-based access control model for security policy reasoning in cloud computing

There are many security issues in cloud computing service environments, including virtualization, distributed big-data processing, serviceability, traffic management, application security, access control, authentication, and cryptography, among others. In particular, data access using various resources requires an authentication and access control model for integrated management and control in cloud computing environments. Cloud computing services are differentiated according to security policies because of differences in the permitted access right between service providers and users. RBAC (Role-based access control) and C-RBAC (Context-aware RBAC) models do not suggest effective and practical solutions for managers and users based on dynamic access control methods, suggesting a need for a new model of dynamic access control that can address the limitations of cloud computing characteristics. This paper proposes Onto-ACM (ontology-based access control model), a semantic analysis model that can address the difference in the permitted access control between service providers and users. The proposed model is a model of intelligent context-aware access for proactively applying the access level of resource access based on ontology reasoning and semantic analysis method.     

Contract RBAC in cloud computing

Cloud computing is a fast growing field, which is arguably a new computing paradigm. In cloud computing, computing resources are provided as services over the Internet and users can access resources based on their payments. The issue of access control is an important security scheme in the cloud computing. In this paper, a Contract RBAC model with continuous services for user to access various source services provided by different providers is proposed. The Contract RBAC model extending from the well-known RBAC model in cloud computing is shown. The extending definitions in the model could increase the ability to meet new challenges. The Contract RBAC model can provide continuous services with more flexible management in security to meet the application requirements including Intra-cross cloud service and Inter-cross cloud service. Finally, the performance analyses between the traditional manner and the scheme are given. Therefore, the proposed Contract RBAC model can achieve more efficient management for cloud computing environments.     

Fuzzy User Access Trust Model for Cloud Access Control

Cloud computing belongs to a set of policies, protocols, technologies through which one can access shared resources such as storage, applications, networks, and services at relatively low cost. Despite the tremendous advantages of cloud computing, one big threat which must be taken care of is data security in the cloud. There are a dozen of threats that we are being exposed to while availing cloud services. Insufficient identity and access management, insecure interfaces and Applications interfaces (APIs), hijacking, advanced persistent threats, data threats, and many more are certain security issues with the cloud platform. APIs and service providers face a huge challenge to ensure the security and integrity of both network and data. To overcome these challenges access control mechanisms are employed. Traditional access control mechanisms fail to monitor the user operations on the cloud platform and are prone to attacks like IP spoofing and other attacks that impact the integrity of the data. For ensuring data integrity on cloud platforms, access control mechanisms should go beyond authentication, identification, and authorization. Thus, in this work, a trust-based access control mechanism is proposed that analyzes the data of the user behavior, network behavior, demand behavior, and security behavior for computing trust value before granting user access. The method that computes the final trust value makes use of the fuzzy logic algorithm. The trust value-based policies are defined for the access control mechanism and based on the trust value outcome the access control is granted or denied.     

A survey on security challenges in cloud computing: issues,threats, and solutions

Cloud computing has gained huge attention over the past decades because of continuously increasing demands. There are several advantages to organizations moving toward cloud-based data storage solutions. These include simplified IT infrastructure and management, remote access from effectively anywhere in the world with a stable Internet connection and the cost efficiencies that cloud computing can bring. The associated security and privacy challenges in cloud require further exploration. Researchers from academia, industry, and standards organizations have provided potential solutions to these challenges in the previously published studies. The narrative review presented in this survey provides cloud security issues and requirements, identified threats, and known vulnerabilities. In fact, this work aims to analyze the different components of cloud computing as well as present security and privacy problems that these systems face. Moreover, this work presents new classification of recent security solutions that exist in this area. Additionally, this survey introduced various types of security threats which are threatening cloud computing services and also discussed open issues and propose future directions. This paper will focus and explore a detailed knowledge about the security challenges that are faced by cloud entities such as cloud service provider, the data owner, and cloud user.

     

基于上下文和角色的云计算访问控制模型

云计算环境的开放性和动态性容易引发安全问题,数据资源的安全和用户的隐私保护面临严峻考验。针对云计算中用户和数据资源动态变化的特性,提出了一种基于上下文和角色的访问控制模型。该模型综合考虑云计算环境中的上下文信息和上下文约束,将用户的访问请求和服务器中的授权策略集进行评估验证,能够动态地授予用户权限。给出用户访问资源的具体实现过程,经分析比较,进一步阐明该模型在访问控制方面具有较为突出的优点。该方案不仅能够降低管理的复杂性,而且能限制云服务提供商的特权,从而有效地保证云资源的安全。     

Factors affecting the adoption of cloud services in enterprises

Cloud computing services offer enterprise clients many advantages such as reduced costs, easy maintenance and the easy re-provisioning of resources, thus contributing to increased profits. However, little is known about the adoption behavior of such services among enterprises. This study applies the technology–organization–environment framework to investigate determinants of cloud computing service adoption behavior. Data collected from 102 valid enterprises in Taiwan provide strong support for the model. Results indicate that technological (i.e., relative advantage, observability and security), organizational (i.e., financial costs and satisfaction with existing IS) and environmental (i.e., competition intensity) factors were positively related to intention to adopt cloud computing services, accounting for 52 % of variance. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

一种面向云计算的任务—角色访问控制模型

针对云计算模式下用户访问安全的问题, 简单分析了基于角色和任务的访问控制模型的内容, 提出了一种基于云计算的任务—角色模型。该模型通过对角色和权限进行分类, 有效地解决了访问控制模型中的管理权限问题, 使得云计算服务商的权限分配得到了进一步改进。分析结果表明, 该访问控制模型可以进一步提高客体频繁访问的效率。     

A cross-country model of contextual factors impacting cloud computing adoption at universities in sub-Saharan Africa

Cloud computing is a new computing paradigm that is revolutionizing the way we access and use computer infrastructure and services. Universities in developing countries lag behind their Western counterparts due to lack of cutting edge technology required for teaching, collaboration, and research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that impact diffusion, adoption, and usage of cloud computing at universities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). An adoption model was developed focusing on contextual factors and constructs from two technology adoption theories. Structural equation modelling was used for data analysis and model validation. Results from 355 valid responses to a survey of information and communication technology (ICT) experts and decision makers at universities in SSA indicated that socio-cultural factors, results demonstrability, usefulness, and data security significantly impact their propensity to recommend adoption of cloud computing in the universities. The implications of the findings and practical contributions are discussed.     

对象云存储中分类分级数据的访问控制方法

随着云计算技术的广泛应用,云存储中数据的安全性、易管理性面临着新的挑战.对象云存储系统是一种新型的数据存储云计算体系结构,通常用来存储具有分类分级特点的非结构化数据.在云服务不可信的前提下,如何实现对云存储中大量具有分类分级特点资源的细粒度访问控制机制,保障云存储中数据不被非法访问是云计算技术中亟需解决的问题.对近些年来国内外学者的成果进行研究,发现现有的方案并不能有效应对这种新问题.本文利用强制访问控制、属性基加密、对象存储各自的优势,并结合分类分级的属性特点,提出了一个基于安全标记对象存储访问控制模型.同时给出了CGAC算法和其安全证明,将分类分级特点的属性层级支配关系嵌入ABE机制中,生成固定长度的密文.该算法不仅访问控制策略灵活,具有层次化授权结构,还可以友好的与对象存储元数据管理机制结合.通过理论效率分析和实验系统实现,验证了所提出方案计算、通信开销都相对较小,具有很高的实际意义.     

Empirical evaluation of a cloud computing information security governance framework

ContextCloud computing is a thriving paradigm that supports an efficient way to provide IT services by introducing on-demand services and flexible computing resources. However, significant adoption of cloud services is being hindered by security issues that are inherent to this new paradigm. In previous work, we have proposed ISGcloud, a security governance framework to tackle cloud security matters in a comprehensive manner whilst being aligned with an enterprise’s strategy.ObjectiveAlthough a significant body of literature has started to build up related to security aspects of cloud computing, the literature fails to report on evidence and real applications of security governance frameworks designed for cloud computing environments. This paper introduces a detailed application of ISGCloud into a real life case study of a Spanish public organisation, which utilises a cloud storage service in a critical security deployment.MethodThe empirical evaluation has followed a formal process, which includes the definition of research questions previously to the framework’s application. We describe ISGcloud process and attempt to answer these questions gathering results through direct observation and from interviews with related personnel.ResultsThe novelty of the paper is twofold: on the one hand, it presents one of the first applications, in the literature, of a cloud security governance framework to a real-life case study along with an empirical evaluation of the framework that proves its validity; on the other hand, it demonstrates the usefulness of the framework and its impact to the organisation.ConclusionAs discussed on the paper, the application of ISGCloud has resulted in the organisation in question achieving its security governance objectives, minimising the security risks of its storage service and increasing security awareness among its users.     

A method for trust management in cloud computing: Data coloring by cloud watermarking

With the development of Internet technology and human computing, the computing environment has changed dramatically over the last three decades. Cloud computing emerges as a paradigm of Internet computing in which dynamical, scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as services. With virtualization technology, cloud computing offers diverse services (such as virtual computing, virtual storage, virtual bandwidth, etc.) for the public by means of multi-tenancy mode. Although users are enjoying the capabilities of super-computing and mass storage supplied by cloud computing, cloud security still remains as a hot spot problem, which is in essence the trust management between data owners and storage service providers. In this paper, we propose a data coloring method based on cloud watermarking to recognize and ensure mutual reputations. The experimental results show that the robustness of reverse cloud generator can guarantee users embedded social reputation identifications. Hence, our work provides a reference solution to the critical problem of cloud security.     

云环境下组合电子健康记录访问控制框架

针对云环境下电子健康记录信息安全共享的需求提出云环境下组合电子健康记录访问控制框架.在该框架中基于多个CDA文档的逻辑关系,提出并构建组合电子健康记录结构,应用基于属性的多级安全访问控制策略实现组合电子健康记录的安全管理,应用基于XLINK技术的XML Web服务实现组合电子健康记录的下载和查看.通过对比分析可说明,与已有方案相比,本方案提出的框架更加适合云环境下的电子健康信息安全共享.     

基于TAM的企业云应用服务采纳模型及关键因素

云计算将主导企业应用的未来已成为业界的共识,转向云计算是企业应用模式的颠覆性变化。企业用户需要采纳适合企业自身需求的云计算方案,具备评估采纳云应用服务风险的能力;而服务提供商则应提供满足不同企业需求的云应用服务。采用技术接受模型(TAM)的相关理论建立云应用服务技术接受模型,并运用模糊决策实验与实验评估法(DEMATEL)对所设计模型及实例数据进行分析,检验所设计的云应用服务技术接受模型及关键因素。研究结果表明,感知有用性、应用服务质量、社交影响对企业用户采纳产生关键影响。     

CyberGuarder: A virtualization security assurance architecture for green cloud computing

As the sizes of IT infrastructure continue to grow, cloud computing is a natural extension of virtualisation technologies that enable scalable management of virtual machines over a plethora of physically connected systems. The so-called virtualisation-based cloud computing paradigm offers a practical approach to green IT/clouds, which emphasise the construction and deployment of scalable, energy-efficient network software applications (NetApp) by virtue of improved utilisation of the underlying resources. The latter is typically achieved through increased sharing of hardware and data in a multi-tenant cloud architecture/environment and, as such, accentuates the critical requirement for enhanced security services as an integrated component of the virtual infrastructure management strategy. This paper analyses the key security challenges faced by contemporary green cloud computing environments, and proposes a virtualisation security assurance architecture, CyberGuarder, which is designed to address several key security problems within the ‘green’ cloud computing context. In particular, CyberGuarder provides three different kinds of services; namely, a virtual machine security service, a virtual network security service and a policy based trust management service. Specifically, the proposed virtual machine security service incorporates a number of new techniques which include (1) a VMM-based integrity measurement approach for NetApp trusted loading, (2) a multi-granularity NetApp isolation mechanism to enable OS user isolation, and (3) a dynamic approach to virtual machine and network isolation for multiple NetApp’s based on energy-efficiency and security requirements. Secondly, a virtual network security service has been developed successfully to provide an adaptive virtual security appliance deployment in a NetApp execution environment, whereby traditional security services such as IDS and firewalls can be encapsulated as VM images and deployed over a virtual security network in accordance with the practical configuration of the virtualised infrastructure. Thirdly, a security service providing policy based trust management is proposed to facilitate access control to the resources pool and a trust federation mechanism to support/optimise task privacy and cost requirements across multiple resource pools. Preliminary studies of these services have been carried out on our iVIC platform, with promising results. As part of our ongoing research in large-scale, energy-efficient/green cloud computing, we are currently developing a virtual laboratory for our campus courses using the virtualisation infrastructure of iVIC, which incorporates the important results and experience of CyberGuarder in a practical context.     

开源IaaS云服务软件平台的分析与比较

作为一种新兴的计算模式,云计算已经由最初的理论探索,逐渐进入了理论、技术与实际应用共同发展的阶段。开源云平台项目的研究与发展在其中起到了重要作用。迄今为止,使用开源IaaS云平台搭建自己的公共云或私有云,已经成为很多学术机构和商业企业信息管理、信息服务和技术研究中经济而有效的解决方案。为了评价和选择合适的IaaS云平台,根据NIST云模型,从体系结构、资源抽象和控制技术、云服务管理、安全策略、社区规模及活跃度和基本情况等多个方面 抽象出详细指标,对4个具有代表性的开源IaaS云平台软件进行了研究、分析和比较。     

Security policy verification for multi-domains in cloud systems

The cloud is a modern computing paradigm with the ability to support a business model by providing multi-tenancy, scalability, elasticity, pay as you go and self-provisioning of resources by using broad network access. Yet, cloud systems are mostly bounded to single domains, and collaboration among different cloud systems is an active area of research. Over time, such collaboration schemas are becoming of vital importance since they allow companies to diversify their services on multiple cloud systems to increase both uptime and usage of services. The existence of an efficient management process for the enforcement of security policies among the participating cloud systems would facilitate the adoption of multi-domain cloud systems. An important issue in collaborative environments is secure inter-operation. Stemmed from the absence of relevant work in the area of cloud computing, we define a model checking technique that can be used as a management service/tool for the verification of multi-domain cloud policies. Our proposal is based on NIST’s (National Institute of Standards and Technology) generic model checking technique and has been enriched with RBAC reasoning. Current approaches, in Grid systems, are capable of verifying and detect only conflicts and redundancies between two policies. However, the latter cannot overcome the risk of privileged user access in multi-domain cloud systems. In this paper, we provide the formal definition of the proposed technique and security properties that have to be verified in multi-domain cloud systems. Furthermore, an evaluation of the technique through a series of performance tests is provided.     

User Centric Block-Level Attribute Based Encryption in Cloud Using Blockchains

Cloud computing is a collection of distributed storage Network which can provide various services and store the data in the efficient manner. The advantages of cloud computing is its remote access where data can accessed in real time using Remote Method Innovation (RMI). The problem of data security in cloud environment is a major concern since the data can be accessed by any time by any user. Due to the lack of providing the efficient security the cloud computing they fail to achieve higher performance in providing the efficient service. To improve the performance in data security, the block chains are used for securing the data in the cloud environment. However, the traditional block chain technique are not suitable to provide efficient security to the cloud data stored in the cloud. In this paper, an efficient user centric block level Attribute Based Encryption (UCBL-ABE) scheme is presented to provide the efficient security of cloud data in cloud environment. The proposed approach performs data transaction by employing the block chain. The proposed system provides efficient privacy with access control to the user access according to the behavior of cloud user using Data Level Access Trust (DLAT). Based on DLAT, the user access has been restricted in the cloud environment. The proposed protocol is implemented in real time using Java programming language and uses IBM cloud. The implementation results justifies that the proposed system can able to provide efficient security to the data present in and cloud and also enhances the cloud performance.     

A study on effects of security risks on acceptance of enterprise cloud service: moderating of employment and non-employment using PLS multiple group analysis

This paper analyzed the effects of security risk factors fit for cloud computing paradigm on the acceptance of enterprise cloud service with intent to illuminate the factors for vitalizing the adoption of corporate cloud services in the future. The acceptance intention was set as a dependent variable. Independent variables were set in reference to the technology acceptance theory. Security risks were categorized into compliance risk, information leakage risk, troubleshooting risk and service discontinuation risk to design a model for analysis.     

A quantitative framework for security assurance evaluation and selection of cloud services: a case study

Due to the high adoption of cloud services, the protection of data and information is critical. Cloud service customers (CSCs) need help to obtain the authoritative assurances required for the cloud services and negotiate the cloud service contract based on the terms and conditions set by cloud service providers (CSPs). Several standards and guidelines are available for assessing cloud security. However, most of these standards and guidelines are complex and time-consuming to select a service or make an informed decision for CSCs. Moreover, the existing methods are insufficient to solve this problem because they are process-oriented, neglect the importance of stakeholder requirements, and lack a comprehensive and rigid analytic method that can aid decision-makers in making the right decisions. In this paper, we developed two evaluation techniques: (i) a quantitative cloud security assurance method to assess the security level of cloud services by measuring the critical security properties and (ii) a novel and rigid categorical analytical method that enables CSPs to identify the major problems in the system and assess how much gain can be achieved by solving each of them. The cloud security assurance method is based on two important metrics: security requirement and vulnerability. It assists CSCs in avoiding severe mistakes and making informed decisions while selecting a cloud service. Moreover, these methods support CSPs in improving the security level of cloud services and meet customer requirements. The proposed methods are validated using different case scenarios on a private cloud platform.

     

Data storage auditing service in cloud computing: challenges,methods and opportunities

Cloud computing is a promising computing model that enables convenient and on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. The first offered cloud service is moving data into the cloud: data owners let cloud service providers host their data on cloud servers and data consumers can access the data from the cloud servers. This new paradigm of data storage service also introduces new security challenges, because data owners and data servers have different identities and different business interests. Therefore, an independent auditing service is required to make sure that the data is correctly hosted in the Cloud. In this paper, we investigate this kind of problem and give an extensive survey of storage auditing methods in the literature. First, we give a set of requirements of the auditing protocol for data storage in cloud computing. Then, we introduce some existing auditing schemes and analyze them in terms of security and performance. Finally, some challenging issues are introduced in the design of efficient auditing protocol for data storage in cloud computing.