The Cloud Computing Paradigm

Agenda
• Understanding Cloud Computing
• Cloud Computing Security
• Secure Cloud Migration Paths
• Foundational Elements of Cloud Computing
• Cloud Computing Case Studies and Security Models

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Understanding Cloud Computing

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 Origin of the term “Cloud Computing”
• “Comes from the early days of the Internet where we drew
the network as a cloud… we didn’t care where the
messages went… the cloud hid it from us” – Kevin Marks,
Google
• First cloud around networking (TCP/IP abstraction)
• Second cloud around documents (WWW data abstraction)
• The emerging cloud abstracts infrastructure complexities of
servers, applications, data, and heterogeneous platforms
– (“muck” as Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos calls it)

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 A Working Definition of Cloud Computing

• Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient,

on-demand network access to a shared pool of
configurable computing resources (e.g., networks,
servers, storage, applications, and services) that can
be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal
management effort or service provider interaction.
• This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of
five essential characteristics, three service models, and four
deployment models.

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 Essential Cloud Characteristics
• On-demand self-service
– Get computing capabilities as needed
automatically
• Broad network access
– Services available over the net using
desktop, laptop, PDA, mobile phone

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 Essential Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)

• Resource pooling
– Location independence
– Provider resources pooled to server multiple clients
• Rapid elasticity
– Ability to quickly scale in/out service
• Measured service
– control, optimize services based on metering

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 Cloud Service Models
• Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS)
– Use provider’s applications over a network
– User doesn’t manage or control the network, servers, OS,
storage or applications
• Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS)
– Users deploy their applications on a cloud
– Users control their apps
– Users don’t manage servers, IS, storage

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 Cloud Service Models (Cont.)
• Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
– Rent processing, storage, network capacity, and other
fundamental computing resources
– Consumers gets access to the infrastructure to
deploy their stuff
– Don’t manage or control the infrastructure
– Do manage or control the OS, storage, apps,
selected network components
• To be considered “cloud” they must be deployed on
top of cloud infrastructure that has the key
characteristics

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Service Model Architectures
Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure
IaaS Software as a Service
PaaS PaaS (SaaS)
SaaS SaaS SaaS Architectures

Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure

IaaS Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS PaaS Architectures

Cloud Infrastructure
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Architectures

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 Cloud Deployment Models
• Private cloud
– single org only,
– managed by the org or a 3rd party,
– on or off premise
• Community cloud
– shared infrastructure for specific community
– several orgs that have shared concerns,
– managed by org or a 3rd party

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 Cloud Deployment Models (Cont.)
• Public cloud
– Sold to the public, mega-scale infrastructure
– available to the general public
• Hybrid cloud
– composition of two or more clouds
– bound by standard or proprietary technology

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 Common Cloud Characteristics
• Cloud computing often leverages:
– Massive scale
– Homogeneity
– Virtualization
– Resilient computing
– Low cost software
– Geographic distribution
– Service orientation
– Advanced security technologies

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 The NIST Cloud Definition Framework
Hybrid Clouds
Deployment
Models Private Community
Public Cloud
Cloud Cloud

Service Software as a Platform as a Infrastructure as a

Models Service (SaaS) Service (PaaS) Service (IaaS)

On Demand Self-Service
Essential
Broad Network Access Rapid Elasticity
Characteristics
Resource Pooling Measured Service

Massive Scale Resilient Computing

Common Homogeneity Geographic Distribution

Characteristics Virtualization Service Orientation
Low Cost Software Advanced Security 14
Cloud Computing Security

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Security is the Major Issue

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 General Security Advantages
• Shifting public data to a external cloud
reduces the exposure of the internal sensitive
data
• Cloud homogeneity makes security
auditing/testing simpler
• Clouds enable automated security
management
• Redundancy / Disaster Recovery

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 General Security Challenges
• Trusting vendor’s security model
• Customer inability to respond to audit findings
• Obtaining support for investigations
• Indirect administrator accountability
• Proprietary implementations can’t be examined
• Loss of physical control

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 Security Relevant Cloud Components
• Cloud Provisioning Services
• Cloud Data Storage Services
• Cloud Processing Infrastructure
• Cloud Support Services
• Cloud Network and Perimeter Security
• Elastic Elements: Storage, Processing, and
Virtual Networks

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 Provisioning Service
• Advantages
– Rapid reconstitution of services
– Enables availability
• Provision in multiple data centers / multiple instances
– Advanced honey net capabilities
• Challenges
– Impact of compromising the provisioning service

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 Data Storage Services
• Advantages
– Data fragmentation and dispersal
– Automated replication
– Provision of data zones (e.g., by country)
– Encryption at rest and in transit
– Automated data retention
• Challenges
– Isolation management / data multi-tenancy
– Storage controller
• Single point of failure / compromise?
– Exposure of data to foreign governments
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 Cloud Processing Infrastructure
• Advantages
– Ability to secure masters and push out secure
images
• Challenges
– Application multi-tenancy
– Reliance on hypervisors
– Process isolation / Application sandboxes

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 Cloud Support Services
• Advantages
– On demand security controls (e.g., authentication,
logging, firewalls…)
• Challenges
– Additional risk when integrated with customer
applications
– Needs certification and accreditation as a
separate application
– Code updates
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Cloud Network and Perimeter Security
• Advantages
– Distributed denial of service protection
– VLAN capabilities
– Perimeter security (IDS, firewall, authentication)
• Challenges
– Virtual zoning with application mobility

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 Cloud Security Advantages

• Data Fragmentation and Dispersal

• Dedicated Security Team
• Greater Investment in Security Infrastructure
• Fault Tolerance and Reliability
• Greater Resiliency
• Hypervisor Protection Against Network Attacks
• Possible Reduction of C&A Activities (Access to
Pre-Accredited Clouds)
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Cloud Security Advantages (Cont.)

• Simplification of Compliance Analysis

• Data Held by Unbiased Party (cloud vendor
assertion)
• Low-Cost Disaster Recovery and Data Storage
Solutions
• On-Demand Security Controls
• Real-Time Detection of System Tampering
• Rapid Re-Constitution of Services
• Advanced Honeynet Capabilities
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 Cloud Security Challenges

• Data dispersal and international privacy laws

– EU Data Protection Directive and U.S. Safe Harbor
program
– Exposure of data to foreign government and data
subpoenas
– Data retention issues
• Need for isolation management
• Multi-tenancy
• Logging challenges
• Data ownership issues
• Quality of service guarantees

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Cloud Security Challenges (Cont.)
• Dependence on secure hypervisors
• Attraction to hackers (high value target)
• Security of virtual OSs in the cloud
• Possibility for massive outages
• Encryption needs for cloud computing
– Encrypting access to the cloud resource control interface
– Encrypting administrative access to OS instances
– Encrypting access to applications
– Encrypting application data at rest
• Public cloud vs internal cloud security
• Lack of public SaaS version control
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 Additional Issues
• Issues with moving PII and sensitive data to the cloud
– Privacy impact assessments
• Using SLAs to obtain cloud security
– Suggested requirements for cloud SLAs
– Issues with cloud forensics
• Contingency planning and disaster recovery for cloud
implementations
• Handling compliance
– FISMA
– HIPAA
– SOX
– PCI
– SAS 70 Audits
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Obstacles & Opportunities

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 Unique Features
• Outsourcing Data and Applications
• Extensibility and Shared Responsibility
• Multi-tenancy
• Service-Level Agreements
• Virtualization and Hypervisors
• Heterogeneity
• Compliance and Regulations

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Security Implications

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 Security and Privacy Challenges
• Authentication and Identity Management
– interoperability
– password-based: inherited limitation
– How multi-tenancy can affect the privacy of
identity information isn’t yet well understood.
– multi-jurisdiction issue
– integrated with other security components.

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 Security and Privacy Challenges
• Access Control and Accounting
– Heterogeneity and diversity of services, as well as
the domains’ diverse access requirements
– capture dynamic, context, or attribute- or
credential-based access requirements
– integrate privacy-protection requirements
– interoperability
– capture relevant aspects of SLAs

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 Security and Privacy Challenges
• Trust Management and Policy Integration
– compose multiple services to enable bigger
application services
– efficiently capturing a generic set of parameters
required for establishing trust and to manage
evolving trust and interaction/sharing requirements
– address challenges such as semantic heterogeneity,
secure interoperability, and policy-evolution
management.

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 Security and Privacy Challenges
• Secure-Service Management
– WSDL can’t fully meet the requirements of cloud
computing services description
– issues such as quality of service, price, and SLAs
– automatic and systematic service provisioning and
composition framework that considers security
and privacy issues

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 Security and Privacy Challenges
• Privacy and Data Protection
– storing data and applications on systems that
reside outside of on-premise datacenters
– shared infrastructure, risk of potential
unauthorized access and exposure.
– Privacy-protection mechanisms must be
embedded in all security solutions.
– Provenance
– Balancing between data provenance and privacy
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 Security and Privacy Challenges
• Organizational Security Management
– shared governance can become a significant issue
if not properly addressed
– Dependence on external entities
– the possibility of an insider threat is significantly
extended when outsourcing data and processes to
clouds.

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Authentication and Identity Management
– User-centric IDM
– users control their digital identities and takes
away the complexity of IDM from the enterprises
– federated IDM solutions
– privacy-preserving protocols to verify various
identity attributes by using, for example, zero-
knowledge proof-based techniques

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Access Control Needs
– RBAC
– policy-integration needs
– credential-based RBAC, GTRBAC,8 location-based
RBAC

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Secure Interoperation
– Multi-domain
– centralized approach
– decentralized approaches
– specification frameworks to ensure that the cross-
domain accesses are properly specified, verified,
and enforced
– Policy engineering mechanisms

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Secure-Service Provisioning and Composition
– Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi)
– Declarative OWL-based language can be used to
provide a service definition manifest, including a
list of distinct component types that make up the
service, functional requirements, component
grouping and topology instructions

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Trust Management Framework
– trust-based policy integration
– Delegation
– must be incorporated in service composition
framework

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Data-Centric Security and Privacy
– shifts data protection from systems and
applications
– documents must be self-describing and defending
regardless of their environments.

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 Security and Privacy Approaches
• Managing Semantic Heterogeneity
– semantic heterogeneity among policies
– Use of an ontology is the most promising
approach
– policy framework and a policy enforcement
architecture
– inference engines

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Questions?

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