Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cloud Security Threats and Solutions: A Survey

  • Published:
Wireless Personal Communications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of PC framework resources. Especially information storage and handling power, without direct unique administration by the customer. It has provided customers with public and private computing and data storage on a single platform across the Internet. Aside from that, it faces several security threats and issues, which may slow down the adoption of cloud computing models. Cloud computing security threats, difficulties, strategies, and solutions are discussed in this paper. Numerous people raised security concerns in a previous survey. Another survey looks at the cloud computing architectural model, and a few of them detail security challenges and techniques. This article brings together all the security concerns, difficulties, techniques, and solutions in one place.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of Data and Materials

This paper does not contain any related data.

Code availability

There is no associated code for this paper

References

  1. Lim, S. Y., Kiah, M. L., & Ang, T. F. (2017). Security issues and future challenges of cloud service authentication. Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, 14, 69–89.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ajmal, A., Ibrar, S., & Amin, R. (2022). Cloud computing platform: Performance analysis of prominent cryptographic algorithms. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.6938

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kazim, M., & Zhu, S. Y. (2015). A survey on top security threats in cloud computing. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 6.

  4. Nicho, M., & El Hendy, M. (2013). Dimensions of security threats in cloud computing: A case study. Review of Business Information Systems (RBIS), 17, 159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Raza, S. M., Ahvar, S., Amin, R., & Hussain, M. (2021). Reliability aware multiple path installation in software-defined networking. Electronics, 10, 2820. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10222820

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hassan, N., & Salih, A. (2017). A survey of cloud computing security challenges and solutions.

  7. Touqeer, H., Zaman, S., Amin, R., et al. (2021). Smart home security: Challenges, issues and solutions at different IoT layers. The Journal of Supercomputing, 77, 14053–14089.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ahmad, I. (2017). Cloud computing—Threats and challenges. Journal of Computing and Management Studies 1.

  9. Bordak, L. (2019). Cloud computing security, 87–92.

  10. Alshammari, A., et al. (2017). Security threats and challenges in cloud computing, pp. 46–51.

  11. Yu, W., Yang, X., & Li, W. (2014). Cloud computing techniques, 175–186.

  12. Lee, K. (2012). Security threats in cloud computing environments. International Journal of Security and its Applications, 6, 25–32.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Islam, T., Manivannan, D., & Zeadally, S. (2016). A classification and characterization of security threats in cloud computing. International Journal of Next-Generation Computing 7.

  14. Aldabbas, H., & Amin, R. (2021). A novel mechanism to handle address spoofing attacks in SDN based IoT. Cluster Computing, 24, 3011–3026. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10586-021-03309-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Singh, S., Jeong, Y.-S., & Park, J. (2016). A survey on cloud computing security: Issues, threats, and solutions. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 75.

  16. Subashini, S., & Kavitha, V. (2011). A survey on security issues in service delivery models of cloud computing. The Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 35, 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Liu, Y., et al. (2015). A survey of security and privacy challenges in cloud computing: Solutions and future directions. Journal of Computing Science and Engineering, 9, 119–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Liu, Q., et al. (2018). A survey on security threats and defensive techniques of machine learning: A data driven view. IEEE Access, 6, 12103–12117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tabrizchi, H., & Kuchaki Rafsanjani, M. (2020). A survey on security challenges in cloud computing: issues, threats, and solutions. The Journal of Supercomputing.

  20. Prasanna, M. (2012). Requirements and challenges for securing cloud applications and services. IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering, 4, 46–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Grusho, A., et al. (2017). On some artificial intelligence methods and technologies for cloud-computing protection. Automatic Documentation and Mathematical Linguistics, 51, 62–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Odun-Ayo, I., Ajayi, O., & Misra, S. (2018). Cloud computing security-issues and development.

  23. Sharma, R., Gourisaria, M., & Patra, S. (2020). Cloud computing—Security, issues, and solutions, 687–700.

  24. Gomaa, I., & Abd-Elrahman, E. (2015). Integration with cloud computing security, 203–228.

  25. Younis, A., Kifayat, Y. K., & Merabti, M. (2014). Cloud computing security & privacy challenges.

  26. Shaikh, F. B., & Haider, S. (2011). Security threats in cloud computing, 214–219.

  27. Srinivasamurthy, S., & Liu, D. (2020). Survey on cloud computing security. Computer Science Faculty Presentations.

  28. Radwan, T., Azer, M., & Abdelbaki, N. (2013). Towards efficient and secure cloud, 134–140.

  29. Bouayad, A., et al. (2012). Cloud computing: Security challenges, 26–31.

  30. Shukla, S., & Maheshwari, H. (2019). Discerning the threats in cloud computing security. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 16, 4255–4261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Majadi, N. (2013). Cloud computing: Security issues and challenges. International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 4, 1515–1520.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Lee, Y., Park, Y., & Kim, D. (2015). Security threats analysis and considerations for internet of things, 28–30.

  33. Popovic, K., & Hocenski, Z. (2010). Cloud computing security issues and challenges, 344–349.

  34. Eken, H. (2013). Security threats and solutions in cloud computing, 139–143.

  35. Modi, C., et al. (2013). A survey on security issues and solutions at different layers of cloud computing. The Journal of Supercomputing, 63.

  36. Hourani, H., & Abdallah, M. (2018). Cloud computing: Legal and security issues, 13–16.

  37. Kilari, N., Sridaran, R., & Dean. (2012). A survey on security threats for cloud computing. International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology 2278–0181.

  38. Alam, M. S. B. (2017). Cloud computing—Architecture, platform and security Issues: A Survey. World Scientific News (WSN), 2017. vol. 86(2017): p. 09 September 2017.

  39. Alsolami1, E. (2018). Security threats and legal issues related to cloud based solutions. IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security 18(5), 8.

  40. Aawadallah, N. (2015). Security threats of cloud computing. International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication, 3, 2393–2397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Khan, M. (2016). A survey of security issues for cloud computing. Journal of Network and Computer Applications.

  42. Mozumder, D. P., Nayeen Mahi, M. J., & Whaiduzzaman, M. (2017). Cloud computing security breaches and threats analysis. International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 8, 1287–1297.

  43. Kazim, M., & Zhu, S. Y. (2015). A survey on top security threats in cloud computing. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), 6.

  44. Javaid, A. (2014). Cloud computing security and privacy. SSRN Electronic Journal.

  45. Selamat, N., & Ali, F. (2019). Comparison of malware detection techniques using machine learning algorithm. Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 16, 435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Bennasar, H., et al. (2017). Classification of cloud systems cyber-security threats and solutions directives. Application and Theory of Computer Technology, 2, 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Lai, S.-T., & Leu, F.-Y. (2015). A security threats measurement model for reducing cloud computing security risk, 414–419.

  48. Naseer, A., Zhiqui, H., & Ali, A. (2017). Cloud computing security threats and attacks with their mitigation techniques, 244–251.

  49. Shahzad, F. (2014). State-of-the-art survey on cloud computing security challenges, approaches and solutions, 37.

  50. Bhardwaj, A., & Goundar, S. (2020). Cloud computing security services to mitigate DDoS attacks.

  51. Shahil, U., et al. (2019). DDOS attacks in cloud computing and its preventions, 6.

  52. Somani, G., et al. (2015). DDoS attacks in cloud computing: Issues, taxonomy, and future directions. Computer Communications, 107.

  53. Fonseka, Y., et al. (2019). Cryptography involvement in secure cloud computing data and services.

  54. Ellappan, M., & Kannammal, A. (2019). New authentication scheme to secure against the phishing attack in the mobile cloud computing. Security and Communication Networks, 1–11.

  55. Duncan, A. et al. (2013). Cloud computing: Insider attacks on virtual machines during migration, 493–500.

  56. Naseer, A., & Zhiqui, H. (2017). Cloud Computing security threats and attacks with their mitigation techniques, 244–251.

  57. Tadapaneni, N. R. (2020). Cloud computing security challenges. International Journal of Innovations in Engineering Research and Technology.

  58. Ghafir, I. et al. (2018). Security threats to critical infrastructure: The human factor. The Journal of Supercomputing.

  59. Zdraveski, D., Janeska, M., & Taleska. (2020). Evaluating cloud computing services.

  60. Malomo, O., Rawat, D. B., & Garuba, M. (2018). A survey on recent advances in cloud computing security. Journal of Next Generation Information Technology, 9, 32–48.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Usman, M., Amin, R., Aldabbas, H., & Alouffi, B. (2022). Lightweight challenge-response authentication in SDN-Based UAVs using elliptic curve cryptography. Electronics, 11, 1026. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11071026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Lonea, A., Tianfield, H., & Popescu, D. (2013). Identity management for cloud computing, 175–199.

  63. Sani, F. A. M. S. M. (2016). Security threats and countermeasures in cloud computing. International Research Journal of Electronics & Computer Engineering, 2(4) (Oct–Dec 2016).

  64. Mishra, A., Gupta, N., & Gupta, B. B. (2020). Security threats and recent countermeasures in cloud computing, 145–161.

  65. Calmus, C. (2016). Account or service hijacking in cloud computing.

  66. De Donno, M., et al. (2019). Cyber-storms come from clouds: Security of cloud computing in the IoT era. Future Internet 11.

  67. Kenkre P. S., & Colaco, P. A. L. (2015). Real time intrusion detection and prevention system. Frontiers of Intelligent Computing: Theory and Applications (FICTA) 2015(2015).

  68. Mohamed, H., et al. (2013). A collaborative intrusion detection and Prevention system in cloud computing, 1–5.

  69. Qiu, J., et al. (2016). Going deeper with embedded FPGA Platform for convolutional neural network, 26–35.

  70. Bruno, R., et al. (2018). Dynamic vertical memory scalability for OpenJDK cloud applications. ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 53, 59–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Hyndman, A., Reiche, A., & Hatko, C. (2014). Single sign-on system and method.

  72. Yan, L., et al. (2018). Cloud computing security and privacy, 119–123.

  73. Elankavi, R. K. R., & Udayakumar, R. (2017). Cloud security and compliance—A semantic approach in end to end security. International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems 8, 482–494.

  74. Sullivan, B. (2014). Securing the cloud: Cloud computer security techniques and tactics. Security Journal 27.

  75. Yimam, D., & Fernández, E. (2016). A survey of compliance issues in cloud computing. Journal of Internet Services and Applications 7.

  76. Hassan, W. et al. (2019). Latest trends, challenges and solutions in security in the era of cloud computing and software defined networks. International Journal of Informatics and Communication Technology (IJ-ICT) 8, 162–183.

  77. Fan, Y., et al. (2018). One secure access scheme based on trusted execution environment, 16–21.

  78. Balani, Z., & Varol, H. (2020). Cloud computing security challenges and threats, 1–4.

  79. Selvanathan, N., Jayakody, D., & Damjanovic-Behrendt, V. (2019). Federated identity management and interoperability for heterogeneous cloud platform ecosystems, 1–7.

  80. Purniemaa, P., Kannan, R., & Jaisankar, N. (2013). Security threat and attack in cloud infrastructure: A survey. The International Journal of Computer Science & Applications (TIJCSA), 2, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Alrehaili, N., & Mu, A. (2020). Cloud computing security challenges. IARJSET, 7.

  82. Khan, N., & Al-Yasiri, A. (2016). Cloud security threats and techniques to strengthen cloud computing adoption framework. International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering, 11, 50–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  83. Abusaimeh, H. (2020). Cloud computing authentication attack and mitigation survey. International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering, 9, 5529–5534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  84. Brandão, P. (2020). Cloud computing security.

  85. Iorga, M., & Karmel, A. (2020). Cloud Computing security essentials and architecture, 195–212.

  86. Mutum, Z. (2017). Modeling and analysis of cloud computing security.

  87. Yang, Y., Zhao, C., & Gao, T. (2015). Cloud computing: security issues overview and solving techniques investigation. 8993, 152–167.

  88. Undheim, A., Chilwan, A., & Heegaard, P. (2011). Differentiated availability in cloud computing SLAs, 129–136.

  89. Khalil, I., Khreishah, A., & Azeem, M. (2014). Cloud computing security: A survey. Computers, 3, 1–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  90. Devi, B., Shitharth, S., & Jabbar, M. (2020). An appraisal over intrusion detection systems in cloud computing security attacks, 722–727.

Download references

Funding

This paper does not receive any funding to support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan

    Umer Ahmed Butt, Rashid Amin & Muhammad Mehmood

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Chakwal, Punjab, 48800, Pakistan

    Rashid Amin

  3. Prince Abdullah Bin Ghazi Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt, Jordan

    Hamza Aldabbas

  4. Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, Applied College, Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia

    Mafawez T. Alharbi

  5. Department of Information Technology, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Nasser Albaqami

Authors
  1. Umer Ahmed Butt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rashid Amin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Muhammad Mehmood
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hamza Aldabbas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mafawez T. Alharbi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nasser Albaqami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rashid Amin.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

All the authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Butt, U.A., Amin, R., Mehmood, M. et al. Cloud Security Threats and Solutions: A Survey. Wireless Pers Commun 128, 387–413 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-022-09960-z

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-022-09960-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation