Webb’s Stores Cloud Security Free Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Webbs Stores Cloud Security. Answer: Introduction Cloud computing has flourished in the recent years and is being used by the organizations and business units all across the globe. The cloud services in the present times have enabled the business owners and executive to provide better quality services to the users and have also strengthened the business integration, communication and continuity. One of the organizations that have recently decided to step into the world of cloud is the Webbs Stores. It is a retailer of food items and specialty items and is located in Australia. For the processing and management of the store information, there are two centres of the Webbs Stores that are located in Melbourne and Sydney. The store is spread across many different locations in Australia and therefore, there are regional data centres as well in Wagga, Port Macquarie, Auckland and many other regional locations. There are around 800 members of the staff that are associated with the store comprising of the warehouse and sales staff members. With the increase in the number of operations, sales activities, employee and customer count, there are increased complexities that are observed in the management and processing of the data and information. The decision to move the database to cloud has been taken to resolve all such problems. Security of IaaS Cloud Model and Database There are many cloud models that can be implemented for the database migration to the cloud in case of the Webbs Stores. IaaS cloud has been preferred and recommended as per the specifications and needs of the store. However, the cloud model is associated with certain forms of security risks and attacks. It would be necessary to identify and analyze these attacks so that the corresponding measures may be taken to avoid all the security occurrences. Some of the recommended measures have been listed below. There may be many of the network based security attacks that may take place in IaaS cloud database. The network based intrusion detection and prevention tools are available in the market so that the malevolent activities can be highlighted as soon as the attacker attempts to execute them. There shall also be application of data analytics tools used in security tools so that the behavior of the attackers and the attacking patterns that are used by them can be identified. The basic security set up shall be made strong so that the overall security of the database is improved. Access control is one of such measure that would prevent the access of all the malicious entities. Other similar mechanism to enhance the basic security would be authentication system. There shall be enhanced authentication with the use of multiple measures that shall be enforced. Many automated and ready to use applications are also available which can be used, such as anti-malware tools along with anti-denial tools (Ismail, 2017) Advanced encryption algorithm, digital certificates and hashing algorithms shall also be used to protect the information. Disaster recovery can be implemented by making use of the automated back-up of the entire data sets. Benefits for the Enhancement of Security Information is the key asset for the organizations. In case of Webbs Stores, there is a lot of information that the store manages processes and stores in the data centres. These include the information about the clients, products, employees, transactions, sales, payments, inventory and a lot more. In case of the security occurrence, the properties of the information may suffer poorly which may in turn impact the profits and revenues earned by the store (Simou, 2016). IaaS cloud security will make sure that none of such occurrences and events take place and the information is protected at all times. It will provide numerous benefits in the form of enhanced customer trust and transparency along with competitive advantage in the market along with enhanced revenues and profits. Types of Challenges Issues There are various forms of challenges and issues that may crop up with the implementation of cloud database with Infrastructure as a Security (IaaS) cloud model. The store must already be making use of a number of other technical tools and components. The database is required to be integrated with all such tools and there may be issues in this process. There may also be occurrence of technical faults and operational errors due to the involvement of so many different elements and components (Shahid, 2015). The process of migration will bring many of the costs along with it in terms of tools cost, resource costs and cost of the project tasks. Database Issues Security Risks The risks and issues in associated with the IaaS cloud database for the Webbs Stores may be in the form of the database risks in itself. The security of the database may be compromised due to the involvement of increased number of access points. The attackers may be able to succeed in identifying the access points and may make use of the same for breaching of the information. There may also be denial attacks executed by the attackers to make the database services unavilable for the users (Alashoor, 2014). IaaS Infrastructure Issues Security Risks The overall infrastructure that will be offered by the IaaS cloud model may also be put at risk. The staff members of the Webbs Stores will be making use of such an infrastructure for the first time which may lead to the execution of multiple errors and mistakes by them. This may enhance the security vulnerabilities that may go unnoticed and may be used by the attackers to execute the eavesdropping and impersonation attacks (Singh, 2001). Communication Issues Security Risks The information will not remain at rest in case of the cloud model. It will keep on traversing from one medium to the other and the information may be shared among many resources and access points. During this sharing and communication of the information, the attackers may execute the attacks like man in the middle or eavesdropping attacks to breach the information and capture its contents and properties. Backup, Storage and Retrieval Issues Security Risks The other category of risks that may emerge which may lead to compromise on the security of the data and information may be related with the specific data operations that will be carried out. Data Backups: Backup is an essential activity that is carried out in case of databases and system information so that a copy of the entire data sets is saved and updated. It is done with the aim of disaster recovery and control in case of a security attack. However, the attackers may trigger a malware during backup process and the same may lead to deterioration of the information properties. This may lead to problems of integrity violation. Storage: The primary purpose of a database is to store the information in the data repositories so that it can be managed and processed correctly. These storage containers and repositories may be misused by the attackers and there may be many attacks that may be executed in terms of information breach, malware attack, information loss etc. (Fowler, 2010). Data Retrieval: There are queries that are processed to retrieve the data from the database. These queries may be injected with malicious code by using SQL injection attacks. There may also be unauthorized users that may gain access to the database and retrieve the information that may not be permitted to be viewed by them. Disaster Recovery Changes in Strategy and Policy The disaster recovery strategy is essential to be updated on the basis of the disasters and types of attacks. It cannot remain static to handle all forms of security risks and occurrences. An improved risk identification and analysis will be necessary to be carried out which shall make use of automated analytics tools and applications. This process will provide an updated picture of the possible attacks that may take place (Tari, Yi, Premarathne, Bertok Khalil, 2015). In the next set of steps, each risk and occurrence that is identified must be mapped with a disaster recovery strategy. The strategy will vary on the basis of the risk type and the other contributing factors. There shall also be an updated backup and damage control process implemented which must also focus upon the encryption of the information. Access Control Mechanisms and Processes The basic security set up shall be made strong so that the overall security of the database is improved. Access control is one of such measure that would prevent the access of all the malicious entities. Access control in the present times is not restricted to physical security processes for the verification and validation of the entities. There are improved and new methods that may be used for the purpose of control on the access which shall be used in the case of the cloud database for the Webbs Stores. IaaS infrastructure: There shall be use and application of role-based access control measures for the avoidance and prevention of any of the intruder or unauthorized access. Cloud instance of MS SQL Server 2012 R2: There shall be use and application of role-based access control measures for the avoidance and prevention of any of the intruder or unauthorized access. Cloud network infrastructure: There shall be use and application of attribute-based access control measures for the avoidance and prevention of any of the intruder or unauthorized access. Backup, storage and retrieval: There shall be use and application of attribute-based access control measures for the avoidance and prevention of any of the intruder or unauthorized access. Access refers to the property in which the user is provided with specific permissions to perform a certain task or an activity. In terms of the databases, the access may refer to the permission to view the data, write the data or modify the data. There is also access required to perform other data operations as well (Khan, 2012). It is therefore necessary to provide the access only to the users who are authorized to perform certain and specific tasks. Role based access control is also abbreviated as RBAC and as the name suggests, the permissions are provided on the basis of the user roles. These may include different permissions for database administrator, data analyst, data associate, data scientist and likewise. The attribute based access control is another form of control that may be applied which considers the user attributes instead of the roles. Conclusion Webbs Stores is a retailer from Australia that is expanding at a rapid pace. With the increase in the number of operations, sales activities, employee and customer count, there are increased complexities that are observed in the management and processing of the data and information. The decision to move the database to cloud has been taken to resolve all such problems (Nadeem, 2016). There are security issues that come up with the use and implementation of cloud computing in the organization. The cloud model selected for Webbs Stores is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS cloud security will make sure that none of such occurrences and events take place and the information is protected at all times. It will provide numerous benefits in the form of enhanced customer trust and transparency along with competitive advantage in the market along with enhanced revenues and profits (Hashemi Hesarlo, 2014). The store must also look out for and explore the security parameters and mechanis ms that they may enhance with the involvement of other technologies. For instance, there shall also be application of data analytics tools used in security tools so that the behavior of the attackers and the attacking patterns that are used by them can be identified. Many automated and ready to use applications are also available which can be used, such as anti-malware tools along with anti-denial tools. Advanced encryption algorithm, digital certificates and hashing algorithms shall also be used to protect the information. It must be understood that the security of the information is of utmost importance and the measures shall be taken for smooth migration to the cloud. There shall also be careful and extensive planning that must be involved. References Alashoor, T. (2014). Cloud computing: a review of security issues and solutions. International Journal Of Cloud Computing, 3(3), 228. https://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijcc.2014.064760 Fowler, S. (2010). Impact of denial of service solutions on network quality of service. Security And Communication Networks, 4(10), 1089-1103. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sec.219 Hashemi, S., Hesarlo, P. (2014). Security, Privacy and Trust Challenges in Cloud Computing and Solutions. International Journal Of Computer Network And Information Security, 6(8), 34-40. https://dx.doi.org/10.5815/ijcnis.2014.08.05 Ismail, N. (2017). The winding road to GDPR compliance - Information Age. Information Age. Retrieved 20 September 2017, from https://www.information-age.com/winding-road-gdpr-compliance-123468132/ Khan, A. (2012). Access Control in Cloud Computing Environment. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ef20/bc1239539f9a8502715153c5af67fc9e9034.pdf Nadeem, M. (2016). Cloud Computing: Security Issues and Challenges. Journal Of Wireless Communications, 1(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.21174/jowc.v1i1.73 Shahid, M. (2015). Cloud Computing Security Models, Architectures, Issues and Challenges: A Survey. The Smart Computing Review, 602-616. https://dx.doi.org/10.6029/smartcr.2015.06.010 Simou, S. (2016). A survey on cloud forensics challenges and solutions. Security And Communication Networks, 9(18), 6285-6314. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sec.1688 Singh, K. (2001). IT Infrastructure Security-Step by Step. Sans.org. Retrieved 20 September 2017, from https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/basics/infrastructure-security-step-step-430 Tari, Z., Yi, X., Premarathne, U., Bertok, P., Khalil, I. (2015). Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing: Vision, Trends, and Challenges. IEEE Cloud Computing, 2(2), 30-38. https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/mcc.2015.45