Security challenges in cloud computing: state-of-art

Cloud computing is a distributed architecture that has shared resources, software, and information is provided to computers and other devices on a scalable platform and demand. Availability of the cloud services is one of the key security issues in it. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is an attack that threats the availability of the cloud services. In this paper, effect of the DDoS attack on the cloud is investigated. Therefore, a model for attack based on the DDoS is designed, and then we simulate a cloud system on the experimental environment. Experiments show that the cloud system is vulnerable to this attack. In order to confronting this attack, several solutions are proposed in this paper. We suggest load balancing and honeypots beside the intrusion detection systems (IDS) is used to defend from the attack.

Prevention and detection of DDOS attack in virtual cloud computing environment using Naive Bayes algorithm of machine learning

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks pose a significant security risk, particularly with the increasing reliance on cloud computing and information technology (IT). These attacks not only allow unauthorized users to access services but also deny legitimate users the ability to utilize them. Traditional antivirus solutions and firewalls prove insufficient in detecting DDoS attacks within large networks. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are essential for detecting unauthorized or malicious activities and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of services. However, traditional IDS often rely on predefined signatures and patterns, making them susceptible to evasion tactics. In response, this research introduces a deep learning (DL)-based IDS that integrates convolutional neural networks (CNN) with principal component analysis (PCA) and explores the application of vision transformers (ViT). The proposed hybrid model was tested on the CICDDoS2019 dataset, achieving a notable improvement in detection accuracy. Specifically, the CNN-based model initially identified DDoS attacks with an accuracy of 99.72%. Upon integrating ViT, the model’s accuracy further improved to 99.99%. This innovative approach signifies a considerable advancement in the detection capabilities for DDoS attacks and underscores the potential for integrating more sophisticated DL models into cybersecurity defenses.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of sensors that helps collect data 24/7 without human intervention. However, the network may suffer from problems such as the low battery, heterogeneity, and connectivity issues due to the lack of standards. Even though these problems can cause several performance hiccups, security issues need immediate attention because hackers access vital personal and financial information and then misuse it. These security issues can allow hackers to hijack IoT devices and then use them to establish a Botnet to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Blockchain technology can provide security to IoT devices by providing secure authentication using public keys. Similarly, Smart Contracts (SCs) can improve the performance of the IoT–blockchain network through automation. However, surveyed work shows that the blockchain and SCs do not provide foolproof security; sometimes, attackers defeat these security mechanisms and initiate DDoS attacks. Thus, developers and security software engineers must be aware of different techniques to detect DDoS attacks. In this survey paper, we highlight different techniques to detect DDoS attacks. The novelty of our work is to classify the DDoS detection techniques according to blockchain technology. As a result, researchers can enhance their systems by using blockchain-based support for detecting threats. In addition, we provide general information about the studied systems and their workings. However, we cannot neglect the recent surveys. To that end, we compare the state-of-the-art DDoS surveys based on their data collection techniques and the discussed DDoS attacks on the IoT subsystems. The study of different IoT subsystems tells us that DDoS attacks also impact other computing systems, such as SCs, networking devices, and power grids. Hence, our work briefly describes DDoS attacks and their impacts on the above subsystems and IoT. For instance, due to DDoS attacks, the targeted computing systems suffer delays which cause tremendous financial and utility losses to the subscribers. Hence, we discuss the impacts of DDoS attacks in the context of associated systems. Finally, we discuss Machine-Learning algorithms, performance metrics, and the underlying technology of IoT systems so that the readers can grasp the detection techniques and the attack vectors. Moreover, associated systems such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are a source of good security enhancement for IoT Networks. Thus, we include a detailed discussion of future development encompassing all major IoT subsystems.

Smart Grid (SG) constitutes business and operational challenges for utility companies and energy suppliers and those are easily met by Cloud Computing (CC). From the distributed property of CC and SG it is unable to be avoided that the two methodologies will become integrated. Here I discuss about the opportunities and risks that CC is given to utility companies and energy suppliers, and consider what inseparable elements of CC may be capable of improving Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) defense for SG. A prolonged literature survey is executed to identify which DDoS defense methods can be raised by CC and used to defend the SG. I propose that, when risks are suitably mitigated, the deployment of CC is known to be overall advantageous, where its inseparable elements can be combined to make the SG highly secure and help in mitigation of a crippling DDoS attack.

Cloud computing has now become a part of many businesses. It provides on-demand resources to its users based on pay-as-you-use policy, across the globe. The high availability feature of this technology is affected by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which is a major security issue. In this attack, cloud or network resources are exhausted, resulting in a denial of service for legitimate users. In this chapter, a classification of various types of DDoS attacks has been presented, and techniques for defending these attacks in cloud computing have been discussed. A discussion on challenges and open issues in this area is also given. Finally, a conceptual model based on extreme learning machine has been proposed to defend these attacks.

Cloud computing facilitates the users with on-demand services over the Internet. The services are accessible from anywhere at any time. Despite the valuable services, the paradigm is, also, prone to security issues. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack affects the availability of cloud services and causes security threats to cloud computing. Detection of DDoS attacks is necessary for the availability of services for legitimate users. The topic has been studied by many researchers, with better accuracy for different datasets. This article presents a method for DDoS attack detection in cloud computing. The primary objective of this article is to reduce misclassification error in DDoS detection. In the proposed work, we select the most relevant features, by applying two feature selection techniques, i.e., the Mutual Information (MI) and Random Forest Feature Importance (RFFI) methods. Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting (GB), Weighted Voting Ensemble (WVE), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Logistic Regression (LR) are applied to selected features. The experimental results show that the accuracy of RF, GB, WVE, and KNN with 19 features is 0.99. To further study these methods, misclassifications of the methods are analyzed, which lead to more accurate measurements. Extensive experiments conclude that the RF performed well in DDoS attack detection and misclassified only one attack as normal. Comparative results are presented to validate the proposed method.

The integration of cloud computing with Software Defined Networking (SDN) addresses several challenges of a typical cloud infrastructure such as complex inter-networking, data collection, fast response, etc. Though SDN-based cloud opens new opportunities, the SDN controller may itself become vulnerable to several attacks. The unique features of SDN are used by the attackers to implement the severe Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Several approaches are available in literature to defend against the traditional DDoS flooding attacks in SDN-cloud. To elude the detection systems, attackers try to employ the cultivated attack strategies. Such sophisticated DDoS attack strategies are implemented by generating low-rate attack traffic. The most common type of Low-Rate DDoS (LR-DDoS) attack is the Shrew attack. The existing approaches are not capable to detect, mitigate, and traceback such attacks. Thus, this work discusses a new mechanism which not only detects and mitigates the shrew attack but traces back the location of the attack sources as well. The attack is detected using the information entropy variations, and the attack sources are traced-back using the deterministic packet marking scheme. The experiments are performed in a real SDN-cloud scenario, and the experimental results show that the approach requires 1 packet and 8.27 packets on an average to locate the bots and attackers respectively. The approach detects and traces back the attack sources in between 14.45 ms to 10.02 s and provides 97.6% accuracy.

Background & Objective: Detecting and mitigating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is a serious problem. In addition, new features and network deployments such as Software- Defined Networking (SDN) may open the door for new threats that did not previously exist. : Recent publications and patent are reviewed to find new techniques developed for integrating different mechanisms to secure networks against DDoS. Methods: This work presents a simple model for integrating different mechanisms to secure both SDN and legacy network in a hybrid cloud environment, it is called FocusON. It aims at mitigating DDoS attacks of a victim network. In addition, separating network monitoring from its control aims at mitigating DDoS attacks of a victim network. Traffic pattern analysis is apart from attack detection mechanism that gives a conceptual representation of a specific kind of DDoS attacks. DDoS detection is a completely automated process. Once called, for the reaction, the active response will be taken against the real IP source of the attacker. : The communication time overhead was tested in order to evaluate the remote server response time in case of deploying our proposed model mechanisms and without our proposed model. : Here we introduce a response mechanism that consists of an analysis of event logs, traffic patterns, and IP traceback. The proposed model categorizes the underlying network according to the location into a victim network and the source of attack (public cloud). Results & Conclusion:: The proposed model implemented in a hybrid cloud environment using the network of SDN and legacy network. The experimental setup was built using our network lab connected to the Amazon public cloud.

Cloud computing is a technological marvel that transcends conventional boundaries by utilizing an Internet-based network of remote servers to store, manage, and process data and many other services. It represents a contemporary paradigm for delivering information technology services. Today, cloud computing services have become indispensable for both individuals and corporations. However, adopting cloud services presents fresh challenges in terms of service quality, resource optimization, data integration, cost governance, and operational security. The security of cloud services is of supreme importance, given the open and distributed nature of the environment, making it susceptible to various cyberattacks, such as Denial of Service (DoS) or Distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks, among others. Cyberattacks can have severe repercussions on the availability of cloud services, potentially causing complete DoS. In numerous instances, the detection of attacks is delayed, pushing cloud platforms to a breaking point. Emphasizing the importance of proactive measures, it becomes crucial to identify and alert about any suspicious access long before the latter reaches a critical stage, mitigating the risks and preventing potential service disruptions. This study introduces a preventive approach that utilizes artificial intelligence techniques to improve the security of cloud services. The proposed method aims to detect and flag potential attack behaviors well in advance before they affect service quality. To achieve this, the particular method involves periodic identification and measurement of critical information on service access and resource utilization. This can be accomplished by analyzing cloud server logs or integrating dedicated sniffing software to capture and store technical traffic details. Subsequently, the collected data are processed by analyzing traffic properties to proactively identify and report any indications of cyberattacks.

In the era of evolution of information technologies (IT), cloud computing plays a vital role in providing services through the internet. Cloud computing has many challenges, the major is security issues. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) is one of the most attacks treating cloud systems, it is able to make the service unavailable. So, it is necessary to deploy a mechanism of defense to detect these attacks earliest. Serval DDoS detection methods are challenged by the huge number of network flows generated by different distributed devices and high false-positive rate. In this paper, we present anomaly-based detection method of DDoS attack in the cloud environment based on a combination of deep neural networks and machine learning algorithms to improve accuracy and reduce false-positive rate, we evaluate our approach with various experiments were performed on the CIDDS-001 dataset. The approach conducted a satisfactory result accuracy of 0.99, a f1-score of 0.99.

DDoS attack prediction using a honey badger optimization algorithm based feature selection and Bi-LSTM in cloud environment

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in the cloud environment are not as simple as the same attacks which occur in the traditional physical network environment. Not only one single attack is affecting the cloud environment, where as there are multiple sources to affect the environment. DDoS attacks can be detected using the existing machine learning techniques such as neural classifiers. This paper discusses on the survey carried out on DDoS attacks in the cloud environment. Using Machine learning techniques results to detection of higher false positive rates. Some of the widely used methods are ANN, SVM, kNN, J48, Feature rank and Feature selection methods to detect DDoS attacks in the cloud environment. This paper reviews various studies related to detection of network attacks in network and cloud environments.

Cloud Computing is one of the most nurtured as well as debated topic in today’s world. Billions of data of various fields ranging from personal users to large business enterprises reside in Cloud. Therefore, availability of this huge amount of data and services is of immense importance. The DOS (Denial of Service) attack is a well-known threat to the availability of data in a smaller premise. Whenever, it’s a Cloud environment this simple DOS attack takes the form of DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. This paper provides a generic insight into the various kinds of DOS as well as DDOS attacks. Moreover, a handful of countermeasures have also been depicted here. In a nutshell, it aims at raising an awareness by outlining a clear picture of the Cloud availability issues.Our paper gives a comparative study of different techniques of detecting DOS.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack has been a “nightmare” for cloud. A countermeasure is to establish an Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS) for cloud. Nevertheless, current IDPSes fail to achieve the detection and prevention in a flexible and lightweight way. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme of IDPS for overcoming the above problem, termed as Auto-scaling IDPS (AsIDPS). AsIDPS is based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Docker container technologies. It first detects abnormal traffic based on the flow statistics collected in SDN switches in real-time. By the SDN controller, the abnormal traffic will be directed to the created Docker containers with Snort running on them for further detection and clean-up. Particularly, the Docker containers can be automatically scaled out or scaled down on demand. The Snort will also deliver an alert to the SDN controller if it detects attack traffic so as to perform a countermeasure if necessary. Benefitting from the flexible network management offered by SDN and the lightweight Docker container, AsIDPS is able to build a flexible and lightweight defense against DDoS attack in cloud. Based on our prototype implementation, we validate the effectiveness of AsIDPS in defending DDoS attack, and also verify its flexibility and lightweight.