Security requirements specification framework for government sector cloud users for cloud computing projects

Abstract

Cloud computing is a novel way of using a collection of easily accessible virtualized computing resources from hardware, to development platforms or services. It gives an enterprise opportunity to scale up itself and deploy new applications and resources in no time in order to meet increasing demand of its customers; hence reducing their expenses for hardware, maintenance and IT staff. Many organizations are embracing cloud computing in their businesses around the world. These organizations contain systems consisting of a huge volume of critical processes and information whose security must certainly be ensured. Security is one major concern for the individuals or organization. These security issues arise because of exploiting vulnerabilities within cloud infrastructure. An attacker can exploit these vulnerabilities and can easily compromise a system if security requirements are not considered at the time system functional requirements are being identified. Therefore, a system engineering methodology for security requirements identification and elicitation centered on vulnerabilities and threats is needed. In this research work, we aim to fill this gap of incorporating security requirements at the early stage of cloud system deployment process for government sector cloud users for cloud computing projects. This thesis focuses on the state of the art concerning security requirements for governmental organization having classified data by highlighting critical security challenges introduced in cloud environment, analyzing and engineering these specific security requirements to form a system having security enforcement mechanisms incorporated at the time system’s functional requirements are been met thus eliminating security challenges within it. A security requirements specification framework is proposed that provides a methodology to Gcloud users to move step by step for achieving secure cloud services for their organizations.