Cloud Computing – A review of Confidentiality and Privacy

Abstract: With the introduction of cloud computing the computation got distributed, virtualized and scalable. This also meant that customers of cloud computing gave away some of their control of their system. That led to a heighten importance of how to handle security in the cloud, for both provider and customer. Since security is such a big subject the focus of this thesis is on confidentiality and privacy, both closely related to how to handle personal data. With the help of a systematic literature review in this thesis, current challenges and possible mitigations are presented in some different areas and concerning both the cloud provider and the cloud customer. The conclusion of the thesis is that cloud computing in itself have matured a lot since the early 2000’s and all of the challenges provided have possible mitigations. However, the exact implementation of said mitigation will differ depending on cloud customer and the exact application developed as well as the exact service provided by the cloud provider. In the end it will all boil down to a process that involves technology, employees and policies and with that can any user secure its cloud application.