It auditing to assure a secure cloud computing

2010 IEEE 6th World Congress on Services

IT Auditing to Assure a Secure Cloud Computing
Zhixiong Chen, John Yoon
Cybersecurity, School of Liberal Arts, Mercy College
zchen, jyoon@mercy.edu

Abstract depicted by cloud, are becoming standard starting
applications. People without extensive period of skill
In this paper we discuss the evolvement of cloud training and manual remembering on underline operating
computing paradigm and present a framework for secure systems and basic hardware maintenance can accomplish
cloud computing through IT auditing. Our approach is to their work fairly easily. Consumers purchase computing
establish a general framework using checklists by following capacity on-demand and are not generally concerned with
data flow and its lifecycle. The checklists are made based the underlying technologies used. Computing resources and
on the cloud deployment models and cloud services models. data being accessed are typically owned and operated by a
The contribution of the paper is to understand the third-party provider, not necessarily located in nearby. They
implication of cloud computing and what is meant secure can be potentially beyond state even country’s physical
cloud computing via IT auditing rather than propose a new boundary.
methodology and new technology to secure cloud Moving traditional applications and their infrastructure
computing. Our holistic approach has strategic value to to cloud has shifted the in-house control to a third party. It
those who are using or consider using cloud computing posts many challenges including security and privacy,
because it addresses concerns such as security, privacy and performance and availability as illustrated by the following
regulations and compliance. widely quoted survey [16] in which security is the number
one concern. If the graph includes rate 3, then all the
1. Introduction numbers increase by at least 10 points [19]. Clearly using
cloud computing does not make the security issue go away.
Cloud computing is a collection of net-centric, service- It becomes an even challenging topic. In that sense, it is not
oriented concepts, methodologies, best practices and quite a usual utility concept we are talking about it.
technologies. It promises scaled economic benefits by
provisioning computing resources and applications as
services to customers while customers base their needs to
subscribe related services. The services can be computing
infrastructure, storage, development and deployment
platform, software services, desktop services, etc.
A visionary scenario in the cloud is that a thin client
interacts with remote cloud operating system to get virtual
desktop with a chosen virtual local operating to access
virtual data storage and executes applications from
anywhere and at anytime. This idea is not new. It can trace
back all the way when IBM Watson claimed the world
needed only five machine.
But why is it now? At present, IT is reaching a critical
point. Explosion of information is driving 54% growth in In this paper, we address the security issue from
storage; large scientific calculation such as weather forecast information assurance and security point of view. That is,
computation, new medicine, and healthcare informatics is we take holistic view of securing cloud computing by using
demanding more powerful and faster processing capacity. the IT auditing vehicle. IT auditing or in general accounting
While in reality, around 85% of computing capacity is idle, auditing under cloud computing has added extra role of
average 70% of IT budget is spent on managing IT building strategic plan for the enterprise in addition to the
infrastructure versus adding new capabilities [15]. On the traditional auditing role [17]. We make master checklists as
other hand, technologies like virtual computing, parallel a framework specifically toward cloud computing based on
computing, services oriented architecture, autonomic its deployment models and service models. After a section
computing are advancing in an unusual pace. In addition, of literature review, we start to make checklists for public
as the connectivity cost keeps falling, the world is even cloud, community cloud and private cloud as well as IaaS
more flat. Web-based applications over the internet, and SaaS. The last section is devoted to further discussions.

978-0-7695-4129-7/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE 253
DOI 10.1109/SERVICES.2010.118

2. Literature Review In this paper, we are focusing on IT Compliance and
Audit to assure a secure cloud computing. The goal is to
Cloud computing is an evolving concept, its technology create a framework with master check list so that both
is emerging. NIST has defined cloud computing in its latest internal and external auditors can reference to it when they
release as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand come to audit this new and dynamic cloud computing
network access to a shared pool of configurable computing territory.
resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications,
and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released 3. Data Life Cycle
with minimal management effort or service provider
interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is Cloud computing makes the world even flatter. Public
composed of five essential characteristics (on-demand self- cloud providers can have their computing resources locally
service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid or globally. The sky is the limit in this case. Cloud users do
elasticity and measured Service) , three service models not need to know in theory where the computing resources
(SaaS, PaaS and IaaS), and four deployment models location is because they are all virtualized.
(Public, Private, Community and Hybrid) [1]. McKinsey We start with cloud data life cycle. Data and information
and Company released its well quoted “Clearing the Air on in this paper are exchangeable terms. In general, the data
Cloud Computing” discussion document in March of 2009 life cycle includes collection, storage, transferring and
[2] after more than 20 cloud definitions listed by Vaquero destruction. The data collection includes both raw data and
in [3]. Open cloud published the open cloud taxonomy derived data. Derived data is also called information that is
which represents its view on cloud architecture [4]. generated from raw data to deliver intelligence, which is
The implication of cloud computing on security, privacy usually not see easily from raw data. Data storage includes
and compliance is a working progress. NIST in its active data storage and inactive storage. For example,
“Effectively and Securely Using the Cloud Computing former employee data can be considered as inactive. Its
Paradigm” [5] described the security challenges as well as storage procedure could be different from active employee
advantages. The major issues include trust, multi-tenancy, data. Data processing and data storage are not necessarily
encryption and compliance such as FISMA [6], GLBA [7] under the same location in the cloud environment.
HIPAA [8], SOX [9], PCI [10], SAS 70 Audits [11]. Therefore data transferring around the net is more a
Cloud security alliance, established by the end of 2008, common activity. Data destruction is to destroy data
released its second version of “Security Guidance for permanently, no backup should be left somewhere either in
Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing” in 2009 in the user side or the provider side.
which five governance domains and seven operational We see that cloud data life cycle presents many unique
domains are identified and discussed [12]. In the domain of features. Data is crossing different security domain and
compliance and audit, it raises issues regulatory regulations. Data is constantly moving due to the nature of
applicability to cloud computing and division of data storage provided by a third party. Information
compliance responsibilities between providers and users. It assurance has a new dimension via contracts among cloud
also made 13 recommendations such as legal and contract users and cloud providers. They need to establish formal
team involvement, audit rights, compliance scope, impact agreement. We can even borrow the term service level
of regulations on data security, relevant partners and agreement (SLA) since we now need to add crossing
services providers review, contractual understanding, domain compliance clauses that can be implementable.
provider infrastructure configuration review, policies and The following three sections is a framework of
procedures analysis, evidence preparation, auditor checklists for public cloud, community cloud and private
qualification and selection, cloud providers SAS 70 Type II cloud. The core is data protection following the data life
status, and ISO/IEC 27001/27002 roadmap and scoping. cycle.
The report “above the air” [20] lists top 10 obstacles and
opportunities for Cloud Computing. The number 1 obstacle
4. Checklist for Public Cloud
is availability of a service. Most enterprise businesses
require 99.99% of uptime while current public cloud
Public cloud has its root from Google, Amazon,
providers could not reach this goals. We have heard many
Microsoft, salesforce, and more. Enterprise uses public
downtime incidents from the news. Several outage
cloud to focus on its core business and save cost.
examples in AWS, AppEngine and Gmail are listed in [20].
Government is keen to use public cloud to take the
Also mentioned in the paper [20] is the confidentiality and
advantage of cost effective by providing public useful
auditability of data leads to extra layer of security to data.
information in cloud. It can also explore cloud concept to
Lastly, in terms of architecture and patterns, Open
integrate various computing resources from different
Security Architecture Group provides Cloud Computing
departments and agencies into a manageable pool.
Patterns and specific Controls [13].
Therefore making a connected government is a reality.

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IT auditing in public cloud can have different focus data are destroyed completely and how. No backup
based on different service models. We address two popular should be left alone when the data is supposed to
service models in this paper, Infrastructure as a Service discard. The process should be written in the agreement.
(IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). We will discuss What: Clearly stated in the agreement on data
PaaS late. ownership on data life cycle. Also included the data
destroy and verification process.
4.1 IaaS How: Discuss with cloud coordinators about the data
ownership and data life cycle management. Get written
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a popular service document on data ownership the procedure of data
model that provides computing resources to cloud users removal.
who deploy operating systems and run their applications on
top of it or use it as a storage or archive. 3. Data protection plan and best practice
When it comes to IT auditing, location, geopolitics, data Rationale: It is obvious data protection is crucial to
owner and regulatory issues are not going to be virtualized. cloud users. Detailed data protection plan following
For the public cloud, our check list focuses on the following data life cycle is important part of agreement among all
issues. parties, users, providers and affected stakeholders. In
addition to written agreement, actual practice is also
1. Data location Aware important to data protection.
Rationale: Cloud computing makes the world even What: Data protection plan should include clear
flatter. Public cloud providers can have their procedure and practice in each phase of data life cycle
computing resources locally or globally. The sky is the such as collection, storage, transferring and destruction.
limit in this case. Public cloud users do not need to The ability of data auditability is an important part of
know theoretically where the infrastructure location is the plan.
because they are all virtualized. How: It auditors needs to understand the classification
For the IT auditing purpose, public cloud users need to of essential and non-essential data. With this in mind,
know geometric location of their data storage and their they should talk to cloud coordinators and compliance
running applications although in general, they do not officers to understand what’s been done. In addition, IT
need to. Public cloud providers o the other hand would auditors should suggest various controls like red tape in
like to hide the location information. place for every phase of data life cycle. These controls
Knowing the location helps IT auditors understand the can report any incidents happened.
applied regulation or study the implication and make
proper recommendations and decisions. 4. Data processing isolation
What: location aware should include all the history of Rationale: Another possibility of data leakage is during
data location following its life cycle. Pay special the data processing in a shared cloud environment.
attention to those data locate outside legal territory Data might be stored in a temporary storage accessed
such as in other states or countries. by other applications. To isolate data processing and
How: Get these documents from cloud coordinators. make sure no other applications can access the data
Usually it should be in the agreements. Cloud during the processing.
coordinators and IT auditors should talk to cloud What: Processing isolation should have clear procedure
providers about location if these documents either not to make sure data processing does not leak data
exist or out dated How: IT auditors should not only read document in
written but also look for evidence the procedures are
2. Data ownership aware followed.
Rationale: data owner in public cloud is always a
touchy issue between providers and users. We see it 5. Data Lock-in
happened in the argument among facebook and its Rationale: So far, there is no unified cloud user
users, and a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating interface to access cloud. Different cloud providers
that providers of hosted e-mail/SMS services may not provide different data access method using different
turn over messages to the company under the Stored format. This will cause an issue when cloud users want
Communications Privacy Act without a warrant. Many to move their data to another provider or back in house.
cloud users are sure to avoid such situations [21]. So This phenomenon is called data lock-in.
far, no universal legal guidance is established. What: To avoid data lock in, cloud users should know
Cloud users could assume they are the owners of their the exit strategy and options
data. This assumption should be written in an How: It auditors should ask such documents that
agreement. When it comes to move data out of the include exit strategy and options.
cloud or destroy data, cloud users should know if they

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6. IaaS IT architecture How: Ask IT administrators for such documentation.
Rationale: IaaS architecture varies although we see And check if it is in compliance with regulations and
general reference architecture. Knowing the actual best practices
architecture, IT auditors can define their work scope
and focus easily. Because of the IaaS is new to many 10. Cloud Disaster recovery plan
management personnel, the IT SaaS architecture could Rationale: Cloud disaster recovery plan is crucial for
help them visually get the main IT auditing concerns business recovers from any disaster. With cloud in
What: List all the components inside the architecture, place, the disaster recovery process should include
not just a general conceptual one. It should include as them as well.
much detail as possible. What: Cloud disaster recovery plan should include how
How: Talk to cloud coordinators and cloud providers to to get crucial data back and how quickly in the case of
get the IT architecture descriptions. disaster either on cloud provider side or on the cloud
user side. So the plan should include disaster recovery
7. Regulatory Compliance plan from cloud providers.
Rationale: many regulatory issues such as HIPAA [8], How: Ask IT administrators for such documentation,
GLBA [7], FISMA [6], SOX [9], PCI DSS[10] are new and if it is being frequently tested and updated.
and need to do through investigation when sensitive
data are processed and put in cloud. To make 11. Cloud business continuity
compliance in public cloud is a daunting task. Rationale: Business glitch is evitable. Damage
What: Regulatory compliance in terms of public should minimization is carried out by business continuity.
include privacy, safeguard, security rule, information Because of cloud computing, the probability being
system Controls, etc. failure is even higher as services are delivered over
How: understand the specific needs of compliance for internet. Business continuity under cloud should
the enterprise by talking to the compliance officers and include cloud providers’ business continuity plans in
chief information officers. Collect all the documents addition to own business continuity plan.
and practices. What: Cloud business continuity should include those
foreseeable glitches from inside and outside.
8. Cloud IT technique How: Ask IT administrators for such documentation.
Rationale: IT auditing toward public cloud is Business Continuity plan should be tested frequently.
challenging because the IT infrastructure basically
offered by a third party to which depending on the 12. Overall IT projects cost
agreement auditors may not have direct access. Rationale: It is desirable to know the actual cost
Practical IT auditing techniques need to refine to structure using public cloud and how much saving
reflect the change. compared to traditional IT model. It may not related to
What: The techniques should include database, data IT auditing directly. Strategically, the but it tied to IT
center, wired and wireless connection, cloud operating budget and alignment with
system like Azure, virtual technology like VMware, What:
hardware dependencies
How: It auditors should find out the agreement using 4.2 SaaS
third party cloud provider, how far it can go and test,
talk to cloud coordinators what are procedures of Software as a Service (SaaS) is a popular cloud service
reporting any incidents, inspecting specific areas model. Applications are accessible various web browsers. It
routinely, what kind of tools can use. pays for usage.
Many checklist items are similar to those from IaaS. We
9. reporting control list some of special toward to SaaS.
Rationale: cloud control structure should be there with
or without cloud presence. It is required by SOX. 13. Data activity surrender
Although SOX is for public trading companies, private Rationale: Some countries require that data and
companies are recommended to do so too. With cloud activity from SaaS providers should be kept within the
presence, the reporting and responsible extend to third national boundaries so that government agencies can
parties as cloud providers. access them when needed. USA has USA Patriot Act
What: Reporting structure should be all the way to CIO, that mandates SaaS providers keeps all the customer
CEO or Board of Directors. It includes incidents and data that can be accessed under special occasions such
response mechanisms involving cloud providers. as court order. This is not a pleasant outcome many
Usually it is written in an agreement with cloud SaaS users want. Therefore SaaS users should ask if
providers. there is a possibility that can avoid such intrusion. One

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example from [20] is to have cloud location and users challenging is enormous and its implication remains to be
are within the same nation. seen [14].
What: data activity surrender should include what The IT auditing under community cloud computing is
regulation and laws apply, what information is being more of under controllable like private cloud. They know
surrendered and what option available to avoid such where the computing resources located and assigned. It is
surrender. certainly more work than a pure private cloud as it is owned
How: IT auditors should work with legal and contract by a community in which collaboration and competition
team to understand the local law and regulation on data exist as always.
service providers such as phone records, utility bills, The key to its success is to make sure agreements are
library book lending records, etc. T hey should ask clearly written and the whole community needs to obey the
documents about what kind of information cloud rules and regulation. We have made the following list for IT
providers keep and to surrender. This documented Auditing specially for community cloud computing
policy should be checked on site. It auditors should
also ask what option available to avoid surrender. 16. Community cloud IT architecture
Rationale: Clear cloud community IT architecture will
14. Data format help the community understand its computing
Rationale: If data format from specific software can be resources and its capacity. It can help to build
read by many freely available readers like adobe, work, responsible community.
open office and notepad, SaaS users can avoid pay What: The Community Cloud IT architecture should
extra software usage. include core infrastructure, resource layer and service
What: Check available data format from the software layer [14]. Data life cycle, user identifies and trust are
service. important elements. Use case analysis is proper.
How: It auditors should test out all availability data If the cloud is built upon the contribution of the
format and check if these format can be accessed by community, the relation among own computing
general reader applications. They should talk to users resources and the community resource should be
to find out reasons that specific format being used or marked clearly.
not used. How: Talk to cloud administrators to get a sense of its
architecture. If possible, get technical documents that
15. Monitoring for availability and performance describe the community cloud.
Rationale: From SaaS providers, assuring high level of
availability and performance is the key for their 17. Community Cloud management
business success. For SaaS users, monitoring high Rationale: Because community cloud is used by a
availability and performance is an important control. group of industrials of same regions or of same
What: The monitoring control should collect interests, they are collaborative and in the mean time
availability and performance data and use the data to competitive. Clear community cloud management
work with providers to fine tune SaaS service. structure will prevent any future arguments.
How: Talk to cloud coordinator about such type of Community cloud can be managed by a third party or
controls and data for offline analysis. by a technical committee made from the community.
What: It should include clear management structure
5. Checklist for Community Cloud and responsibility. It should include the procedure in
case of argument and disagreement.
Community cloud is another attractive solution to many How: IT auditors from a specific member of the
large and middle size enterprises that have common community should have access the latest documents on
business interests within one region. Many corporations are management.
used to regulations within one region or one country. They
would like to take the advantages of cloud computing but 18. EXIT Strategy
they do not want to have the complication of cloud crossing Rationale: When a member wants to leave the
their comfortable zones. They want both convenient and community, the community cloud should have
control. Hence, community cloud computing is an attractive procedure of the departure. Without the procedure and
concept for them. agreement, community cloud could not last long.
The actual implementation of community cloud varies. It What: The Exit strategy should include documents on
can be built on from scratch. Or it can utilize existing separation. The document should include procedure to
computing resources from the community to form a cloud. follow and a responsible body for the task. The
The ownership of the cloud is open to discuss. Ideally it procedure should clear state what to do about the
should be owned by the community. The technical computing resources the member contributed before.

257

How: IT auditors should ask such document and check 21. Disaster recovery and continuity plan
if it is feasible and if it needs modification. Rationale: In the private cloud, disaster recovery plan
should also follow the procedure like public cloud
except that the cloud is managed by the enterprise. The
6. Checklist for Private Cloud IT team and management should work together to
modify the existing disaster plan to fit the cloud
So far, a private cloud is a very practical and attractive scenario.
option to many security sensitive enterprises. The private What: The disaster recovery plan should include how
cloud gives not only the self control but also the benefits of to get crucial data back and how quickly. The plan
cloud computing, mainly sharing computing resources should include data different location backup.
including processing power and storage capacity among How: Ask IT administrators for such documentation,
different departments within an enterprise. Traditionally, and if it is being frequently tested and updated.
department computing resources are not shared due to data
sensitivity, self control and different business nature of 7. Discussion
departments. Private cloud could remove or blur these In this paper, we discussed a framework of checklist of
boundaries. It virtualizes all computing resources from IT auditing cloud computing to assure secure cloud
different departments into a computing resource pool. Each computing. It is more toward Cloud than a complete list of
department is allocated computing resources from the pool IT Auditing. IT auditors should refer general requirements
by provisioning need on demand. From the department for IT auditing.
point of view, the computing resource is unlimited. The checklist also gives a reference point to those want
Therefore achieving a task faster or making a task not to dive into cloud computing wave and a question set to
achievable before due to computing power constrain. answer if cloud is good for the business in long run.
In most cases, a private cloud could cut IT cost down, We would like to discuss on PaaS service model in the
increase flexibility and scalability, make available 24x7 and future work as we are still looking for a feasible PaaS
even do applications that are impossible before the cloud. business model.
Private cloud certainly poses a great management
challenging as well as auditing challenging. References
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258

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