An Approach for Information Security Risk Assessment in Cloud Environments

Abstract

Cloud technology has revolutionized the way computational resources are accessed, offering benefits that have led to widespread adoption. The risk of losing important data is one of the reasons why some organizations do not adopt the migration to a public cloud or adopt the partial migration of information that is not critical. The process of risk assessment should be done since the initial stage of a project and become a continuous process. It is an essential process that help management structure to take strategic decision about security mechanisms needed to be implemented to avoid information leaks and about the costs and impact of unexpected events. This paper presents the process of information security risk assessment as well as the importance of knowledge of the associated risks. The paper also proposes a model for determining risk of data security according to their importance for the organization, which provides an overview of vulnerabilities and their real impact on assets. Furthermore, the proposed model helps organizations to choose the right methods to ensure the optimal level of security, in line with operational requirements and critical information.