Title: Hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment considerations

Authors: Áine MacDermott; Qi Shi; Madjid Merabti; Kashif Kifayat

Addresses: PROTECT: Research Centre for Critical Infrastructure Computer Technology and Protection, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK ' PROTECT: Research Centre for Critical Infrastructure Computer Technology and Protection, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK ' PROTECT: Research Centre for Critical Infrastructure Computer Technology and Protection, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK ' PROTECT: Research Centre for Critical Infrastructure Computer Technology and Protection, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK

Abstract: Critical infrastructure technology vendors will inevitability take advantage of the benefits offered by the cloud computing paradigm. While this may offer improved performance and scalability, the associated security threats impede this progression. Hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment may seem inane to some, but currently remote access to the control system over the internet is commonplace. This shares the same characteristics as cloud computing, i.e., on-demand access and resource pooling. There is a wealth of data used within critical infrastructure. There needs to be an assurance that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of this data remains. Authenticity and non-repudiation are also important security requirements for critical infrastructure systems. This paper provides an overview of critical infrastructure and the cloud computing relationship, whilst detailing security concerns and existing protection methods. Discussion on the direction of the area is presented, as is a survey of current protection methods and their weaknesses. Finally, we present our observation and our current research into hosting critical infrastructure services in the cloud environment, and the considerations for detecting cloud attacks.

Keywords: critical infrastructures; intrusion detection; cloud computing; cloud security; infrastructure protection; critical sectors; infrastructure services; cloud attacks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2015.073843

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2015 Vol.11 No.4, pp.365 - 381

Received: 10 Apr 2014
Accepted: 16 Oct 2014
Published online: 24 Dec 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article