Cloud Computing Legal Issues

Issues in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is a new name for an old concept. The delivery of computing services from
a remote location. Cloud Computing is Internet-based computing, where shared resources,
software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand.
These are major issues in Cloud Computing:
1. Privacy: The user data can be accessed by the host company with or without permission.
The service provider may access the data that is on the cloud at any point in time. They could
accidentally or deliberately alter or even delete information.
2. Compliance: There are many regulations in places related to data and hosting. To comply
with regulations (Federal Information Security Management Act, Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act, etc.) the user may have to adopt deployment modes that are
expensive.
3. Security: Cloud-based services involve third-party for storage and security. Can one assume
that a cloud-based company will protect and secure one’s data if one is using their services at
a very low or for free? They may share users’ information with others. Security presents a real
threat to the cloud.
4. Sustainability: This issue refers to minimizing the effect of cloud computing on the
environment. Citing the server’s effects on the environmental effects of cloud computing, in
areas where climate favors natural cooling and renewable electricity is readily available, the
countries with favorable conditions, such as Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland are trying to
attract cloud computing data centers. But other than nature’s favors, would these countries
have enough technical infrastructure to sustain the high-end clouds?
5. Abuse: While providing cloud services, it should be ascertained that the client is not
purchasing the services of cloud computing for a nefarious purpose. In 2009, a banking Trojan
illegally used the popular Amazon service as a command-and-control channel that issued
software updates and malicious instructions to PCs that were infected by the malware So the
hosting companies and the servers should have proper measures to address these issues.
6, Higher Cost: If you want to use cloud services uninterruptedly then you need to have a
powerful network with higher bandwidth than ordinary internet networks, and also if your
organization is broad and large so ordinary cloud service subscription won’t suit your
organization. Otherwise, you might face hassle in utilizing an ordinary cloud service while
working on complex projects and applications. This is a major problem before small
organizations, that restricts them from diving into cloud technology for their business.
7. Recovery of lost data in contingency: Before subscribing any cloud service provider goes
through all norms and documentations and check whether their services match your
requirements and sufficient well-maintained resource infrastructure with proper upkeeping.
Once you subscribed to the service you almost hand over your data into the hands of a third
party. If you are able to choose proper cloud service then in the future you don’t need to
worry about the recovery of lost data in any contingency.

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Cloud Computing Legal Issues

8. Upkeeping(management) of Cloud: Maintaining a cloud is a herculin task because a cloud

architecture contains a large resources infrastructure and other challenges and risks as well,
user satisfaction, etc. As users usually pay for how much they have consumed the resources.
So, sometimes it becomes hard to decide how much should be charged in case the user wants
scalability and extend the services.
9. Lack of resources/skilled expertise: One of the major issues that companies and
enterprises are going through today is the lack of resources and skilled employees. Every
second organization is seeming interested or has already been moved to cloud services. That’s
why the workload in the cloud is increasing so the cloud service hosting companies need
continuous rapid advancement. Due to these factors, organizations are having a tough time
keeping up to date with the tools. As new tools and technologies are emerging every day so
more skilled/trained employees need to grow. These challenges can only be minimized
through additional training of IT and development staff.
10. Pay-per-use service charges: Cloud computing services are on-demand services a user can
extend or compress the volume of the resource as per needs. So, you paid for how much you
have consumed the resources. It is difficult to define a certain pre-defined cost for a particular
quantity of services. Such types of ups and downs and price variations make the
implementation of cloud computing very difficult and intricate. It is not easy for a firm’s owner
to study consistent demand and fluctuations with the seasons and various events. So, it is hard
to build a budget for a service that could consume several months of the budget in a few days
of heavy use.
Recently there have been some efforts to create and unify the legal environment specific to
the cloud. For example, the United States–European Union Safe Harbor Act provides a seven-
point framework of requirements for U.S. companies that may use data from other parts of
the world, namely, the European Union. This framework sets forth how companies can
participate and certify their compliance and is defined in detail on the U.S. Department of
Commerce and Federal Trade Commission web sites.
The following seven Safe Harbor Principles or has implemented its own privacy policies that
conform with these principles:
➢ Notify individuals about the purposes for which information is collected and used.
➢ Give individuals the choice of whether their information can be disclosed to a third
party.
➢ Ensure that if it transfers personal information to a third party, that third party also
provides the same level of privacy protection.
➢ Allow individuals access to their personal information.
➢ Take reasonable security precautions to protect collected data from loss, misuse, or
disclosure.
➢ Take reasonable steps to ensure the integrity of the data collected.

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Cloud Computing Legal Issues

➢ Have in place an adequate enforcement mechanism.

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