A Review of DOS Attacks in Cloud Computing

Abstract

Cloud computing is an emerging trend in the field of IT providing scalable and flexible services to the end users on demand. Cloud offers services in three levels namely infrastructure, platform and software to meet the needs of different kinds of customers. The key cloud characteristics include multitenancy, location and device independence, elasticity, resource pooling and measured service. The IT companies especially the Small and Medium Scale Businesses are moving onto the cloud which enables them to perform high end computational tasks in a cost effective manner. As more and more IT capabilities can be provided as a service in cloud, security becomes a major concern. Among the numerous attacks that can target the cloud environment, DoS or DDoS attacks can cause a major breach in security. This paper discusses the various DDOS attacks and the defense mechanisms that can be employed to secure the cloud.