A Framework for Security Transparency in Cloud Computing

Individuals and corporate users are persistently considering cloud adoption due to its
significant benefits compared to traditional computing environments. The data and applications
in the cloud are stored in an environment that is separated, managed and maintained externally
to the organisation. Therefore, it is essential for cloud providers to demonstrate and implement
adequate security practices to protect the data and processes put under their stewardship. Security
transparency in the cloud is likely to become the core theme that underpins the systematic disclosure
of security designs and practices that enhance customer confidence in using cloud service and
deployment models. In this paper, we present a framework that enables a detailed analysis of
security transparency for cloud based systems. In particular, we consider security transparency from
three different levels of abstraction, i.e., conceptual, organisation and technical levels, and identify
the relevant concepts within these levels. This allows us to provide an elaboration of the essential
concepts at the core of transparency and analyse the means for implementing them from a technical
perspective. Finally, an example from a real world migration context is given to provide a solid
discussion on the applicability of the proposed framework.