Cloud Computing Security Challenges in Higher Educational Institutions - A Survey

Cloud computing brings for higher educational institution a wide range of benefits with new capabilities to incorporate in the educational process. However, the cloud services are vulnerable to a variety of security challenges. One of the key challenges that educational institutions face in adopting cloud computing technologies is a provisioning of a secure cloud infrastructure. In this paper, the authors discover some cloud benefits in the education sector and discuss limitations of main cloud services as well as highlight security challenges that institutions face when utilizing cloud technologies. The survey was conducted in variety educational institutions to study the views of stakeholders on the cloud security vulnerabilities and approaches used to overcome. Finally, this paper provides baseline recommendations to avoid security risks efficiently when adopting cloud computing in institutions of higher education. General Terms Cloud Computing, Higher Education, Security, Survey