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Virtualization Technologies and Cloud Security: Advantages, Issues, and Perspectives

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From Database to Cyber Security

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 11170))

Abstract

Virtualization technologies allow multiple tenants to share physical resources with a degree of security and isolation that cannot be guaranteed by mere containerization. Further, virtualization allows protected transparent introspection of Virtual Machine activity and content, thus supporting additional control and monitoring. These features provide an explanation, although partial, of why virtualization has been an enabler for the flourishing of cloud services. Nevertheless, security and privacy issues are still present in virtualization technology and hence in Cloud platforms. As an example, even hardware virtualization protection/isolation is far from being perfect and uncircumventable, as recently discovered vulnerabilities show. The objective of this paper is to shed light on current virtualization technology and its evolution from the point of view of security, having as an objective its applications to the Cloud setting.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Instruction Set Architecture(s).

  2. 2.

    Virtual Function I/O.

  3. 3.

    Software Guard Extensions.

  4. 4.

    Secure Encrypted Virtualization.

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Acknowledgements

Roberto Di Pietro would like to thank Sushil Jajodia for the guidance and support received when he was a young PhD student visiting his Center for Secure Information Systems at GMU—a pivotal experience in Roberto’s professional life—and, above all, for Sushil’s life-long example of dedication and commitment to pursue research excellence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information and Computing Technology Division, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

    Roberto Di Pietro

  2. Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy

    Flavio Lombardi

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  1. Roberto Di Pietro
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  2. Flavio Lombardi
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Correspondence to Roberto Di Pietro .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Pierangela Samarati

  2. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Indrajit Ray

  3. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Indrakshi Ray

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Di Pietro, R., Lombardi, F. (2018). Virtualization Technologies and Cloud Security: Advantages, Issues, and Perspectives. In: Samarati, P., Ray, I., Ray, I. (eds) From Database to Cyber Security. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11170. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04834-1_9

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