Biblio

Security in cloud environments is always considered an issue, due to the lack of control over leased resources. In this paper, we present a solution that offers security-as-a-service by relying on Security Service Level Agreements (Security SLAs) as a means to represent the security features to be granted. In particular, we focus on a security mechanism that is automatically configured and activated in an as-a-service fashion in order to protect cloud resources against DoS attacks. The activities reported in this paper are part of a wider work carried out in the FP7-ICT programme project SPECS, which aims at building a framework offering Security-as-a-Service using an SLA-based approach. The proposed approach founds on the adoption of SPECS Services to negotiate, to enforce and to monitor suitable security metrics, chosen by cloud customers, negotiated with the provider and included in a signed Security SLA.

The perception of lack of control over resources deployed in the cloud may represent one of the critical factors for an organization to decide to cloudify or not their own services. Furthermore, in spite of the idea of offering security-as-a-service, the development of secure cloud applications requires security skills that can slow down the adoption of the cloud for nonexpert users. In the recent years, the concept of Security Service Level Agreements (Security SLA) is assuming a key role in the provisioning of cloud resources. This paper presents the SPECS framework, which enables the development of secure cloud applications covered by a Security SLA. The SPECS framework offers APIs to manage the whole Security SLA life cycle and provides all the functionalities needed to automatize the enforcement of proper security mechanisms and to monitor userdefined security features. The development process of SPECS applications offering security-enhanced services is illustrated, presenting as a real-world case study the provisioning of a secure web server.