Skip to main content
Articles

Cloud Security Risk Assessment and Threat Prediction Using Machine Learning Techniques

Abstract

Cloud computing has transformed the delivery of computing resources by providing scalable, on‑demand access to processing, storage, and software services. Despite the benefits in cost and flexibility, cloud adoption poses significant security challenges due to the dynamic, distributed, and multi‑tenant nature of cloud environments. Traditional security risk assessment approaches struggle to keep pace with evolving threats such as intrusion attempts, data breaches, misconfigurations, and advanced persistent threats. Machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as powerful tools for proactive security management, enabling automated risk assessment, anomaly detection, and threat prediction by learning patterns from historical data. By integrating supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning models, cloud security systems can classify activities as normal or malicious, identify vulnerable configurations, and forecast potential security incidents. This paper explores how machine learning techniques enhance cloud security risk assessment and threat prediction, synthesizing research from foundational work through 2021. It examines data collection strategies, feature engineering, model training, evaluation metrics, and deployment challenges. Findings highlight that ML‑based security systems improve detection accuracy, reduce response time, and support adaptive threat mitigation, yet they also face challenges such as data imbalance, feature drift, interpretability, and computational overhead. Recommendations and future research directions include hybrid modeling, adversarial robustness, and explainability for ML‑based cloud security.

References

1. Ahmed, M., Mahmood, A. N., & Hu, J. (2016). A survey of network anomaly detection techniques. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 60, 19–31.
2. Bhuyan, M. H., Bhattacharyya, D. K., &Kalita, J. K. (2014). Network anomaly detection: Methods, systems and tools. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(1), 303–336.
3. Breiman, L. (2001). Random forests. Machine Learning, 45(1), 5–32.
4. Buczak, A. L., &Guven, E. (2016). A survey of data mining and machine learning methods for cyber security intrusion detection. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 18(2), 1153–1176.
5. Chandola, V., Banerjee, A., & Kumar, V. (2009). Anomaly detection: A survey. ACM Computing Surveys, 41(3), 1–58.
6. Cui, W., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Deep learning and its applications in intrusion detection. IEEE Access, 7, 45094–45107.
7. Denning, D. E. (1987). An intrusion detection model. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE 13(2), 222–232.
8. Eskin, E., Arnold, A., Prerau, M., Portnoy, L., &Stolfo, S. J. (2002). A geometric framework for unsupervised anomaly detection. Applications of Data Mining in Computer Security, 77–101.
9. Forouzan, B. A. (2012). Data Communications and Networking (5th ed.). McGraw Hill Education.
10. Garcia Teodoro, P., Diaz Verdejo, J., Maciá Fernández, G., &Vázquez, E. (2009). Anomaly based network intrusion detection: Techniques, systems and challenges. Computers & Security, 28(1–2), 18–28.
11. Hoadley, B., &Zorko, S. (2006). Risk assessment guide for information technology systems. NIST Special Publication.
12. Liao, H. J., Lin, C. H. R., Lin, Y. C., & Tung, K. Y. (2013). Intrusion detection system: A comprehensive review. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 36(1), 16–24.
13. Liu, X., & Yu, X. (2019). Machine learning based anomaly detection for cloud computing systems. Journal of Cloud Computing, 8(1), 13.
14. Mukkamala, S., Janoski, G., & Sung, A. H. (2002). Intrusion detection using neural networks and support vector machines. Proceedings of the IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 1702–1707.
15. Mukherjee, B., Heberlein, L. T., & Levitt, K. N. (1994). Network intrusion detection. IEEE Network, 8(3), 26–41.
16. Patcha, A., & Park, J. M. (2007). An overview of anomaly detection techniques: Existing solutions and latest technological trends. Computer Networks, 51(12), 3448–3470.
17. Portnoy, L., Eskin, E., &Stolfo, S. J. (2001). Intrusion detection with unlabeled data using clustering. Proceedings of ACM CSS Workshop on Data Mining Applied to Security
18. Mohammed, S. (2021). Hybrid cloud architecture strategy for global infrastructure operations. International Journal of Engineering & Extended Technologies Research (IJEETR), 3(6), 4078–4081.
19. Sommer, R., &Paxson, V. (2010). Outside the closed world: On using machine learning for network intrusion detection. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 305–316.
20. Tsai, C. F., Hsu, Y. F., Lin, C. Y., & Lin, W. Y. (2009). Intrusion detection by machine learning: A review. Expert Systems with Applications, 36(10), 11994–12000.
21. Zhang, C., &Zulkernine, M. (2006). Anomaly based network intrusion detection with unsupervised outlier detection. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Communications.