As an IT analyst for BallotOnline, a company providing voting solutions to a global client base, you are working to convince the organization to move the current infrastructure to the cloud.

Your supervisor and the director of IT, Sophia, has asked you to summarize for the company executives the potential risks and compliance issues that BallotOnline will have to contend with in the transition to the cloud.

The final report will be seven to 10 pages that convey your understanding and management of risks associated with cloud computing, as well as ensuring compliance with legal requirements involved in moving BallotOnline systems to the cloud.

Step 1: Research Risks Associated With Cloud Adoption

The first step in assessing risk in cloud computing will be to identify and describe risk concepts and cloud computing risk factors associated with cloud adoption. As a software as a service (SaaS) company considering an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud service provider for your hosting needs, consider third party outsourcing issues and the generally accepted best practices for cloud adoption and review relevant cloud risk case studies. You should also consider best practices for cloud adoption.

As part of the risk management process, identify and describe other types of risk, such as risks associated with having a service-level agreement (SLA). An example of a potential risk could be if your company is obligated to protect personal information, and then the cloud provider that you use suffers a security breach exposing that personal information.

Here, identify and describe other types of risks or potential liability issues that apply to BallotOnline.

Step 2: Identify the Most Appropriate Guidelines for Managing Risks

In order to identify guidelines applicable to your company’s industry, you must have an understanding of the different types of risk management guidelines that exist and are frequently applicable in cloud environments.

There are several cybersecurity standards applicable to cloud computing environments such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, ISO standards, and US federal government standards (DoD/FIPS), as well as several major sets of risk guidelines for dealing with the risks involved. Also, there are organizations such as the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) that recommend best practices for managing risks.

Review the different guidelines and determine which are most appropriate for BallotOnline. For example, NIST has responsibility for developing a number of elections industry guidelines within the United States.

Identify why those guidelines are most appropriate and compile these items into a brief (one page or less) recommendation and justification of your choice. Your recommendation will also be incorporated into your final report in the final step.

Submit your recommendation to Sophia to review before you present your final work.

Step 3: Identify Potential Privacy Issues and Mitigation Measures

Now that you have identified the guidelines most applicable to your organization, it is time to discuss privacy protections that may apply.

BallotOnline is now a global organization and may need to contend with several sets of privacy laws since these laws vary from country to country.

Sophia has recommended that you focus on European Union (EU) privacy requirements for now, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), since those are considered to be the most challenging for compliance. Many companies opt to host data for their European customers entirely within facilities in the European Union, and the companies implement restrictions to prevent data for EU citizens from crossing borders into non-EU zones. This is the approach that you have been asked to take and where you should focus your efforts. Note that some cloud providers, such as Amazon, have received special approval from EU authorities to permit data transfer outside of the EU.

Research EU privacy requirements, identify the requirements that apply to your project, and why they apply and compile your recommendations for complying with these requirements. These will be incorporated into your final report.

Before moving on to the next step, discuss privacy issues in one page or less, and submit it separately before you submit your final work.

Step 4: Create Risk Management Matrix

Now that you have identified and described the types of risks that may apply to your organization, create a risk management matrix to assess/analyze that risk, and make recommendations for risk mitigation measures.

This Sample Risk Assessment for Cloud Computing will give you an example of a completed risk matrix.

Use the risk management matrix template to identify risks and write a brief summary explaining how to understand the data. Submit it to Sophia for feedback before you present your final work.

Step 5: Describe Cloud Security Issues

Now that you have completed the risk analysis, you can start to identify cloud and network security issues that may apply in BallotOnline’s operating environment, including data in transit vulnerabilities and multifactor authentication.

Consider cloud computing risks, network security design, information security, data classifications, and identity management issues. Your findings will be incorporated into your final report.

Discuss these security issues in one page or less, and submit it separately before you submit your final work.