English abstract
Cloud Computing is a model whereby users share data and digital resources through
the Internet. Cloud Computing has more scalability, availability and reliability than traditional
ways of sharing information. Furthermore, it has more efficiency and less operational cost,
thus it would be of great economical importance for all kinds of business especially the small
and medium ones.
On the other hand, as any technology has pros and cons, Cloud Computing has some
obstacles and issues where security in one of the main problems that Cloud Computing is
facing. This research deals with a design of a secure framework for Oman Cloud Computing
and measures the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).
APT is one of the most sophisticated types of attacks where it targets high-value
organizations such as military, finance, government sectors, power sectors, etc. Its main
objective is to extract users' credentials rather than destroys the data or network resources such
as servers, firewalls, routers and switches.
Therefore, study and analysis of APT is very important because it helps to improve
Cloud Computing services with less security risks and challenges. In particular, this research
is going to find the main factors and measures the effect of an APT attack. Then, it classifies
these factors into groups in order to simplify the design of a framework. Furthermore, a survey
has been conducted based on the identified factors. In addition, mathematical equations are
included for calculating the collected data from the survey to derive the solution. To implement
the proposed idea, as SPSS package has also been used for finding the reliability and inter-
correlation between various factors, Finally, the APT readiness degree has been analyzed and
implemented.
