Abstract: Cloud Computing is a flexible, cost-effective, and proven delivery platform for providing IT services over the Internet that enable convenient, on demand and pay for use access to a pool of shared resources. It is a new technology that can support a broad-spectrum of applications without physically acquiring them. Like other IT services, there are bound of fears and concerns about cloud technology. In this paper, we identify the major security issues and security threats. This paper provides techniques to improve data security by discussing the cryptography and authentication concepts. Additionally deduplication technique is discussed to improve storage utilization in the cloud environment. Finally, we provide some cloud security recommendations.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Cloud drivers, Security issues, Security threats, Cryptography, Authentication, Deduplication.