TITLE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON SECURITY ISSUES BETWEEN PC BASED AND CLOUD BASED OPERATING SYSTEM Authors & affiliations: Muzammil Nawaz First Author, MSCS Dept. UET Taxila. Ch.muzammil.nawaz@gmail.com Fetching Central ideas of article, Compiling & Manuscripting. Nasir Khan Second Author MSCS Dept. UET Taxila. Nasirkhan.uw@gmail.com Exploring meaningful material, referencing. Munawar Iqbal Third Author Asstt. Prof. MSCS UET Taxila, munwar89@gmail.com Guidelines & review.
Abstract Sharing of resources on cloud is getting more and more valuable with the passage of time and growing the importance of cloud computing trend. There are number of apps available on cloud for different purposes which are easy to access and use rather than installing an application on pc and then utilizing it for such purpose. In the same way the attacks of viruses and Trojans is a great security risk while using an unknown application. The need of a complete cloud based operating system which may fulfill some special requirements regarding security issues, performance and saving of memory is also getting more importance. Microsoft is anticipating to offer a same like operating system declared as MIDORI which would be based on virtualization, singularity and concurrency [1] where all the data will be stored on a central storage server of Microsoft s cloud. This study measures the risk factors which are involved in security issues of both a cloud based operating system and a PC based windows like OS. Keywords: Midori, security, operating system, concurrency, singularity 1. INTRODUCTION All common operating systems are usually installed on the local storage of a PC, normally it is hard disk of a computer which holds all supporting files, applications of operating system and also accommodates the data other than the part of installed OS. On the other hand a great risk of non-security of operating system s files or damaging of the data was always a factor which still needed to be kept maintained. It is difficult to judge for a non-infected program without scanning it by using of a good anti-virus program before running it because running an infected application directly may infect more data of hard disk and further more programs of operating system. This all process will take place in invisible mode, so user is blind in this scenario about the judgment of programs or applications infected by viruses or Trojans. The windows operating system is a completely single PC based operating system and it ruled on computer s world for a long time. Microsoft introduced its several versions time to time with enhanced features, as from windows 3.1 to the latest versions of windows like windows 8 and windows 10. Microsoft is not releasing a next version of windows but proceeding to offer a cloud based operating system other than windows OS [2]. The coming up cloud based operating system is more virtualized, singularity and concurrency based with the facility of central storage server to keep and access user s data on cloud [3]. The security risk in cloud based OS has reduced as compared by PC based OS in such ways discussed above. The viruses will attack on the local storage of PC where only the data if placed may be damaged but the operating system will be safe because the supporting files are not installed on the hard disk, so all applications involved in cloud s OS are more trusted to run blindly. The data can also be placed on cloud s given storage which will also be safe from the infections of Trojans and malwares. Now the next important question raises that how safe is the data of user from cloud itself which is being transferred from local storage to cloud s storage to be processed using
different apps of cloud based OS. The applications of cloud based OS which demand to upload a copy of original data for processing and producing desired results on that data are not secure for user s data secrecy. 2. FEATURES OF MIDORI CLOUD BASED OPERATING SYSTEM Three main features are included in cloud based operating system to enhance resource sharing and more availability of resources in a single environment [4] of OS which is more virtualized and based on singularity. A cloud based OS each time loads from cloud, so risk of scammers, viruses, infected files etc is also less and there is no need of installing extra anti-virus programs. The data infection chances are also reduced because of availability of storage on central storage server provided by same server provider. 2.1 Virtualization Virtualization extracts the working strategy of a resource and acts virtually in same like way rather that actually. By utilizing virtualization it saves more resources and hardware as it reduces the separate hardware again and again for processing. 2.2 Singularity Singularity is based on SIP (software isolated process) where each process reduces the inter communication with other and OS acts like a micro kernel based [5] operating system. Microsoft research also introduced the same like operating system also named singularity between the year 2003-10 which was highly dependable and the apps and other features like drivers were written in managed code. While the managed code can be said a combinations of computer languages which are supported within.net languages. 2.3 Concurrency This feature is responsible for multiple executions simultaneously [6] on different cores of a single chip or on physically separate processors [7] to maintain multiple processing using such computing methods. 3. PROPOSED WORK FOR COMPARISON OF SECURITY ISSUES The proposed work is based on security issues of an operating system which are being faced by using a window like operating system installed on local storage of computer and a cloud based operating system which has been kept on cloud, not installed individually on local PC s storage. The SIP (software isolated processes) is based on singularity which is responsible of reducing dependencies [8]. These dependencies might between the running applications or between operating system and the applications which are running on same operating system. Following common factors may involve in security issues of an operating system.
3.1 Role of Malwares In PC based operating system malware is a major element which affects the security issue of operating system. Malware is malicious software which functionality is other than the user s requirements. These programs are in the form of viruses, Trojan horses, backdoors, rootkits, evasion etc and loaded with the installation of other software of user s interest. These malicious programs run in background and use system resources as well as performs spying and data damaging activities. In cloud based operating system malwares are controlled by service provider at cloud level so user is able to proceed comfortably while working in cloud based operating system. Cloud based OS because loads from cloud server so each time it provides a fresh virus free platform which is most reliable than window like PC based operating system comparatively. Figure 1 PC based and cloud based application call Figure 1 is presenting a simple model of application call in both types of operating systems. In first case of PC based operating system application and virus both are in same level of storage where a virus can easily affect an application to convert it as infected. The infected application is now a not trusted application which is ready to run an attached virus program with it while running. Where in second case of application call from cloud based operating system a virus program is available in local storage of PC but each time application is running from cloud which is a source other than local storage. This application is each time coming as a virus free trusted app.
3.2 Role of Viruses and Trojan Horses Virus is a malware program which infects data and applications kept on a PC. It grows its copies time to time programmatically and concatenates itself with applications or executable files so that it can be loaded automatically with loading of an executable file. The cloud based OS avoids the possibility of viral attacks and interruption in its built-in applications because it offers its own trusted applications which are running on cloud not in user s PC that is the reason that viruses are unable to infect that applications. 3.3 Role of Hackers Hackers always focused to interrupt in someone s personal computers for their hacking activities these activities are such as data theft, non-authenticated use of a machine or controlling someone s accounts. Data kept in local storage can be theft of damaged by hackers because storage resource can be hacked in such ways while running of pc based operating system. A cloud based OS also provides storage on cloud which is secured by cloud provider and hacking the data which is placed on cloud is hard to hack as compared to the data placed in local storage of PC which is being handled by PC based operating system. Table 1 Comparison between Cloud vs PC based OS Possibility of threat in both Factors Operating Systems PC Based Cloud Based Malwares interruption High Low Threats for Apps Viruses infection High Low Trojan horses activities High Low Backdoors attacks on data High Low Threats for data Viruses infection High Low Interruption of Intruders High Low Threats for data Privacy Personal data privacy Threat Low High The comparison Table 1 is showing different threats rate in both Operating systems. The malware, viruses and Trojan horses lie as high possibility of threats in PC based OS. The apps in the same OS will also have an effect on their un-trusted rate. The secondly shown data threat factor is also high in PC based OS due to involvement of backdoor attackers, viruses and intruders. Thirdly shown a data privacy risk factor is different from previous both ones. Privacy of personal data is only probable with personal computer which is neither shared to any one nor connected with any outside source. Sharing data with cloud damages personal privacy.
4. CONCLUSION The security in cloud based operating system is stronger than windows like operating system in most of ways discussed in this paper such as apps are trusted and virus free on cloud which are offered by Cloud s OS. The data will be more secure from virus attacks and Trojans which is kept on cloud s given storage as compared to the data kept on local storage of PC. However the secrecy of data which is being transferred towards cloud is not trusted in cloud based OS. So the security reliability and trusted apps efficiency is high in cloud based operating system as compared to a PC based windows like operating system. While the efficiency of data secrecy lapses in Cloud based Operating system. Future Work: Counter measures for the discussed security issues in cloud based OS. Data encryption techniques before uploading it to cloud and decryption after receiving it from cloud. Acknowledgement: All praises to Allah, the most merciful and the most beneficial. We are thankful for his blessings for completing this article. We would also like to thank our friends and teachers who supported us well. We sincerely thank to our beloved parents for their special moral support, best wishes and prayers. REFERENCES: [1] MIDORI-Cloud Based Windows Operating System vikas yadav, Ravinder Mandhan, Hansraj Yadav. International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, September [2014]. [2] Microsoft s plans for post-windows OS revealed SD Times David Worthington, Software development news, July [2008]. [3] maps out migration from Windows SD Times, David Worthington, Microsoft: Software development news July [2008]. [4] Life after Windows Microsoft Midori Operating System, Marius Oiaga, June [2008]. [5] Singularity RDK, Retrieved January [2012]. [6] Microsoft prepares for end of Windows with Midori, Elizabeth Montalbano, July [2008]. [7] CHESS : A symmetric testing tool for concurrent software, Madanlal Musuvathi, Shaz Qadeer, Thomas Ball.Microsoft. Retrieved July [2008]. [8] Goodbye, XP. Hello, Midori, Mary-Jo Foley. June [2008]. concurrent software. Microsoft. Retrieved July [2008].