Search 1: Financial and Cloud

• Database Used: Academic Search premier
• Boolean Term: Financial AND Cloud
• Limiters: Full text & Peer-reviewed, published after 2012
• Search Results: 85
• Subject Terms from Interesting Study: ITIL Process Management to Mitigate Operations Risk in Cloud Architecture Infrastructure for Banking and Financial Services Industry (2020). Subject Terms were: (1) Financial services industry, (2) Operations management, (3) Change Management, (4) Information storage & retrieval systems, and (5) Labor supply
• Annotation:
  • Mahalle, A., Yong, J., & Tao, X. (2020). ITIL process management to mitigate operations risk in cloud architecture infrastructure for banking and financial services industry. Web Intelligence (2405-6456), 1–10.  https://doi.org/10.3233/web-200444.

This study highlights the importance of change management within a cloud environment in financial institutions. Due to the cloud infrastructure causing incidents, a proper change management policy will ensure timely results from an IT or risk perspective. The authors of this study bring skills from an operational point of view for technology risks. This is a peer-revied article that discusses the importance of proper change management to avoid emergency changes within a cloud structure.

• Usefulness: This article could provide a useful resource as to helping others understand how financial organizations work. Change management processes are a big part of the risk designs inside financial institutions and knowing about them helps mitigate risks.

Search 2: Cloud Security and Risks

• Database Used: Computer Science
• Boolean Term: Cloud AND Security AND Risks
• Limiters: Full text & Peer-reviewed, narrowed down from 2018 to current
• Search Results: 612
• Subject Terms from Interesting Article: Security Challenges from Abuse of Cloud Service Threat (2019). Subject Terms were: (1) Abuse of cloud service, (2) DDoS, (3) Botnet (4) Botcloud, (5) Shared technology vulnerability, (6) Malicious insiders
• Annotation:
  • Ahmad, I., & Bakht, H. (2019). Security challenges from abuse of cloud service threat. International Journal of Computing and Digital Systems, 8(1), 19+. https://doi.org/10.12785/ijcds/080103.

This study showcases the importance of understanding the security risks with cloud computing. The paper highlights the risks associated with cloud services becoming unavailable and the disruptions it could cause. The reason for this study is due to the lack of security standards defined from the abuse of cloud service threats. The author of this text is knowledgeable in this field from his experience in operations and business management. Due to the possible financial or business impacts a cloud disruption can cause, many individuals need to have a risk mitigation system in place and understand basic security rules to fight against attacks.

• Usefulness: This article could provide to be very useful in explaining why financial systems need to implement a standard approach to focus on cloud threats. As the financial institutions move towards cloud-based systems, having a legal agreement between the cloud servicers and the financial institutions is important.

Search 3: Financial Risk and Security

• Database Used: Computer Source
• Boolean Term: Financial AND Risk AND Security
• Limiters: Full text & Peer-reviewed
• Search Results: 68
• Subject Terms from Interesting Article: A quantitative assessment of security risks based on a multifaceted classification approach. (2021). Subject terms were: (1) Risk assessment, (2) Information storage & retrieval systems, (3) Classification, (4) Computer systems, (5) Communication infrastructure
  • Annotation: Jouini, M., Ben, A. R. L., & Khedri, R. (2021). A quantitative assessment of security risks based on a multifaceted classification approach. International Journal of Information Security 20 (4): 493–510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-020-00515-6.

This study highlights the importance that businesses should understand from threats of cloud computing infrastructures. Damages could result in financial losses and threats arise from multifaceted environments. This study focuses on creating a security assessment model and provides quantitative information based on this model. The authors understand the risks of data loss from a cloud environment and offer solutions to avoid a financial impact. The study indicates that the majority of the attacks were malicious in nature and not done just to “show-off” hacking abilities.

• Usefulness: Another very useful article that describes why it is important to implement security standards for cloud computing due to the financial risks involved.