Cloud Computing Security Challenges and Emerging Solutions

Abstract

Cloud computing faces growing security challenges due to its distributed nature and rapid adoption, including data breaches, account hijacking, and misconfigurations. This paper examines key threats exploiting shared infrastructure vulnerabilities and explores emerging solutions such as Zero Trust architecture and AI-driven threat detection. This paper examines four major security challenges, along with three innovative countermeasures, supported by real-world case studies from education, disaster recovery, and enterprise environments. The results show that integrating Zero Trust principles with machine learning enables strong and reliable defense mechanisms for organizations deploying cloud services at scale.