One of the biggest challenges incloud security risk assessmentisthe lack of transparencyregardingcloud provider operations and security controls.

Key Issues with Limited Visibility:

Cloud providers manage infrastructure at a global scale:

Customerscannot directly inspectsecurity implementations.

Rely onthird-party attestationslikeSOC 2, ISO 27001, CSA STARinstead of direct assessments.

Multi-tenancy complexities:

Cloud customersshare infrastructurewith other tenants.

Data isolation mechanisms (e.g., virtual private clouds, encryption)must be trustedwithout direct verification.

Regulatory compliance challenges:

Organizations handling sensitive data (e.g., healthcare, finance)requirestrict controls.

Cloud providers may not offer sufficient audit logsor control overdata residency and processing.

Incident response limitations:

In traditional IT, organizations controllog access, forensic analysis, and recovery.

In the cloud,incident investigation depends on the provider’s logging and notification practices.

Thisvisibility issueis extensively covered in:

CCSK v5 - Security Guidance v4.0, Domain 4 (Compliance and Audit Management)

ENISA’s Cloud Computing Risk Assessment (Limited visibility into cloud provider security policies)​