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Currently, most of the standards related to cloud computing security focus on information security management systems (ISMS), and corresponding certifications only concentrate on cloud services rather than specific cloud components. There is a lack of internationally recognized technical security specifications and certifications for cloud components such as the cloud operating system (OS). CSA believes the guidance provided in this paper will be useful to help regulate security requirements for the cloud OS to prevent security threats and improve security capabilities of cloud OS products.

CSA’s Cloud Component Specifications Working Group first published the Cloud OS Security Specification v1 in July 2019. Some of the key changes and updates made in this revised version are:

• Adjusted document structure to be more in line with logical architecture. Corresponding contents in version 1 are also moved / combined / removed according to the structure adjustment.
  
  
• New requirements added in view of cloud security technology developments, including micro segmentation, hardware-based encryption, VM High availability, backup & recovery capability, key management service, cloud bastion host.
  
  
• Several requirements are improved and revised to be more precise and instructive, such as the processing / saving of sensitive information, identity management and log functions.