Abstract The evolution of cloud computing has revolutionized how the computing is abstracted and utilized on remote third party infrastructure. It is now feasible to try out novel ideas over the cloud with no or very low initial cost. Cloud computing is attractive to companiesandorganizationsasiteliminatestherequirementforthemtoplanaheadforprovisioning,andallowsthemtostartwith small resources and increase gradually as the service demand rises. There are challenges in adopting cloud computing; but with obstacles, we have opportunities for research in several aspects of cloud computing. One of the main issue is the data security and privacyofinformationstoredandprocessedatthecloudserviceprovider’ssystems.Inthiswork,Wesurveyedseveralresearch work on cloud computing related to security challenges and privacy issues. The primary goal of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the security challenges of cloud computing and identify approaches and solutions which have been proposed and adopted by the cloud service industry.