Cloud Computing Infrastructure Security: Challenges and Solutions

Cloud computing market has been growing with its largest over the last two years. Many businesses and education systems moved to the Cloud to support remote work and learning respectively during the COVID time. As data and applications are being migrated outside the enterprise administrative domain to the Cloud, various security challenges should be known to the consumer and the provider. This paper discusses the cloud data center building blocks and surveys the current threats, vulnerabilities, and defense mechanisms at the physical, virtual, orchestration, and application programming interfaces to enable the cloud computing infrastructure as a service. © 2022 IEEE.

Multimodality imaging in COVID19 patient with large mobile RV thrombus protruding into the pulmonary trunk with bilateral pulmonary embolism.

Inflammation related to coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 can promote a pro-thrombotic process and subsequent thrombosis. We report a confirmed COVID-19 case in a 51-year-old patient who presented with chest pain and severe hypoxemia. Although the right heart chambers are unusual locations for a thrombus, an echocardiogram demonstrated a large mobile right ventricular thrombus protruding into the right ventricle outflow tract. A computed tomography angiogram and cardiac magnetic resonance image showed the extension of the thrombus into the pulmonary trunk. A continuous intravenous unfractionated heparin infusion resulted in a dramatic clinical and echocardiographic improvement. .

The Incidence of Acute Pulmonary Embolism with COVID-19 Pneumonia in Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Single-Center Study.

Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is a common and prognostically significant complication of COVID-19 infection. We investigated the clinical characteristics and chest CT findings of COVID-19 positive patients complicated with APE. A retrospective, record-based, case-series study was performed examining 483 patients admitted to King Saud Medical City during the pandemic, from April 2020 to June 2020. Of these, 92 patients who underwent chest CT scans were included in the final analysis. The incidence of APE, clinical presentations, radiological patterns, and patient outcomes were assessed and compared against those for patients without PE. The incidence of APE was 22% [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 19%-39%], detected by chest CT. Men constituted 85.0% of patients, with a mean age of 48.9 ± 16.7 years. For most patients with APE, risk factors for thromboembolism were established but did not differ significantly from those without PE. The mean D-dimer level of 9.1 (range 7.0-10.2) was significantly higher among patients diagnosed with APE (OR: 1.021; 95% CI: 1.012-1.028; P = 0.001) compared with that in patients without PE. Moreover, the mean levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, 628.5; range: 494.0-928.3; OR: 1.002; 95% CI: 1.000-1.003; P = 0.02), C-reactive protein (CRP; 158.5; range: 105.3-204.5; OR: 1.025; 95% CI: 1.015-1.035; P = 0.001), and cardiac troponin (3.5; range; 2.6-3.8; OR: 1.016; 95% CI: 0.971-1.067; P = 0.01) were also significantly higher in patients with APE than those in patients with PE. The chest CT presentations of APE included massive, segmental, and sub-segmental APE. The need for Intensive Care Unit admission was higher among patients diagnosed with APE, who presented a fatality rate of 10%.. Our study pointed to the incidence and predictors of APE in COVID-19 patients. High levels of D-dimer, CRP, cardiac troponin, and LDH should alert the clinician to the possibility of APE in COVID-19 patients..

Clinical characteristics and in-hospital mortality of COVID-19 adult patients in Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES: To provide a detailed study of demographic, baseline comorbidities, clinical features, and outcome for Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. METHODS: A record-based case-series study conducted from March 23 to June 15, 2020 in King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Demographic data, clinical presentation, laboratory investigations, complications, and in-hospital outcome of COVID-19 patients collected with analysis of the clinical characteristics for survivors and deceased. RESULTS: A total of 768 patients were included. The mean age was 46.36±13.7 years and 76.7% were men. Approximately 96.3% reported more than one comorbidity; diabetes mellitus was the most frequent (46.4%). Fever (84.5%), cough (82.3%), and shortness of breath (79.8%) were the main presenting symptoms. During the follow-up, pneumonia reported in 68.6%, acute respiratory distress syndrome in 32.7%, septic shock in 20.7%, respiratory failure in 20.3%, and acute kidney injury in 19.3%. Approximately 45.8% of enrolled patients required intensive care unit admission. Lung disease (odd ratio [OR]=3.862 with 95% confident interval [CI] (2.455-6.074), obesity (OR=3.732, CI=2.511-5.546), smoking (OR=2.991, CI=2.072-4.317), chronic kidney disease (OR=2.296. CI=1.497-3.521), and diabetes mellitus (OR=2.291, CI=1.714-3.063) are predictors of ICU admission. Fatality ratio was 4.27%; therefore, men were more prevalent in dead group. CONCLUSION: Coronavirus disease 2019 places a huge burden on healthcare facilities, particularly in patients with comorbidity. Coronavirus disease 2019 patients who are obese and smokers with history of diabetes mellitus have a high risk of death.