Comprehensive Comparative Assessment of AI Driven Adaptive and Risk Based Authentication Strategies in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has become the backbone of Information technology, and offers benefits as well as challenges in securing the cloud data and unauthorized access. Among various security methods, authentication is considered an effective method for protection against unauthorized access in a cloud environment. This article aims to provide a detailed comparative assessment of authentication methods in the cloud such as password authentication, multi factor authentication, adaptive authentication, and riskbased authentication. This paper analyzes each method based on its strengths, limitations, performance metrics, and robustness against cyber-attacks. Moreover, we explore different use cases of cloud platforms employing authentication for handling cyber threats. This study highlights the gaps in current research such as performance issues, lack of robustness to advanced attacks, and privacy concerns, and also proposes directions to give insights to future researchers to overcome these challenges. To our knowledge, this is the first work of its kind that provides an integrated comparative analysis of different authentication methods in the cloud, and combines real-world applications with theoretical insights, challenges, and actionable future directions.