The advent of new technologies and applications coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic tremendously increased cloud computing adoption in private and public institutions (government) and raised the demand for communication and access to a shared pool of resources and storage capabilities. Governments across the globe are moving to the cloud to improve services, reduce costs, and increase effectiveness and efficiency while fostering innovation and citizen engagement. However, information security and privacy concerns raised in the past remain significant to government adoption and utilisation of cloud computing. The study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach to examine information security and privacy as the fundamental challenges to government intention to adopt cloud computing. This study screened 758 articles and included 33 articles that revealed information security and privacy as critical factors and barriers to adopting cloud computing through a systematic evaluation (PRISMA approach). The combined two factors contributed 70% of the significant gaps to the cloud computing adoption challenges. In contrast, the individual contribution of information security and privacy as a significant gap to the challenges of cloud adoption yielded 9% and 12%, respectively. Furthermore, 9% of the authors recognised the need for a framework to address the challenges but could not attempt to develop the framework. The study contributes to the information security body of knowledge, PRISMA studies and provides direction in proposing strategies and frameworks to tackle information security and privacy challenges as future research.