Cloud Security Threats are Over-Hyped

The last two years have seen a lot of buzz around Cloud

computing, with just about every software or services company announcing their

own Cloud based offerings. But there's still a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty,

and doubt) in the minds of enterprise users about moving to the same, and not

without good reason. All of a sudden, your applications move from the confines

of your own data center into a public Cloud, which is shared by multiple users.

So on one hand, you no longer have to worry about managing the application or

its underlying hardware --all that becomes the service provider's headache. But

on the other hand, it also creates an uncomfortable feeling --what if the

service provider doesn't manage the systems properly? Or takes too long to patch

a critical vulnerability? What if somebody hacks into the public Cloud and

steals all your data? What if the service provider moves all your data in a

country whose laws are not enough to protect it? What happens to your data if

you're not happy with the services offered by the Cloud service provider, and

want to exit?

All of these are issues indeed, but I feel that they've

been over-hyped and are retarding the adoption of the Cloud. If you think about

it, most of these issues could also happen within your own IT infrastructure as

well. For instance, your own internal team could do goof-ups while managing your

applications and systems-maybe a senior person quits putting the burden of his

job onto juniors. That's bound to cause hiccups. Patch management remains a pain

for most organizations even today, and it becomes worse when you have a

heterogeneous IT infrastructure, spread across multiple geographies. This causes

delays in patching critical systems, which can sometimes lead to security

breaches. Speaking of data theft, every year, companies loose millions due to

security breaches, even though their IT infrastructure is within their own

control.

So it's unlikely that things will go from bad to worse by

moving your applications to the Cloud, unless of course you've chosen your Cloud

service provider without any prior assessment, expecting that the service

provider would take care of all your security problems. That would be like

leaving your precious belongings unattended in a public place, assuming that the

local security arrangements there would prevent anybody from stealing them. So

you obviously need to re-assess the security issues. If you were lean about

certain aspects of security when things were handled in house, and strict about

others, you may have to change that balance now.

Our cover story this time is a security special, in which

we've discussed the top 10 Cloud security threats. Plus, we've covered all other

aspects of security relevant for enterprises today.

Anil Chopra



Editoranilc@cybermedia.co.in