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Wed, July 8, 2009

Dark Reading Column: Cloud Security

By Rich

I’ve been a bit erratic with my Dark Reading posts, but finally have a new one up. This one is dedicated to the topic du jour – cloud computing security. The article is The Only Two Reliable Cloud Security Controls and here’s an excerpt:

It seems that we in the information technology profession are just as fickle as the fashionistas strutting around Milan or New York. While we aren’t quite as locked to a seasonal schedule, we do have a tendency to fawn over the latest technology advances as if they were changing colors or hem lengths. Some are new, some are old, some are incredibly useful, and others are completely frivolous, but we can’t deny their ability to enter and steer our collective consciousness – at least until the next spring. Take cloud computing.

But definitional maturity doesn’t necessarily mean technological maturity, and is always a far cry from security maturity. While we now understand the different flavors and components of the cloud, and even have some relatively good ideas of potential security controls, the diversity of real world offerings and the traditional lack of security prioritization bring all the usual security challenges. The cloud is a collection of various proprietary technologies (mostly) from diverse vendors (mostly), all with different ways of doing things (mostly). Not that I’m complaining: if you work in security and don’t enjoy these kinds of challenges, you should probably consider a different career path.

There are really only two reliable security controls – our service level agreements (SLAs) and personal education and knowledge of the cloud implementation.

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