Cloud computing

  • ISC West panel to focus on cloud computing security threats

    As businesses increasingly turn to cloud computing solutions, security professionals have become concerned with the challenges of securing data that is stored off-site in light of growing numbers of cyber security attacks; while cloud networks offer smaller businesses low cost technology solutions and remote access to data anywhere, this also leaves data beyond a company’s span of control; To discuss securing data on cloud computing networks, a panel at the upcoming ISC West conference will focus on security solutions and risk management plans; the ISC West panel will be held on 6 April 2011

  • Brivo: using the Internet to control, secure devices

    Cloud computing offers efficiency and economy — but the Achilles Heel of the technology is security; Brivo uses software as a service (SaaS)-based physical access control systems (PACS) to leverage the power and versatility of the Internet to provide real-time device control for organizations that need to protect buildings and facilities

  • NEC releases software that configures access policy automatically

    NEC Corporation announced the development of technology that collectively distributes and configures access policy to a variety of computing resources in a cloud computing environment; the newly-developed technology helps to reduce operation costs and to improve security

  • Fujitsu develops inter-cloud data security technology

    With the advent of cloud computing, the boundary separating internal and external data has become increasingly blurred due to the utilization of external services; as a result, existing methods of preventing data leakage, such as only using a gateway to block the outflow of confidential data, have become insufficient, and there is increased demand for new security technology to allow the safe use of confidential data even in the cloud; Fujitsu offers a new data leakage prevention technology in cloud computing environments

  • Google Apps more secure with two-step verification

    More and more companies are migrating their e-mail and other cloud services over to Google Apps — but the doubts about whether making such a transition would put company security at risk linger; now the company is doing something about it: Google announced early Monday the availability of two-step verification, a more secure way for Google Apps users to sign into their accounts

  • Cloud computing addressing security issues

    With cloud improvements such as Google’s “sharding” — the dividing of an individual file among hundreds of systems to prevent someone from gaining a useful amount of information out of individual documents — being implemented and followed closely by competing providers, security and accessibility will become cloud facets continually improved upon

  • Algorithm could improve hospital records security

    An algorithm secures patients’ records by ensuring that access to information is available to those who need it, but only when necessary; for example, once a patient has been admitted to hospital, the admissions staff do not necessarily need access to the patient’s records anymore; in many hospitals, those staff members nonetheless continue to have access to every record on file; using the algorithm, those staffers would only be able to access the patient’s record during admission processing; after that, they would find your information unavailable

  • Security tensions at the core of the cloud concept hobble cloud growth

    The cloud model and the notion of data having a specific location are somewhat antithetical: some cloud-service providers attempt to maintain security and availability by locating the data in multiple servers or data centers, or by locating it in an undisclosed data center; cloud-service providers are thus in a tight situation with regard to secrecy about their data centers and security procedures: many of these providers believe that this information must remain secret, but many customers — including giant potential customers such as the U.S. federal government — want to be made aware of such information before signing on with a provider

  • A smarter, faster, more controllable cloud

    Different types of cloud applications have different needs; a highly interactive application such as a voice chat program probably needs a high-quality connection; a file-backup service that transfers data in bulk might benefit from the least expensive transit between machines; a proposed system would let cloud developers control the way their data travels across different machines

  • Microsoft offers developers cloud security tips

    New paper provides best practices for writing applications for Windows Azure; one Microsoft security official: “it is important that people building software or hosting services in ‘The Cloud’ understand that they must also build software with security in mind from the start”

  • New research offers security for virtualization, cloud computing

    Virtualization allows the pooling of the computational power and storage of multiple computers, which can then be shared by multiple users; problem is, gains in efficiency and cost-saving are offset by increased cyber vulnerability; researchers have now developed software, called HyperSafe, that leverages existing hardware features to secure hypervisors against such attacks

  • Data protection manager for the cloud

    More and more companies begin to offer cloud security solutions; Iron Mountain offers CloudRecovery links into DPM; Seagate’s i365 business has launched the EVault for DPM 2010 backup and recovery appliance

  • Companies ignore cloud security

    New study finds that few businesses build security into cloud contracts; in fact, three-quarters of businesses surveyed said they had no procedures and policies for using cloud computing; Sixty-eight percent said end users and business managers — not the organization’s IT professionals — are made responsible for evaluating cloud computing vendors

  • Floating security tools make the cloud more secure

    Cloud computing offers efficiency and economy — but the Achilles Heel of the technology is security; where there is a security need there is a business opportunity, and some companies begin to offer cloud security tools, hoping to enjoy the benefits of first movers

  • IT experts: Security risks of cloud computing outweigh benefits

    Cloud computing services are expected to experience dramatic growth, hitting $44.2 billion by 2013, outpacing traditional IT spending; other estimates, including a recent study by Global Industry Analysts, indicate that by 2015 cloud computing services could represent a more than $200 billion market opportunity; still, worries about the security of cloud computing linger: 45 percent of IT professionals responding to an ISAAC survey say the risks of cloud computing outweigh the lower total cost of ownership (TCO), high return on investment (ROI), increased efficiency, and pay-as-you-go services