Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Security challenges with cloud computing services

If you entrust a cloud provider with your data, how is encryption handled, if at all? What about user authentication? What about data breach liability? 

Those were some of the issues raised during a panel discussion on the security challenges with cloud computing services at last week's Bay Area SecureWorld in Santa Clara, Calif. "We're not saying the cloud is bad. There is a lot of good there, but we want to bring the challenges to your attention," said panelist Tim Mather, a security advisor and a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). 

One of the major cloud security issues is encryption, he said. If data is processed in the cloud it needs to be decrypted, while some providers don't even offer encryption. And if encryption is used, key management becomes a big issue, he said: "Who manages the keys"?
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