Can cloud computing be secure? Six ways to reduce risk and protect data

Grazed from The Guardian. Author: Editorial Staff.

OK, I admit it. I wasn’t always watching my kids demonstrate their athletic prowess on the field. Sometimes I had my laptop out and was working. Sometimes I was just watching the clouds go by. One observation about those clouds – they were constantly morphing. They had no fixed edge as they billowed and blew across the sky.

That lack of an edge that clearly defines the cloud environment your organisation may be considering sending your data to can make it seemingly difficult to protect. In fact, security is cited in numerous studies as the number one inhibitor to cloud adoption. Think about possible points of entry for an attacker in a cloud environment. A customer uses an insecure mobile phone to access your network … you can be attacked…

A contractor on your network uses a web application that has an embedded vulnerability, a back door that is not protected … you can be attacked. A database administrator at the cloud provider shares a password with someone … your data can be breached. These represent just some of the scenarios that keep the chief information security officer awake at night…

Read more from the source @ http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/sep/05/cloud-computing-security-protect-data