Data Separation in Cloud Computing

Grazed from CyberSecurity News.  Author: Lee Hazell.

Achieving secure data separation in cloud computing is a necessity for many companies wishing to utilise cloud services as a cost effective method for storage, processing and memory functions. Data separation in cloud computing describes the need to ensure that one consumer of a cloud service cannot interrupt, or compromise, the service or data of another.

As many cloud services rely on virtualisation technologies to offer compute power or storage to consumers, it is possible for a sophisticated attacker to compromise one virtual machine on the box and hop to others. This is an attack methodology that is being seen more and more in cloud computing and presents a real risk to companies that need to have some assurance that their data is safe should another consumer be compromised…

Of course, the risk to your data is increased or decreased dependant on which model you decide to consume. So, for example, public cloud models offer little assurance that an attacker is not able to purchase a virtual machine next to yours and hop across, compromising the confidentiality of data processed or stored on that machine. Attackers may also seek to perform denial of service attacks against the cloud provider to bring down the service for all consumers. Ensuring the cloud provider is implementing effective controls to separate consumers from each other may reduce the risk in this scenario…

Read more from the source @ http://cybersecuritynews.co.uk/data-separation-in-cloud-computing/