Keeping Agency Information Secure in an Era of New Computing and Risks

Grazed from SecurityInfoWatch. Author: Hormazd Romer.

The cloud computing evolution is well entrenched, and has made significant changes to how organizations share, sync, edit, create and collaborate-on content. However, this computing revolution is a double-edged sword. There are benefits—increased computing power, ease-of-use, and new flexibility in the case of cloud computing. However, these new features and benefits also bring new difficulties and risks. The security risks alone are enough to make any government agency cringe.

For IT departments, these new risks typically emerge as security vulnerabilities. Attackers are quick to exploit design flaws or architectural weaknesses that can be used to steal data, sabotage networks, or siphon funds. Over time, vendors and customers discover these flaws and weaknesses—usually the hard way, by discovering that they have been exploited—and fix them…

For government agencies, the race to contain new threats is definitely on. New cloud risks are sweeping through departments as mobile devices emerge as the computing form factor of choice for federal workers. Employees are not just bringing a single device to work, either. A recent survey by iPass found that the typical mobile worker now carries 3.5 mobile devices, which might include any combination of smartphones, laptops, and tablets…

Read more from the source @ http://www.securityinfowatch.com/article/11141967/as-inter-agency-data-sharing-increases-so-does-potential-for-security-breaches