NASA Navigates Space Better than it Navigates the Cloud

Grazed from InfoSecurity. Author: Editorial Staff.

An audit of NASA’s progress in adopting cloud-computing technologies has revealed that the space agency’s current use of cloud falls short of expectations in IT governance and risk management. While noting that NASA has been a pioneer in cloud computing, "having established its own private cloud-computing data center called Nebula in 2009 at the Ames Research Center (Ames)," the Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit levies four particular criticisms of its current state of cloud adoption.

The first is that governance needs to be strengthened. "We found that the Agency OCIO [office of the chief information officer] was not aware of all the cloud services NASA organizations had acquired or which service providers they used." Furthermore, only 3 of 15 agency CIOs stated that coordinating with the OCIO was necessary before moving into the cloud. In short, governance is poor if not absent…

The second is that risk management practices were ineffective. "We reviewed five NASA contracts for the acquisition of cloud-computing services and found that none came close to meeting recommended best practices for ensuring data security," says the audit. As a result, it says, "systems and data covered by these five contracts are at an increased risk of compromise."…

Read more from the source @ http://www.infosecurity-us.com/view/33747/nasa-navigates-space-better-than-it-navigates-the-cloud/