Researchers identify ways to exploit ‘cloud browsers’ for large-scale, anonymous computing

Grazed from Phys.org. Author: Editorial Staff.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon have found a way to exploit cloud-based Web browsers, using them to perform large-scale computing tasks anonymously. The finding has potential ramifications for the security of "cloud browser" services.

At issue are cloud browsers, which create a Web interface in the cloud so that computing is done there rather than on a user’s machine. This is particularly useful for mobile devices, such as smartphones, which have limited computing power.The cloud-computing paradigm pools the computational power and storage of multiple computers, allowing shared resources for multiple users. "Think of a cloud browser as being just like the browser on your desktop computer, but working entirely in the cloud and providing only the resulting image to your screen," says Dr. William Enck, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research…

Because these cloud browsers are designed to perform complex functions, the researchers wanted to see if they could be used to perform a series of large-scale computations that had nothing to do with browsing. Specifically, the researchers wanted to determine if they could perform those functions using the "MapReduce" technique developed by Google, which facilitates coordinated computation involving parallel efforts by multiple machines…

Read more from the source @ http://phys.org/news/2012-11-ways-exploit-cloud-browsers-large-scale.html