Securing the Cloud: How Safe Is that Data?
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For the solution provider, who may or may not be in charge of the data
center where the remote applications reside, the challenge becomes
proving to the customer that the "unknowns" Squier mentions have been
dealt with.
"The customer is really looking at the service provider to also take
care of the security," says Torsten George, vice president of global
marketing at security vendor ActivIdentity. "It becomes a very, very
important selection criteria."
A weakness anywhere in the cloud is a potential disaster with serious
consequences for companies whose data is compromised. George says by
and large the data center is secure, and no known disastrous breaches
have taken place there.
Vendors such as 3Com and Cisco offer technology such as integrated
services routers to secure data center environments while intrusion
prevention products from vendors such as McAfee and Computer Associates
address intrusion prevention, says Michael Stacks, a systems engineer at
distributor Tech Data.
SMBs remain vulnerable to e-mail borne attacks, spam and phishing. Read more about it here.
But while the data center may be secure, serious potential for breaches
lies elsewhere. "The greatest threat, and the weakest point, is the
entry point," says George.
ActivIdentity sells a host of products to secure endpoints, including
smart cards, tokens and biometrics, which provide a second form of user
credential verification when accessing certain applications or simply
turning on their laptops. The company, which partners with solution
providers to sell the technology, is also working with various SAAS
vendors and providers to secure data in the cloud, George says.
Aside from protecting data centers and access to data, it's important
to also pay attention to the actual development of applications, Stacks
points out. "Intrusion prevention is key as you write applications
that are partially hosted at your location and partially hosted in the
cloud," he says.
Solution providers have options here, by leveraging security technology
from such vendors as CA, Cisco, Enterasys, McAffee and SonicWall.
Products from Borland, Microsoft and IBM, Stacks says, can be used to
prevent security risks as a result of changes to software that take
place in the cloud. "As the third party changes its applications,
you're able to track the changes, and identify any security risks
created by the changes," he says.
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