Clouds of Insecurity

Today, Google disclosed sophisticated attacks on its infrastructure from China and its response to it. While Google's response is a welcome move, it raises doubts in my mind about the safely of the cloud. This is not isolated instance. Recently, another public Cloud vendor, Salesforce.com, was crashed down for considerable time and raised many questions about cloud's credibility.

What makes these 'Public' clouds more insecure?
Not its infrastructure as much as its popularity ! My organization's infrastructure is not likely to be secure as Google's, however, it is not likely to be on radar of hackers either. The hackers may spend days and nights to bring google down, will they pay same attention to my organization? Probably not.
The 'Cloud' may bring-in efficiency, but it will be a trade off with the increased risk of data loss and security, at least in the near future. The benefits of cloud should be carefully weighed against the risks before committing to the cloud. Recently, Gartner published a report for Assessing the Security Risks of Cloud Computing. Click here to read seven of the specific security issues Gartner says customers should raise with vendors before selecting a cloud vendor.