CHECKING CLOUD PROVIDERS' SECURITY

By D.E.Levine

According to Forrester Research analyst Chenxi Wang in a recent report entitled "How Secure Is Your Cloud?", when you submit data to a cloud provider that information is stored and manipulated in an environment that is shared with other customers.

This sharing doesn't automatically mean that security and privacy are jeopardized but it does require that customers use diligence.

It's more difficult to find out where your data is exactly and how it is replicated. Failure to address security adequately can result in potential legal and business liabilities.

A good move is to encrypt all of the data while it is sitting idle in databases as well as while it is moving around in the cloud.

Regardless of whether the cloud provider addresses security, the end security decision and actions are always up to the customer, who bears the final responsibility for securing the data.