Windows 7: Don't expect to peer into Google cloud services security

JMH · 08 Oct 2010

Quote:

Customers of Google cloud services who are concerned about security better get used to being unable to check out first-hand how well their data is being protected, a Google spokesman told a high-tech leadership council recently.

The technology pro's greatest enemies

Many customers worry about how well cloud providers protect customer data, and there is no satisfactory way for customers themselves to evaluate it, says Adam Swidler, a product marketing manager at Google speaking at the Mass Technology Leadership Council Security Summit.

"We won't let you audit to the degree that you would audit your own infrastructure," Swidler says. "It's never going to be the same as auditing your own infrastructure. You'll have to extend some level of trust to third-party verification."

As a practical matter cloud providers wouldn't have the time to let every customer check out data security, but also providers can't allow their security measures to become public so attackers can figure out how to circumvent them, he says.

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Don't expect to peer into Google cloud services security

nitroman84 · 09 Oct 2010

Seems like "The Cloud" is as UN-trustworthy as I had originally thought. If Windows 8 is cloud based I may just give up computing altogether.

mr pc · 09 Oct 2010

Absolute Cloud Computing should be a choice not a standard. The reason why I say Absolute is because cloud computing does exist in many ways: torrents, p2p, ftp, file storage sites, software updates, home/business networking, remote desktop operations, gaming and I'm sure I'm missing some others. So it is here and many of us use some or many elements of it.

There is one stipulation to the current mode of handling our data - we choose what and what not we want to share, access, store, place out into the internet. I have no complaints about placing photos on the internet to share with friends and family, but do not want to place important financial documents out there.

We also know that the evolution of Cloud computing would be remote desktop operations - what would happen if the server went down? How many users would be affected simultaneously?!? Rather than just my computer going down because of my own stupidity - it would be left in the hands of individuals and technology I know very little of.

Absolute Cloud Computing would also open the floodgates for data miners as well, not to mention the questionable locations your information is stored.

This also raises the questions of bandwidth availability and cost - This would definitely create user tiers in the internet and prices would undoubtedly jump due to increased demand.

maybe I'm off the mark, but it feels like a racket and an opportunity to endanger user privacy.

Windows 7: Don't expect to peer into Google cloud services security

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