In a recent webinar, Porticor?s AWS cloud security experts took on the security challenges companies face when migrating to AWS (and other IaaS clouds) and offered alternatives that enable IT Directors to take advantage of the cloud, while maintaining control of their data and its security.
Security Issues in Cloud Computing: Are you a TARGET?
We are all familiar with the infamous Target hack, which saw bad guys accessing Target?s payment systems through access granted to an HVAC subcontractor, and accessing payment records of 40 million customers. As a result, Target?s CIO, Bob DeRodes, was replaced and CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, resigned.
Companies in the healthcare, financial, and legal sectors have histories of being on hackers? ?Most Wanted? lists, but it clearly does not end there. Governments are also in on the act.
We all know from the news of NSA surveillance programs, which make all American-owned clouds susceptible to USA court orders. In another recent case, a judge ordered an overseas data search on Microsoft?s data store in Europe. Less well publicized but equally worrisome are surveillance programs by many other countries; China, Russia and the UK have recently been active.
In short, no matter your industry, no matter your size, and no matter the actual geography of your data, you must protect yourself.
AWS Cloud Security
Customers of Amazon Web Services have always been protected by AWS?s strong infrastructure. One of the best in the industry, Amazon has taken many precautions to protect its networks. Recent advancements in S3, Glacier, EBS, and others have taken security to the next level. Yet AWS? model is always about shared responsibility ? you the customer are always responsible for how you use the infrastructure and ultimately responsible for security of your data and applications.
Porticor?s webinar about AWS Cloud Security Issues explores the advancements and the places where you, the customer, are responsible to keep out attackers.
Solving Security Issues in Cloud Computing: Key Management
Though security issues in cloud computing are many, there is one solution that clearly protects IT Directors, their companies, and their data: strong software-defined key management. With such solutions, data ownership remains with the data owner, regulations like HIPAA and PCI can be complied with, and bad guys are kept at bay.
Within AWS, there are several options for key management.
Leaving ownership of the keys with AWS: While Amazon is clearly a trustworthy company, this option is not the best practice, that demands encryption keys not be shared.CloudHSM: This hardware-based option offered by Amazon works, but its up-front and operational costs are burdensome, and as a hardware component, it adds many limitations to cloud deployments.Bring your own: While you can manage the encryption keys yourself using your own hardware solutions, this negates the reason many companies want to migrate to cloud infrastructure in the first place.Split Key Encryption: A pure cloud solution, one that involves no hardware, and is cost-effective and easy to manage exists on the Amazon Partner Exchange. This solution uses patented advancements like split key encryption and homomorphic key management to achieve key management that is secure, compliant, and compatible with all IaaS clouds.
Source: www.xml.sys-con.com
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