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Cloud Computing – Security Implications

johnjlawlor — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:51:21 +0000

I’ve been working for a while on a policy and associated procedures for Trinity College Dublin to enable us to leverage various cloud technologies and services for the benefit of the college. What has struck me is the complexity of dealing with the topic in a large-scale environment.

As consumers, many of us use cloud services every day; examples are Gmail and Hotmail for email; Amazon Cloud Drive and Dropbox for file storage; Google Docs, Docs.com and Microsoft Skydrive for document processing; Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn for social networking, etc. Many of us tend to use these and other services with little thought being given to security, data protection, privacy, identity theft, ownership of data, etc. When considered from a corporate or business perspective, these issues are significantly more important and take on many complex legal aspects. Yet, in a corporate and, indeed, an educational environment, there is significant pressure to enable these services in the business context, since end users and familiar with them from personal use.

Pursuing another interest of mine this evening – Internet Radio – I came across C-SPAN Radio and just happened to stumble upon the live proceedings of the US Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies, on 6 October 2011, discussing the issue of the security implications of cloud computing. The Committee was addressed by very influential people in the area of information technology, information security, education and regulation:

The Honorable Richard Spires,  Chief Information Officer , U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Dr. David McClure, Ph.D.,  Associate Administrator , Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies,  U.S. General Services Administration
Mr. Greg Wilshusen,  Director of Information Security Issues , Government Accountability Office
Mr. James W. Sheaffer,  President , North American Public Sector , Computer Sciences Corporation
Mr. Timothy Brown , Senior Vice President and Chief Architect for Security,  CA Technologies
Mr. James R. Bottum , Vice Provost for Computing & Information Technology  and Chief Information Officer , Clemson University
Mr. John Curran , Chief Executive Officer , American Registry of Internet Numbers

Each contributor submitted a paper to the Subcommittee and they are all available on the Subcommittee’s website. So if you are looking for what the current areas of concern are in relation to security and cloud computing, why not pick up the papers and listen back to the oral testimony.

Links to the papers (PDF)

What is your organisation doing about security and cloud computing? Do you have a cloud computing policy or are your end users simply using cloud services without regard to existing policy or legislation? Please leave a comment and let me know.

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Social Networking – Irish Above Average

johnjlawlor — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:32:30 +0000

Irish households are slightly above the European average when it comes to using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. According to the just-published (October 2010) EU E-Communications Household Survey, 39% of Irish households use social networking sites in comparison to an EU average of 35%. Just over half of Irish users visit social networking sites at least two or three times a week, with almost a quarter visiting them every day.

Age seems to be the biggest socio-demographic factor distinguishing those who use social networking websites. Among those who use social networking websites every day, 15-24 years olds and students are most prevalent, whilst among those who would never use a social networking website the most prevalent are over 40 year olds and the retired.

40% of Irish users stated that they are worried about misuse of personal data on social networking sites, with 51% not worried and 9% not knowing whether they were worried or not! Once again, age and related demographics showed differences, with older people, self-employed and managers being more prevalent among those worried about misuse of personal data. Among those not worried, more prevalent were young people, students and the unemployed. 34% of Irish who don’t use social networking sites stated that they were worried about misuse of personal data.

Concerns about data privacy are growing across Europe when compared to a similar survey in 2006, with Ireland showing the greatest increase of all countries. 87% of Irish respondents would wish to be informed if their personal data was lost, stolen or altered in any way. This is a 21% increase on the 2006 survey. Across Europe, 84% of users would want to know, an increase of 6% on the 2006 survey. The results for Ireland suggest increasing awareness and concern about data privacy issues, which is to be welcomed. This might be as a result of several well-publicised cases of privacy breaches in Ireland in recent years, some of which I wrote about previously (Bord Gais Eireann, Health Service Executive, PA Consulting).

The survey covers many other topics, some of which I will return to shortly in future posts. The complete survey report, a summary report and individual country graphs, in PDF format, are available here:

Final report (54.5 Mb)

Summary (15 Mb)

Irish graphs (2 Mb)

Are you among the 39% of Irish people who visit social networks? How frequently do you visit social network sites? Are you worried about the privacy of your personal data on social networking sites? Please leave a comment and let me know.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

Gary Hamel’s Interesting Take on Social Media in Organisations

Social Media Revolution? What’s Your View?

Social Media: Creating Collaborative Conversations

Social Media: Creating Collaborative Conversations – Your Help Needed

johnjlawlor — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:05:14 +0000

I am preparing a talk for CIOs on the topic of ‘Social Media – Creating Collaborative Conversations’. I’d like to hear from people who have made the corporate leap into social media in their organisations or who have views or expertise to share on the subject. Questions you might consider include:

What advice would you give to CIOs and their organisations in adopting social media?
Can you point out good and bad examples of the use of social media?
What, in your experience, has worked well and worked badly in the adoption by organisations of social media?
What is the future for social media in the enterprise and what are the implications for CIOs and their organisations?
What lessons have you learned from using social media in your organisation?
What are the risks for organisations in adopting social media and making them available to employees?
What are the specific challenges for business as workers engage in new conversational behaviours and have the ability to spread knowledge inside and outside the corporate firewall?
How can CIOs work with other executives to ensure that the use of social media is well-managed?
How can organisations create collaborative conversations that benefit the business?

If you have any views on these questions, or have additional information to add, I’d like to hear from you. Please leave a comment to share your experience.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

Gary Hamel’s Interesting Take on Social Media in Organisations

Social Media Revolution? What’s Your View?

Social Media: Creating Collaborative Conversations

OpenDNS Does The Business For Irish Web Users

johnjlawlor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:05:57 +0000

The Twittersphere was loaded tonight with Tweeters complaining about a major failure in Eircom’s DNS service. I have been having ongoing problems with Eirom, which is one of Ireland’s main ISPs, and have little satisfaction in getting my problems resolved. It is clear from tonight’s events that I am not alone. I had to rely on O2′s mobile broadband service for much of the evening.

Thanks to a number of Tweeters, I was referred to OpenDNS, which is a provider of free security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. I had to sign up for a free account, which was very easy to do and took just a few minutes. Once this was done, I changed the DNS entries in my broadband router and I was up and running on the web again.

I am still looking forward to the day when I can dispense with Eircom’s “service” all together.

What has your experience with Eircom’s broadband service been? Leave a comment and let me know, though I expect I already know the answer.