Reality Check #2: The Cloud Is Far From Invulnerable

Amazon's 7 Cloud Promises: Hype Vs. Reality

3Comments | Doug Henschen | May 01, 2012 09:05 AM

Amazon says cloud computing is an indispensable enabler of seven important computing transformations. We hype-test the promises with a few reality checks.

Amazon's 7 Cloud Promises: Hype Vs. Reality

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Reality Check #2: The Cloud Is Far From Invulnerable

Sure, Amazon and other cloud providers comply with plenty of rigorous security standards, but are they really more secure than far more anonymous on-premises systems? In January, Amazon-owned Zappos became one of the latest e-commerce sites to suffer a security breach, potentially exposing credit card information. Aside from damaging credibility and trust, that incident also precipitated a lawsuit.

There's some evidence that cloud computing tools help malware creators, as in an example last summer when cybercriminals were found to be using AWS to spread financial-stealing malware. The attackers apparently deployed registered accounts to wage the attacks on 11 international banks. Amazon was notified of the problem by Kaspersky Labs, but it then took Amazon 60 hours to shut down the malicious links, according to the security firm. Of course, malware creators will use any and all current technology tools at their disposal.

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