US attorney warns of cloud computing security threat | The Cloud Clinic

US attorney warns of cloud computing security threat | The Cloud Clinic

An assistant attorney has claimed that cloud computing is the new challenge for online security, as cyber criminals turn their attention to the rapidly developing technology as a potential gold mine for web attacks.

Matthew Parrella spoke at Symantec’s Norton Cyber Crime Day event and suggested that the days of software counterfeiters creating profits through the sales of pirated CDs are coming to an end because businesses are more frequently distributing software offerings over the internet, storing their data with managed hosting providers where it is at risk.

According to Cnet News, Mr Parrella said: “That model of importation of software is becoming obsolete because we’re seeing on the horizon cloud computing where so many of these operations are pushed from a user’s PC or a user’s computer onto Google Docs or Salesforce.com.

“I’m thinking the attack is going to be on cloud computing centers,” he said.

Mr Parrella, who is the chief of the computer hacking and intellectual property unit at the US Attorney’s Office, predicted that coming attacks on the cloud would be from hackers looking to steal data from cloud servers. They could do so both remotely and through the employment of an insider with access to the data center, he said.

However, in contrast to Mr Parrella’s views, many cloud computing distributers state that the technology is perfectly safe from attackers, as long as companies utilizing the service provide adequate training for their IT departments, as well as the necessary tools for dealing with the cloud.

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