CloudSecurity.org

What a great idea for a blog -- CloudSecurity.org:

This blog is dedicated to “Cloud Computing” from an IT security perspective.

Cloud Computing is a nebulous term covering an array of technologies and services including; Grid Computing, Utility Computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), Storage in the Cloud and Virtualization. There is no shortage of buzzwords and definitions differ depending on who you talk to.

The common theme is that computing takes place ‘in the cloud’ - outside of your organisations network.

Semantics aside, there is a much bigger question: what does it all mean from an IT security perspective?

One day (during my working career, I am positive) we will all either 1) be cloud customers or 2) work in the cloud. I am glad to see someone take a stand now to try to understand what that means from a security perspective.

You might also find Craig's other blog -- SecurityWannabe -- to be interesting. He did an interview with one of my Three Wise Men, Ross Anderson, to mark the publication of the likely candidate for Best Book Bejtlich Read in 2008: Security Engineering, 2nd Ed.

Comments

Trevor said…
I recently signed up for Amazon's S3 ECC service using the same credit card I've used to buy books.

Within 5 minutes I had 3 Gentoo Linux instances running Apache, MySQL, and Tomcat. For that 1 hour test drive I was billed $0.40 USD. When I was done playing (45 minutes later) I terminated all of the instances and they disappeared.

The cloud is here.
10:26 PM
Anonymous said…
Richard: A large tip of the hat to you for helping get the word out about cloudsecurity.org. I definitely welcome input from Taosecurity readers both in terms of comments and suggestions - its a new blog heading into unchartered waters. All the best & thanks, Craig
12:04 PM
Joe said…
It would also be interesting to hear Amazon's own perspective with regards to security.
11:57 AM
Anonymous said…
@joe: I plan to ask them - not sure what they can actually share though. If anyone has a decent contact there, please drop me a note. Cheers, Craig
2:51 AM
Anonymous said…
Richard,
You might find this interesting. AT+T's CSO spoke at DISA's annual conference basically pitching carrier level cloud security with a pitch along the lines of "We see the problems long before your virus software is updated. If everyone wasn't hypersensitive about privacy we could stop bad traffic in the pipe."

http://www.disa.mil/conferences/briefings/ed_amoroso.pdf
8:36 PM
Techno Dave said…
"If everyone wasn't hypersensitive about privacy" - surely being hypersensitive about privacy is the mark of system admin who is not going to get the firm splashed all over the tabloid and sued for millions from disgruntled customers/citizens. Perhaps if hosted service providers were to put some money where their security mouths are more people would be tempted to trust one of their most important assets to them.
1:38 PM
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