Cloud computing is an alternative model for acquiring and delivering IT-related services. The benefits of this approach are that the users of services do not need to own and manage the capital equipment involved. However does the cloud hype in fact conceal the security issues of the identity of users and the security of data. By the very nature of cloud computing, the data belonging to the organization using a cloud service will be held in a shared environment. A shared environment is implicitly less secure than a non shared one. Furthermore delegating the storage and processing of data does not relieve the organization of its legal and regulatory obligations around this data. This presentation sets out the risks and best practices to avoid the cloud smog.
