[Advanced] Using the Cloud, Safely (1)

As cloud usage expands, so do security risks

Holding everything from highly personal medical and social media material to confidential financial and corporate documents, Internet-based cloud services are gathering an enormous trove of information -- already a quarter of the world's business data -- that is proving a powerful lure for hackers.

[In light of ] recent breaches at Web Marketer Epsilon, LinkedIn and Twitter -- along with surveys showing such attacks alarmingly common among businesses -- many experts say too little is being done to prevent cyber crooks from pilfering credit card numbers, trade secrets and other sensitive data on the cloud.

"It's scary," said Eric Chiu, co-founder and president of security company HyTrust. If a hacker gets access to that information, he said, "they've got the keys to your kingdom. They can make copies of everything you have and they can potentially destroy your data center."

How does work?
Although definitions of cloud computing vary, it usually involves a shared service that lets customers access their data using Internet-based software or servers. Cloud storage can cut a company's costs, and make it easy to retrieve information from nearly anywhere via the Internet.

The cloud is used to send email, print from mobile devices, exchange medical information, share on social networks and much more. Just among cloud document-storage services, such as Dropbox and Google (GOOG) Drive, the number of subscribers will double from 625 million this year to 1.3 billion in 2017, according to market researcher IHS.

A risky choice?
Corporations have been among the biggest adopters. Research firm Gartner has predicted that the worldwide revenue from public clouds will soar from $91.4 billion in 2011 to $206.6 billion in 2016.

Yet the trend poses risks. Symantec in January reported that 43 percent of the 3,236 businesses it queried had "lost data in the cloud," although it didn't ask how much was due to cyber attacks.



Vocabulary Focus
lure n.
/ˈluɚ/
to cause or persuade (a person or an animal) to go somewhere or to do something by offering some pleasure or gain

breach n.
/ˈbri:tʃ/
an act of breaking a rule, law, custom or practice

pilfer v.
/ˈpɪlfɚ/
to steal things of little value or in small amounts

queried v.
/'kwɪrɪ/
to ask questions, often expressing doubt about something or looking for information


mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20130821adabba039e34a4b8671d00c639cb54d80dfb28d4364371eeb001ff685c2800fb916.wma



mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20130822adaa4673d8fd3406cff07df2fb57612258988e47656a6ba6a7093c290014779cd98.wma