Security Concerns Slam Google Applications Rollout in LA; 760 Companies and Research Institutions Hacked?

But Google and the city couldn't agree on the additional security plans for the LAPD, and at the time the Los Angeles City Council, while its meeting the week of Dec. 12, "abandoned plans to move 13,000 law enforcement personnel to the Internet company's cloud-based messaging systems," according to the Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times writes that the council agreed "with staff analysis that the company's innovation could not meet the security needs of crucial departments including police and the city attorney's office." Just in case, city officials are quoted as saying Google "does not have the technical ability to comply with the city's security requirements" and that those requirements are "not currently compatible with cloud computing."

Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs told the LA Times that though Google committed considerable resources and "made a lot of progress," its proposed plan for security related to the LAPD didn't in every respect meet with the approval of city managers. "They didn't accept our plan," he acknowledges. "We're disappointed that the City introduced requirements for the LAPD afterwards the contract was signed that are, in its own words, 'currently incompatible with cloud computing.'"

Blow for Google

This is all truly a blow for Google and it will by the by raise questions in other places considering cloud computing for law enforcement. However it's not that Los Angeles is unhappy in general with the CSC contract for Google Apps -- just this September it renewed the contract for the 17,000 city employees for another year, with an option for two additional years.

The challenge of true data protection spans databases, internal and external networks, physical and offsite storage, business partners and more. These resources offer expert perspective from the basics through specific key components of data protection strategies.