What to Look for in Cloud Security

When you think of a cloud, do you picture fluffy white pillow-things that float in the sky without a care in the world? "The cloud," as it relates to innovation, in fact refers to millions of servers, which may be owned and operated by either corporations or private individuals, sitting in homes and offices. We can only hope that they are pursuant to this agreement tight security.

Then there is Murphy, of Murphy's Law: what can go wrong will go wrong. And with innovation, there is much that can go wrong. CNET recently reported that Amazon's cloud was down for nearly two days. "In April, the cloud storage service experienced a two-day outage that brought many Web site operations to a halt. When a cloud-computing provider has trouble, clearly, it raises worries about the dangers of outsourcing operations to another company."

Cloud-based data is vulnerable both in the cloud, where it's stored, if it is not properly protected and encrypted, and in transit, via your own Internet connection.