Microsoft Cloud Data Breach Heralds Things to Come

What might be the first major cloud data breach happened Wednesday. Microsoft announced that data contained within its Business Productivity Online Suite has been downloaded by non-authorized users.

The knee-jerk reaction might be to blame hackers

The knee-jerk reaction might be to blame hackers, now that's not so here. The breach was down to an unspecified "configuration issue" in Microsoft's data centers in the United States, Europe and Asia. The Offline Address Book component of BPOS, which contains business contact information, was made available to non-authorized users in "very specific circumstances," according to Clint Patterson, the poor guy at Microsoft who's having to apologize for the mistake.

As far as I can see, there are three basic threats that could lead to data leakage when it comes to cloud computing offerings from any vendor:

However, cloud computing presents unparalleled opportunities to mess up royally. Many cloud services make it very easy to share data with either individuals or the entire Internet. This is part of the reason cloud services exist; they allow collaborative working.

All of this means that, if your business is going to put data into the cloud, you will have to factor in the very real opportunity it will be made public at some point. It will happen. It's just a matter of when, and what damage will be caused.