University Research Exposes Potential Vulnerabilities In Cloud Computing

[Daniel ~]

Written by Daniel
Wednesday, 09 September 2009

'Cross-VM attacks' could threaten sensitive data in shared environments, researchers say
[Front page...]

[Daniel ~]

I've been extremely skeptical from the start! I know NOTHING! Yet when they can't even secure my home computer on the net....??? It seems like another dream of centralize power to me...

[Gizmo]

Actually, done properly, it is much easier to secure sensitive data in a centralized location than it is to secure distributed data scattered all over hither and yon.

Of course, the key phrase here is 'done properly'. The reason 'they' can't secure your home computer is because 'you' (not you personally, but the collective 'you') won't do the things necessary to secure it. It's simply not possible to secure a general-purpose computing device against all possible forms of attack in all possible scenarios. Security is a trade-off: how much inconvenience are you willing to put up with to secure your data? For most people, the answer is 'not much', and so the computers remain unsecured for the sake of convenience.

That being said, the flip-side of a central repository of secured data is that the probability of attack dramatically increases with the value of the data secured. The value of the data secured is typically at least somewhat related to the amount of data. My credit card number individually stolen is not worth much, but a storage facility with 40 million credit card numbers is worth a LOT. As a result, things that aren't feasible at a small scale because the payoff isn't worth the cost, suddenly become VERY feasible on a large scale.

[Daniel ~]

And some day soon we will all have access to nukes...hey it's the way of the world...well a world on the way to self annihilation.... I'm pretty sure my remakes fit in there some how! ":O}

[jacksonwalters]

I'm actually about to start doing university research in distributed virtual computing. We're basically going to use it as a way to cut costs in rural/disadvantaged areas. Much cheaper to virtualize 30 PC's on a server than to buy 30 separate PC's. We'll see how it goes. I'll fill y'all in on the details after I get started on Monday.

[Daniel ~]

Looking forward to seeing what you think of this approach...