Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Dangers of the Cloud

New research supports what everyone has feared - there are dangers to data in using cloud computing. Specifically, the research, carried out by a team from the University of California and MIT, have uncovered methods by which servers being shared in the cloud could be targetted by using techniques referred to as cross-VM hacking. The perps would set up a VM in proximity to the target server and then launch their attacks from there.

The research, thankfully, also identifies some approaches to mitigation, including setting up VM such that they can only be populated by trusted sources. Elementary, perhaps, but something that needs to be addressed in cloud computing.

The paper is available online and is definitely worth some study time.

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