Gladiator Research and Security

If you have been reading the news or surfing any IT based websites, you may have heard of “cloud computing,” a new buzz word going around.  Cloud computing is a new style of providing IT or business applications and services via the Web or Internet “cloud.”  One very popular form of cloud computing is Google Apps.  With Google Apps, Google is able to provide many publishing applications, similar to Microsoft’s Desktop Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), over the Web.  Users can log in via an Internet browser and access the applications that are actually running on servers hosted by Google.

A company called g.ho.st is trying to provide a traditional desktop operating system through cloud computing.  Through their website, users can access a virtual computing environment that provides some desktop applications and utilities, and even allows users to save documents to the virtual environment.  These saved documents could then be accessed anytime the user logs into the virtual environment.  This service can provide a quick way for users with limited access to the Internet, to store documents with non-sensitive information.  However, for users in a business environment, it does not eliminate all security concerns and can even create more.  First of all, the data stored in these environments would only be available as long as their web servers are running.  Maintenance to the servers, system crashes, or organizational restructuring are just a couple of things that could cause outages to the service.  Also, you would be housing your data on devices that you do not manage and you would not have the ability to control who can access your data.  With no control over the data or even the OS, chances of your data being replicated or even becoming vulnerable to a key logging mechanism, would be increased.

All in all, I think companies like g.ho.st are providing an excellent service for users who may have access to the Internet but do not own some of the expensive applications required on today’s computers.  However, in order to ensure a secure environment, one must always try to assess any security implications that a service can provide.  If a user is looking for a more secure way to manage a mobile Operating System, there are other ways that provide better security.  For instance, there are operating systems that can run from a USB thumb-drive, and, in fact, many thumb-drives today provide encryption.  In general, it is usually best to store sensitive information in the local operating environment.  Most of the time, backups and data access privileges are already set by network administrators and it is likely that these logs and processes would be properly audited.

Related Links

• JPost article on g.ho.st (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1183980038329&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)
• g.ho.st Website (http://g.ho.st)
• InfoWorld Article on Cloud Computing (http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/07/15FE-cloud-computing-reality_1.html)