• Digital forensicsCloud computing poses technical challenges for digital crime-fighters

    The ultimate in distributed computing, cloud computing is revolutionizing how digital data is stored, processed, and transmitted. It enables convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources, including servers, storage, and applications. The characteristics that make this new technology so attractive also create challenges for forensic investigators who must track down evidence in the ever-changing, elastic, on-demand, self-provisioning cloud computing environments.

  • Disaster communicationSafeguarding networks when disasters strike

    Disasters both natural and human-caused can damage or destroy data and communications networks. Several presentations at the 2014 OFC Conference and Exposition, being held 9-13 March in San Francisco, will present new information on strategies that can mitigate the impacts of these disasters. Researchers created an algorithm that keeps data safe by moving or copying the data from data centers in peril to more secure locations away from the disaster. The algorithm assesses the risks for damage and users’ demands on the network to determine, in real-time, which locations would provide the safest refuge from a disaster. Other researchers suggest that if fiber-optic cables are down, wireless communication can fill the void and be part of a temporary, emergency network. For such a system to work, however, wireless technology would have to be integrated with the fiber-optic network that transports data around the world.

  • Venture capitalCloudLock, a cloud security specialist, raises $16.5 million Series C round

    CloudLock, a cloud security specialist, has raised $16.5 million in a Series C funding round from new investor Bessemer Venture Partners, and participation of existing investors Cedar Fund and Ascent Venture Partners. The company says that 2013 saw continuing growth in adoption by cloud-bound organizations of the company’s people-centric security automation approach, with a pure SaaS content-aware and policy-based solution, by companies in different verticals, across multiple cloud platforms like Google Apps and Salesforce.

  • Venture capitalCloud security specialist Apprity announces $8 million Series A round

    Santa Clara, California-based Apprity, a stealth Cloud Security company, the other day announced an $8 million Series A round of venture capital funding. The company notes that more and more business processes and applications are being transitioned to the cloud, but that the promise of Cloud and SaaS applications, combined with trends of Mobility, Bring-your-own-Device (BYOD), and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is constrained by multiplying cyber threats. While security vendors typically focus on providing solutions for securing the perimeter, Apprity says it focuses on the need for a modern approach to Cloud security, and is developing patent-pending technology to address today’s complex business requirements.

  • Cybersecurity businessCybersecurity giants adapt to changing cyberthreat landscape

    McAfee and Symantec, the two technology giants of traditional firewall and antivirus protection software, are shifting their attention to focus more on cybersecurity challenges. A rapidly changing landscape for computer networks, in which data is transmitted and stored via mobile devices and cloud computing, has created demand for products and services that can secure information against state-sponsored or organized cyber terrorism.

  • BusinessAkamai to acquire cloud-based security solutions provider Prolexic

    Organizations, faced with an ever-changing threat landscape, require comprehensive security solutions that address many different protection scenarios. These include securing mission critical Web properties and applications from attack, as well as protecting the full suite of enterprise IP applications — including e-mail, file transfers, and VPN — across a data center. Akamai acquires Prolexic in order to extend its Web optimization and security offerings by adding cloud-based security solutions for protecting data centers and enterprise applications.

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  • Infrastructure protectionCoordinating responses to cloud, infrastructure vulnerabilities

    Cybercrime presents a significant threat to individual privacy, commerce, and national security. In order to tackle this cross-border threat properly, agents involved in managing and monitoring cyber-risk-critical assets need to be able to cooperate and co-ordinate their prevention strategies. Platforms enabling coordinated cross-border responses already work well for handling malicious activity on the traditional Internet. The advent of cloud computing, however, has created a new set of challenges for security professionals in securing the platforms that deliver the cloud.

  • Cloud PrivacyCloud computing user privacy needs serious reform: scholars

    When Web surfers sign up for a new online service or download a Web application for their smartphone or tablet, the service typically requires them to click a seemingly innocuous box and accept the company’s terms of service and privacy policy. Agreeing to terms without reading them beforehand, however, can adversely affect a user’s legal rights, says a new paper by an expert in technology and legal issues.

  • Cloud PrivacyNIST publishes draft cloud computing security document for comment

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a draft document on security for cloud computing as used in the federal government. The public comment period runs through 12 July 2013.

  • CybersecurityCyber risks for users of cloud computing

    Home computer users and businesses are being warned to consider more closely the risks associated with cloud computing, as well as its many advantages.

  • Cloud securityNew ways to store data securely with untrusted cloud providers

    Cloud storage security is an especially important issue for anyone dealing with large amounts of data that are supposed to be stored for a long period, such as archival and backup data. Researchers received a top honor for their ideas on better ways to ensure the integrity and long-term reliability of data stored at potentially untrusted cloud storage providers.

  • Self-healing cloudMIT, DARPA developing self-healing cloud network

    Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Pentagon’s advanced research arm DARPA are working together to create a self-healing cloud computing network that can defend against cyberattacks

  • Securing the cloudQuantum physics makes possible perfectly secure cloud computing

    Computer data processing and storage are increasingly done in the cloud; the challenge in cloud-based system is to ensure that clients’ data stays private; researchers have now shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved with quantum computers

  • CryptographyQuantum technique for secret messaging

    Quantum cryptography is the ultimate secret message service; new research shows it can counter even the ultimate paranoid scenario: when the equipment or even the operator is in the control of a malicious power

  • Cloud continuityNew cloud continuity solution for SMBs

    Research by Contingency Planning, Strategic Research Corp., and DTI/PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the effect of downtime and data and application loss on small to medium enterprises caused 70 percent of small firms to go out of business within a year of the event; a new cloud-based continuity service addresses this problem