In the clouds

For decades now, the computer desktop has reigned supreme as the foundation on which all information and communications technology (ICT) is based. Today a change is taking place that may ultimately move all computing off the desktop and onto the web: the emergence of cloud computing. Businesses of all kinds are beginning to realize that they no longer need to maintain their own ICT infrastructure when they can buy just the services they need, when they need them – all delivered via their broadband connection to the Internet.

Dr Elgamal certainly sees the growth of cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) changing the landscape for security specialists in the coming years. “Cloud computing and SaaS offerings are a natural progression of how we conduct business today,” he says. “The availability of private information in shared applications and storage environments will perhaps force all of us to implement security controls more carefully.

“There are two varying opinions on this matter,” he continues. “On the one hand, outsourcing our private and confidential information to other organizations can increase the level of availability of this information to un-trusted third parties. Therefore, we should be even more diligent about who we outsource these applications to.

“On the other hand, these vendors will probably have more expertise and will employ more scrutiny when handling the applications, perhaps providing the ecosystem with a better security model than the one we have now. I actually believe the growth of cloud computing will produce better results from a security standpoint – mainly because the focus on security will drive more security requirements. Among these, the strong authentication of individuals will be a priority.”

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