http://www.darkreading.com/securityservices/security/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219700098 By Tim Wilson DarkReading Sept 08, 2009 Users of cloud computing infrastructures should be aware that their sensitive data could be potentially leaked, a group of university researchers say. In a new research paper (PDF), several computer scientists from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they have discovered soft spots in the cloud computing concept that could leave data vulnerable to attack. "Overall, our results indicate that there exist tangible dangers when deploying sensitive tasks to third-party compute clouds," the paper says. In a nutshell, the researchers argue that by taking the right steps, an attacker could place a malicious virtual machine (VM) in close proximity to a target server in a shared, "cloud" environment. From there, it would be possible to launch a "cross-VM attack" using a variety of different hacking strategies, they say. Such methods might be employed by an attacker looking to access a specific target or server, or they might be used by hackers casting a wide net, searching for any vulnerable server, the paper says. [...] ________________________________________ Please Donate to the Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes with Ethan's Crew! http://www.c4i.org/ethan.htmlReceived on Tue Sep 08 2009 - 22:14:48 PDT
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