[ISN] Exactly what military data should reside in the cloud?

http://defensesystems.com/articles/2012/04/24/tech-watch-cloud-security.aspx

By John Edwards
Defense Systems
April 26, 2012

The cloud promises to help the military achieve data storage 
efficiencies leading to cost benefits, but it first needs to figure out 
which types of information can safely reside in the cloud and which are 
best left in a conventional data storage environment.

Doug Gardner, technical director of the Program Executive Office for 
Mission Assurance and Network Operations for the Defense Information 
Systems Agency (DISA) in Fort Meade, Md., noted that efforts now being 
made to protect cloud data will eventually lead to better overall IT 
security. “You go to the cloud not just for the efficiencies that it 
might provide you in terms of using just the resources that you need as 
you need them, but also ... by going into an environment where you 
centralize the controls and the protections,� he said. “You’re able to 
beef them up relative to the decentralized model that we’ve been working 
with for a long time.�


Model Matters

As it looks to the cloud for its future storage needs, the Defense 
Department is evaluating cloud environments as well as the data that 
will likely be sent into them. Andy Purdy, chief cybersecurity 
strategist at CSC, a Falls Church, Va.-based technology consulting firm, 
notes that the type of cloud model (public or private), as well as the 
software and hardware used to safeguard data, all play major roles in 
creating a suitable cloud environment for various types of data.

Purdy feels that public clouds are still a danger zone. “Public clouds 
are exactly that --open to all -- and should be treated as such from a 
risk and security perspective, meaning any type of data that’s sensitive 
in nature most likely should not be hosted on a public cloud,� he said.

[...]


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