Who Can We Trust In The Cloud?
When the news media comes out with Social Security Numbers and credit card numbers being leaked, is there any wonder why anyone would do any banking, or any other transactions that involves giving out personal sensitive information wheather it is a large corperaton, small local business, or even our federal government.
The end user would plug into the Cloud from some entry point such as their personal computer and their internet service provider would carry their information to some place in the Cloud. For example in California a homeowner goes online to pay their PG&E bill. PG&E worries about providing me power and the homeowner worries about is the PG&E’s website is a safe place for him to pay his bill.
The Cloud is not the end point but conduit of service. It is designed to meet the needs of end-users all over this planet. Protecting their data in the cloud is an on going job of many security professional around the world.
For many endusers, there is a lingering question as to which websites is safe to visit. Many low-tech computer user wonder how can they tell if they are a real secure website. It does not help when there is stories in the news like Sarah Palin’s email being hacked. What about the f program that you can download and create a fake You Tube website. These and many other stories in the news does not build confidence in the Cloud.
In an effort to tame the wild and lawless side of the internet, there has been set in place some tools and organization that will help you be more secure. The use of these organizations along with some basic safe computer habits will make using the tools and services on the internet a safe and productive experience.
Tools like anti-phishing and questional website warning that are built in Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 and soon to be released 8. Organizations like eTrust, Stay Safe Online, and Consumer Reports are great starting points.
Safe Computer habits when it comes to use of the internet is online to websites that are recomended by trusted sources. It is at this point I could go on for 100’s of pages. That is many more posts and hours, which we will cover at a future date.
