Main menu (IT)

Computing Goes to the Cloud. So Does Crime.

December 16, 2014

  A photo showing the Amazon Web Services data center.

Photo Courtesy of The New York Times

"As more of our world, from family photos to financial information, moves into the cloud, malicious hackers are following.

Hackers may want to be inside clouds for more than just sensitive data, since cloud computing systems are places where supercomputer-quality processing power can be rented. That makes them useful in developing new and strong types of malware.

But aspects of the cloud, and greater computing intelligence in general, can be used to combat these threats in new ways. In particular, data can be easily encrypted even when at rest deep within the system, so a hacker will most often lack the ability to read what is captured. Intelligent 'agents' and pattern-scanning software can be deployed within the cloud to monitor system behavior of virtually every packet, and catch much unorthodox behavior before it happens."

Read more at The New York Times