Cloud computing boosts security plans

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Businesses intend to boost their budgets to fund more security for cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) over the next 12 months, according to a new survey.

The poll of 470 businesses by Infosecurity Europe showed three quarters would increase their spending - possibly at the expense of other IT areas - to secure cloud applications.

Further interviews with a panel of 20 chief information security officers (CISOs) of large enterprises revealed that they are concerned about availability and security aspects of software services in the cloud.

They were especially concerned about the lack of standards for working in the cloud, SAAS and secure internet access, all of them said that they would welcome the development of guidelines in this area.

“This is the clearest indication that SaaS is well and truly here to stay. With any new technology however a risk assessment must be undertaken before allowing your data to be stored offsite (with a vendor). After all, you can transfer the burden of managing systems, but not the liability if something goes wrong," said Raj Samani of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA).

Tamar Beck, Infosecurity Europe group event director, said there were many drivers that make cloud computing almost inevitable as competitive new businesses models are underpinned by collaborative working and its ability to enable organisations to seize opportunities as soon as they arise.

“Cloud computing and SaaS appear to have a pivotal role to play in this new evolving environment, where CIOs are challenged to add value to the business and CISOs required to ensure that new services are reliable and secure,” he said.

Click here to read five assumptions you shouldn't make about SaaS.

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