Is cloud computing secure?

SafeNet's CTO Russell Dietz certainly thinks so, suggesting that advanced encryption techniques are the answer. "There are ways to encrypt the information in databases in applications and in synchronisation services so even though your information can be operated on within a cloud, you maintain key material either on premise or in a trusted way with a cloud provider," he said.

It's an interesting approach, and one we've seen where companies using cloud services to host complex financial calculations send anonymous data (where company names and details have been encrypted) to their cloud-based processing service, decrypting the identifying information once the processed data is returned.

If you want to work with cloud services securely, secure your data. Once it's secure, you can then work to ensure that the right governance models are in place making sure you don't inadvertently breach regulations.

As Symantec's Mike Jones says: "Organisations [using the cloud] will need stronger information governance, defined IT policies and procedures and will have to enforce these."