Security risks rise as cloud data centers scale and change
Metagate June 20, 2015 Uncategorized
Data centers are an extremely important part of our lives, as individual users, even if we don’t actually realize it. Big companies like Google, Yahoo, banks and public institutions run on Big Data and they are dependent on data centers’ speed and processing power. Given the fact that new information and data is created at an extremely fast pace, traditional data centers evolved into cloud data centers that have the possibility to scale rapidly and change according to users’ needs.
With the new development, new security risks and threats appeared especially now, when the change happens extremely fast. Actually the speed of change can be seen as a risk itself, as there’s no time to manage and assimilate the changes thoroughly. This leaves space for mistakes that can be open doors for cleverly designed viruses and other malefic tools created to destroy or steal information.
What are the main risks a cloud data center is exposed while changing?
- Internet of Things (IoT) devices
IoT is definitely the new trend to follow and both producers and customers want to see this change happening extremely fast. While IoT is a fantastic concept that will definitely make our life easier, right now it can be a serious security threat due to the multitude of devices that try to connect using incompletely tested software. This leaves the door wide open to hackers and other ill intentioned organizations.
- Virtual Machines (VMs) used for building and testing apps
It’s absolutely normal to build specific VMs that host the necessary resources for building and testing your app. Still, leaving them open after the project was finalized is a huge risk for both the company and the cloud data center hosting the data. According to security specialists, VMs are the new gate that can be exploited by ill intentioned software. They cause important breaches and important detriments to a company when handled without the sense of responsibility.
- The lack of data encryption during transfers
One of the perks companies have while using cloud data centers is the possibility to move the data from one location to another. The main risk during this data moving is encryption. If the company is not careful with the type and level of encryption, those data may be compromised during the transfer.
- The variety of technologies used to create and store data
Each company has the freedom to choose the software it is going to work with and this can also be an important source of risk. If the software used to create and store data (before data center) is not compliant with the latest security standards this may be a threat from inside.
The technological world is changing at an incredible speed and security risks increase with the same amazing speed. With time, we as individual customers and companies as business clients will understand the importance of security standards and will learn to protect our data from any imminent threats.
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