Top 5 Security Concerns for Applications in Cloud Computing
Internal development teams have worked with "For Internal Use Only� in mind. And then came the cloud.
Develop secure login/access procedures
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Internally, the application had secure access to authentication databases and content databases, such as product data management systems and ERP systems.
Challenge: As these systems typically contain confidential content, careful decisions have to be made about the data — which parts should be moved to the cloud and in what form, or can the whole database live on the cloud without risk? Oftentimes, new and securely implemented login/access procedures are needed.
Applications are typically built from the ground up using programming languages, such as PHP, JAVA or .NET by an internal development team or a third-party vendor with "For Internal Use Only� in mind. There has been a general assumption by development teams that users can always be trusted, the application will be used "as intended,� and all information (i.e., user data) and content (i.e., product data from databases or ERP systems) are coming from safe and secure sources.
As cloud computing becomes more favorable among companies, they are forcing their applications out of the internal network into the cloud, causing them to be vulnerable to Web threats. If the application, or part of the application, is moved into the cloud, there will be typically less security within the infrastructure and several more users will be accessing it. Therefore, vulnerabilities turn up and hacks occur. The following are typical challenges enterprises face when moving an application to the cloud, prepared by security vendor Art of Defence.
