Cloud computing trust increases, security concerns remain

Ninety percent of IT decision makers have cloud computing in their plans, with 85 percent anticipating investment in the next 12 months, according to a report from the United Kingdom and Ireland branch of a U.S-based networking company.

Even as cloud technology moved from the hype that has colored earlier years into a realistic solution for many organizations, concerns about safety remained. Data protection and other cloud security issues were the top barrier for many companies' migration, with 52 percent labeling security the top concern. However, the result represented a major growth of trust among users, as the 2011 study from the same company was 20 points higher, with 72 percent citing security highly worrisome.

As the doubts about the cloud have been assuaged gradually over the past year, more companies (31 percent) consider the cloud as helping to underpin "critical" activity than in 2011, when just 7 percent of respondent considered it effective.

Some information security researchers are concerned that while the cloud has answered many existing security questions, attacks that will arise from the new landscape still present a threat, and a much greater one at that.

Stelios Sidiroglou-Douskos, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Agence France-Presse that cloud systems need to be particularly diligent in their data loss prevention to avoid catastrophic impact.

"You can have better defenses [in the cloud], but if an attack happens, it's highly amplified," Sidiroglou-Douskos told AFP, adding that if the past is any indication, no system is truly secure. "The analogy most people give is having a lock on your door. It's not a guarantee no one will break in, but it's a question of how much time it will take, and if your lock is better than your neighbor's."