Mark Olson, McAfee's Senior Vice President and GM, discusses data protection risks in cloud computing. The main concern is data loss, which requires both cloud providers and customers to work together on security. Following and securing data across cloud environments is essential.
Hi, I'm Martin Gettings, I'm reporting here from Cloud computing World Forum 2011. I'm with Mark Olson. He is Senior vice president and GM for McAfee. So what do you think the real security issues are behind cloud computing?
I think the real issues are about the data. It's the risk of data loss that customers are concerned about when their data moves up into the cloud.
And what's McAfee's involvement ensuring safety with that data? Moving up into the cloud?
Yeah, our approach has really been to follow the data. So first you do have to discover where your business sensitive data is in order to follow it. Once you've discovered it, then you put in a set of rules to prevent certain data from leaking or moving to the cloud. And then for all of your data that does need to move to the cloud, how do you ensure that it moves there safely and securely? So really you want to follow that data around and make sure it's safe and secure as it moves to the cloud.
What advice would you give to an organization looking to set up a cloud network from a security perspective?
Yeah, we think of it as building a secure bridge to the cloud and there's two sides of the bridge. So on the cloud provider side, not all cloud providers are created equally. So you do want to look under the covers, make sure that the cloud provider is meeting your security needs on your side of the bridge. You want to make sure that you've got a platform in place that's going to secure that data as it moves back and forth from the cloud.
So when an IT provider moves into services with the cloud, is it normally the IT department that's involved with the security issues or the provider?
Well, it's got to be both. Again, it's both sides of the bridge. So it's got to be a partnership where the provider is creating some transparency. I mean, I think some customers are worried that the cloud is just a black box and they can't see in it. There's got to be some transparency in what the security controls are. Again, it's a partnership and so there's onus on the company itself as well to make sure that no matter where the data is, if it's on a mobile device, in an airport, if it's on a PC in a coffee shop, or it's at the corporate facility, that that data is going to be secure as it moves to the cloud.
What do you think is the best option for ensuring data security in the cloud?
Well, again, I think it's both sides. There's a cloud secure program in place to ensure that the cloud provider's vulnerability free, they've got their external network protected and on the side of the customer. You really want to ensure that you've got all the moving parts between identifying your data, your email and web security, which are the primary channels where data is moving to the CL loud and then more importantly, you've also using a.
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