cloud computing

11.21: news.addx/security/cloud computing:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23951/

. If a full cryptographic solution is far-off,

what would a near-term solution look like?

WD: A practical solution will have several properties.

It will require an overall improvement in computer security.

Much of this would result from

care on the part of cloud computing providers

--choosing more secure operating systems such as Open BSD and Solaris--

and keeping those systems carefully configured.

A security-conscious computing services provider

would provision each user with

its own processors, caches, and memory at any given moment

and would clean house between users,

reloading the operating system and zeroing all memory.

A serious potential danger will be any laws intended to

guarantee the ability of law enforcement

to monitor computations that they suspect of supporting criminal activity.

Back doors of this sort complicate security arrangements

with two devastating consequences.

Complexity is the enemy of security.

Once Trojan horses are constructed,

one can never be sure by whom they will be used.

1439:

. afraid of gmail? the dod's internet eavesdropping machine

will pick it up anyway;

even crypts will be cracked in a couple years,

and when they are,

they give some insight into who we are,

which in turn may signal

who needs closer survailence via other means .