Cloud Computing: A Security Disaster Waiting To Happen?

Cloud computing is be the biggest risk the Internet has ever faced, according to one hacker. He went so far as to say that security problems in the Cloud may bring "an end to the Internet as we know it."Hacker Michael Calce is watching the Cloudward migration of data, services and just about everything else with a jaundiced, and experienced eye.

And he doesn't like what he sees, which is a Cloud filled with risks, overconfidence and security holes..

Calce, who, as a high school student in 2000 achieved fame (and infamy) as MafiaBoy, launching denial of service attacks that crippled some of the Web's biggest sites, now works as a security commentator.

And one of the things he's commenting on, as a recent Webcast for security company Lumension made clear, is his concerns that the Cloud is a disaster, perhaps an unprecedented one, waiting to happen.

Or not waiting. As Calce points out, the monetization of hacking is attracting larger and larger numbers of criminals into cyberspace. Couple that with larger and larger amounts of data in a vulnerable Cloud, and add the openness of many Web 2.0 applications (and the naivete of many of their users) and the ingredients are all in place for crime to bring the Web to its knees.

The more eggs, in other words, that business and individuals put into a single basket in the Cloud, the easier it is for that basket to be pilfered.

Provocative stuff and, admittedly, provocation is one of the things that observers and commentators (and bloggers) do best.

But it's provocative stuff that's more than well worth thinking about, especially as you ponder your own business's next moves into the Cloud.

And a good place to start pondering is with Fred Paul's recent piece about Cloud computing, small and and midsized businesses, and the questions those businesses should be raising about the Cloud.