Reflecting on the Journey - Phase Seven

[PLACEHOLDER]

Bring it All Together - Phase Six

Source 1:

Strickland, Jonathan.  "How Cloud Computing Works"  08 April 2008.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://www.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm>  01 May 2013

Gives a very good overview of how cloud computing operates.

Interacting with Sources - Phase Five

1st Source:

Bernstein, D. (2011). Computing in the cloud. Electric Perspectives, 36(6), 48-52,55-57. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.hacc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/916578036?accountid=1130

This source basically makes a case as to why utility companies should use cloud computing.  It says that using a cloud can reduce the overall operating cost while being able to access data faster.  Even with all the threats to cloud computing (which the author mentions some), the advantages outweigh the risks.

Excerpt:

"In the end, cloud-based services are not inherently less secure than traditional architectures. They just require a different way to recognize and address problems."

This segment surprised due to the fact that I have read countless entries saying that clouds are much more insecure than other networking arrays as well as having the data on a physical computer system.

If I were to assume this segment to be true, then no business should even blink their eye at not using the cloud.  Everyone should just switch right away seeing as it's no less secure than your average network.

2nd Source:

font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bradner, S. (2009). Cloud computing security: Who knew? Network World, 26(17), 16-16. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.hacc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/215992663?accountid=11302

This source contradicts the other source, specifically the excerpt I pulled out from the first one.  It explains that cloud computing can take on many different combinations of characteristics, in that no two cloud systems are exactly alike when created.  This makes security a very big issue and hard to discuss how to protect every cloud system out there.  This important because it shows how the first source wasn't quite right or at the very least accurate.  Though credible, the first source highlights mostly on the positives of the cloud and tries to put off the negatives.  It's also important to see how people are divided on the issue of security for cloud computing

-Derek Sheaffer

Credible Sources - Phase Four

Article 1 - The Biggest Cloud Computing Risk Is Impossible to Eliminate

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/docview/1033009679?accountid=11302

For this article, I would say it is very credible.  It relates to my topic by discussing how the biggest risk to cloud systems are humans themselves (i.e. hackers).  The article was published in August 2012, but was last updated in November 2012, which is good since technology can change in a fairly short amount of time.  It was written by Kevin Fogarty, a freelance writer who blogs daily at ITWorld.com, but has also had his articles shown in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, CNN.com, CIO, ComputerWorld, Network World, and many other high-end IT publications.  CIO is a trade journal for IT's which is how I found it through the Proquest database.  They are heavily focused on tech related news and topics, especially computer security, data storage, and cloud computing.  Kevin Fogarty is more than qualified to write about such topics.  He writes only about virtualization, cloud computing, security, and IT innovations for 18 years, winning many awards for his publications.  Although the article came from networkcomputing.com, it is a reliable trade journal that many in the field find valid.  The tone if quite informative, though slightly persuasive.  He is trying to show that there is a great risk to could computing but he stakes his knowledge behind it, and that makes me feel that it is genuine and true.

Article 2 - Hacker attacks threaten to dampen cloud computing's prospects

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/03/us-cloudcomputing-idUSTRE7521WQ20110603

This article is credible to the extent of the time it was written for.  In it, the authors, Clare Jim and Lee Chyen Yee, discuss how Google's Gmail service and Sony's Playstation gaming network got hacked.  The problem is that it was almost over 2 years ago.  I remember back then when it was news and it got some media coverage.  It is related to my topic by showing that these hacking attacks hinder cloud system's being implemented due to being highly seceptible to hackers.  The article comes from the website for Thomas Reuters, which is the "leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals."  This is also a .com website yet seeing as it comes from Thomas Reuters I would call it acceptable.  They use many quotes from people at corporations, showing that they took the time to talk to different people about the incident and investigate a little before writing the article.  I feel the article is just to state facts about the incident at hand, and present dialog from the affected or others to open up the topic a little more.

Overall, I believe the first article is more credible, though I think they are both highly credible, only due to the fact that it is the most recent, and therefore the most relevant.  They were both very professional in their delivery and got information from credible sources to add to what they were saying.  The articles coming from where they came from makes them very credible as well.  Highly rated, well respected, writers and news agencies do not get that sort of status from providing false information over and over again.  I would definitely use either of these articles in any type of research work project.

Knowing the Topic at Hand - Phase Three

Rena, M. P. (2011, Hacking the cloud. Popular Science, 278, 68-71. Retrieved from

https://ezproxy.hacc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/858021189?accountid=11302;

http://ma6yr4ra6q.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-

8&rfr_id=info:sid/ProQ%3Apqrl&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Popular+Scie

nce&rft.atitle=HACKING+THE+CLOUD&rft.au=Pacella%2C+Rena+Marie&rft.aulast=Pacella&rft.aufirst=Rena&r

ft.date=2011-04-

01&rft.volume=278&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=68&rft.isbn=&rft.btitle=&rft.title=Popular+Science&rft.issn=01617370

The first article, entitled "Hacking the Cloud," talked about how cloud systems were highly susceptible to hacking via malicious code, or malware, and what the hackers could do with infected cloud networks.  Usually what hackers do to launch cyber attacks is to create an improvised network via infecting some websites with malicious code so they can install "backdoors" (basically invisible remote access) to visitors' computers.  With cloud computing this becomes much easier, to gain what are known as "botnets" (the improvised networks) via the cloud.  The cloud can host what are know as virtual machines, computer systems set up like any other desktop yet it is accessed via a remote web server managed by some company.  Users sign up for a monthly price and then have access to their VM.  Hackers can easily sign-up for one of these VM accounts, create malware, and spread it among the entire cloud system giving complete control to the hackers without anyone even detecting them.

Clarifying the casefor cloud computing. (2010). Communications Today, Retrieved from

https://ezproxy.hacc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/750440771?accountid=11302;

http://ma6yr4ra6q.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-

8&rfr_id=info:sid/ProQ%3Apqrl&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Communic

ations+Today&rft.atitle=Clarifying+the+casefor+cloud+computing&rft.au=&rft.aulast=&rft.aufirst=&rft.date=2010-

09-01&rft.volume=&rft.issue=&rft.spage=&rft.isbn=&rft.btitle=&rft.title=Communications+Today&rft.issn=

The second article, entitled "Clarifying the Case for Cloud Computing," discussed how cloud computing was safe, efficient, but not for everyone.  Cloud computing is a very stable and reliable way to store data.  It explained how the top threat to cloud computing was actually data loss and leakage, and if one was looking to convert IT services to a cloud that they should consider their provider heavily so this would not happen.

I chose these two articles to use mainly because it was hard to find differing views on the threat to clouds, but I found the first article to be very informative and interesting.  In the first article, I like the examples given in the text about the hackers at this DefCon hacking convention would do to clouds.  For instance, "Take Amazon's EC2 cloud, the biggest pay-as-you-use cloud.  NASA uses it to analyze mission data.  Netflix uses it to stream movies.  The DefCon hackers...used it to crash third-party websites." For the second article, I found the fact that the article said nothing about the risk of hacking when searching for a cloud provider if one would want to switch astounding.  And then even to say that the highest securtiy risk of clouds it actually data loss.

The first article helped me understand my topic a lot.  I learned what exactly a cloud can do, which is actually more than I had thought before.  I also learned what hackers can do with the clouds and what kind of attacks they do like the DDOS, which stands for distributed denial of service.  Basically, it's when a hacker's botnet will bombard a website with bogus internet traffic possibly causing the website's server to crash.  But with a cloud they can just as easily sign up for an account, create some VM's, and use them to send out malware, or do a DDOS attack.  Then just as easily shut the VM's down so as to leave no trace of any malicious activity.  Hopefully I learn next how cloud security can be improved to stop such infiltration.  It seems though the hackers are already winning this war.  Until next time.

- Derek S.

Hacking and Cloud Computing - Phase Two

     My topic will be about computer hacking and how it poses a severe threat to cloud systems. In recent years hacking has been a serious issue, making it seem like anyone can just get into your computer whenever they want to, especially when you hear the stories about the hacking group, Anonymous. It's interesting to me because it's amazing how people are able to bypass any kind of security measure a computer system may put up. I believe researching this topic can help me understand hacking better so I can provide better security for computer or networking systems. Anyone who finds an interest in computer security or hacking may find my further research intriguing. Until next time.

-Derek S.