The recent Sony’s PlayStation Network security issue and Amazon Web service outage brought a number of people calling for the downfall of cloud computing. Sony’s security blunder that let loose 100 million credit card numbers turned into a learning experience for the company to correct their flaws.
A Reuter’s article highlighted Sony’s ability to bring down the cloud. According to Gartner cloud security analyst Jay Heiser, “Cloud computing companies have done a good job convincing customers that their data is safe, even though that may not be the case.” The article pointed out the Sony incident as a reason not to go to cloud computing.
There is inconsistency in this sentiment. Sony is not a cloud computing provider. The company’s failure to provide data security is not a reflection of other public cloud computing providers.
Experts believe that despite Sony’s incompetence in bad security practice, it is not a flaw in cloud services per se. Sony is a big company having a huge customer base. This issue is an example of security failure that happens for all companies, whether they are using the cloud or not. Data will be compromised if steps are not taken to protect it, regardless of where it is stored.