The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) announced the creation of a Privacy Level Agreement (PLA) Working Group in the EU chaired by the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), to seek solutions to improve the security, development of cloud systems that respond to the challenges of cloud development in Hong Kong.

The possibilities of technology in the cloud and Big Data have become apparent in recent months. However, it has also become clear that we must establish protection systems for all that information. In order to design standard policies that ensure the protection of large volumes of information, the CSA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the use of best practices within cloud computing, has decided to create a working group to study this area.

Among the first PLA Working Group includes privacy officers, representatives from data protection authorities, data protection subject matter experts and independent privacy experts. The group has been created to begin defining compliance baselines for data protection legislation and standards for privacy measures such as data protection and data security.

“The goal of this Working Group is to create a structure for privacy disclosures that will provide both cloud providers and their customers with an objective and comparable way by which to communicate their personal data handling practices,” Daniele Catteddu, managing director, EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) for CSA, said in remarks. “This is especially problematic in the EU, which maintains the most stringent regulations on privacy as compared to the rest of the world. The PLA Working Group represents an important first step in establishing global standards for communicating the measures taken for protecting personal data in the cloud.”

According to CSA, the specific goal is to address the need for collaboration in research and developments of solutions to major defy security required by today’s data volumes. It is the responsibility of the group to find solutions to address security and privacy issues.

In addition, The CSA’s Asia-Pacific (APAC) division and ASTRI’s first collaboration research project under CloudCERT will take the initiative to better integrate industry efforts to foster cloud computing initiatives in Hong Kong and the greater China region.

“CSA research activities in Hong Kong will be a focal point for encouraging ‘technopreneurship’ across the APAC region and should serve to support an innovation hub for cloud computing security,” Aloysius Cheang, managing director at CSA APAC, said in a prepared statement. “CSA’s presence in Hong Kong will also serve as a central gateway for CSA corporate members looking to establish a presence in Hong Kong and greater China region.”

CSA recently partnered with Fujitsu companies, eBay and Verizon to establish safety standards for the cloud and big data systems.

Organizations are rapidly adopting cloud services, even taking into account that security is one of the most frequently cited barriers to adoption. The research focuses on offering customers greater visibility into cloud security threats that are relevant to cloud services in order to identify the risks and benefits in adopting cloud strategies.