1. The Cloud Beckons, But is it Safe?
April 2012

2. The Cloud Beckons,
But is it Safe?
#12NTCCSec
Laura Quinn
Michael Enos

3. Evaluate This Session!
Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!
or Online at www.nten.org/ntc/eval

4. Introductions
Laura Quinn
Executive Director
Idealware
Michael Enos
Chief Technology Officer,
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa
Clara and San Mateo Counties
What are you hoping to get out of this session?

6. What is The Cloud?

7. The Lure of the Cloud
Low cost of entry
Easy remote access
No complex infrastructure
But what about security?

8. How Do YOU Feel About Cloud Security?

9. Why the Concern?

10. Cloud Security in the News

11. Under Siege
To be on the
Internet is to be
vulnerable to attack.
If you’re on the Internet, you’re in The Cloud

12. But We Do Lots of Things on the Internet
We shop online
We bank online
We post crazy
things on Facebook
Why is the cloud different? It’s not.

13. How Secure is Your On-Site Data?
Do any of these sound familiar?
• No one patches computers or is
responsible for network security
• You haven’t really thought
about passwords or
permissions
• No disaster recovery plans
• Staff hasn’t had any security
training

14. Myth
“We’re a tiny nonprofit.
We’re safe because no
one would target us for
cyber attack.”

15. Fact
Many data security breaches
are crimes of opportunity.
Organizations don’t always
consider the sensitivity of their
data until it’s exposed.

16. Myth
“Our data is safer
not in the cloud”

17. A Cloud Data Center

18. Is This Your Server Closet?

19. What Does Security Mean?

20. The Three Pillars of Information Security

21. Confidentiality
Information is available only to authorized parties.

22. Integrity
Information isn’t modified inappropriately, and that
you can track who made what change.

23. Availability
Assurance that data is
accessible when needed
by authorized parties.

24. Also: Physical Possession
Whoever has the
data could, for
instance, turn it
over to the
government

25. How Does This Apply to the Cloud?

26. Cloud Security
The use of the term “Cloud” is cloudy!
Three general types of clouds:
– Software-as-a-Service
– Hosted Private Cloud
– Co-located Private Cloud
All three have different security
models

27. Software as a Service
The vendor owns and manages all aspects of the environment.
For instance:

28. Hosted Private Cloud
The vendor owns and manages the equipment only, but all
software is managed by the client. The equipment is on the
vendors network. For instance:

29. Co-located Private Cloud
The vendor provides the physical environment only in a data
center, the client maintains the hardware and the software. For
instance:

30. What Does Security Mean For You?

31. Rules for Absolute Safety
Turn off your Internet
connection.
Allow no one access to
your data and systems.
But let’s be realistic…

32. Know What You’re Protecting
What kinds of data are you storing,
and how sensitive are they?
Think about its value on the open
market.

33. Red Flags
You need extremely tight
security to store:
• Donor’s credit card
numbers.
• Scanned images of checks.
• Donor’s bank account
information.

34. What’s Your Exposure?
Consider the impact of
exposure of your
confidential information,
both in monetary terms and
reputation.

35. What’s The Impact of an Outage?
How much staff
time could you
lose from a short
term or prolonged
outage?

36. Testing Your On-Site Security
Have you recently performed a:
• Check on whether your systems
have been recently patched?
• Systems penetration test ?
• Employee training on security
procedures?
• Backup/recovery test?
If not, you’d likely increase your security by moving
to the cloud.

37. A Multi-Level Security Model

38. Multi-Level Security is the Ideal

39. Physical Security
• Guarded facilities
• Protection of your hardware and devices
• Power redundancy
• Co-location (redundant facilities)

40. Network Security
• Intrusion prevention
• Intrusion detection
• Firewalled systems
• Network proactive anti-virus protection

41. Transmission Security
Is data encrypted in
transit?
Is the network
secure?

42. Access Controls
• Ensuring the right people
have access to the right data
• Physical access to the server
• Training on appropriate
passwords and security
measures

43. Data Protection
• Data encryption
• Solid backup and
restore policies
• Ability to purge
deleted data
• Ability to prevent
government entities
from getting your data
with a subpoena

44. What to Look For in a Vendor

45. Description of Security Mechanisms
Documentation of all the facets of
security, and the staff can talk
about it intelligently.
Proves information security is on
the “front burner”

46. Uptime
Do they provide any guarantee of
uptime? Any historic uptime
figures?
Uptime figures are typically in 9s--
99%, 99.9% or 99.99%
Your connection to the internet may well be the weakest link.

47. Regulatory Compliance: HIPAA
Does the vendor support
organizations that need to be
compliant with HIPAA (the
Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act)?

48. Regulatory Compliance: SAS70 and SSAE16
Audit for security standards,
hardware, and processes.
Statement on Accounting
Standards 70 (SAS70)
Statement of Standards for
Attestation Engagements 16
(SSAE16)

49. Regulatory Compliance: PCI DSS Compliance
If you’re storing credit card
numbers, your vendor
needs to be compliant with
PCI DSS (Payment Card
Industry Payment Data
Security Standard)

50. In Summary

51. Understand the Value of Your Data
What is it worth to you?
To others?
What measures are
appropriate to protect it?

52. Your Data Is No Safer Than You Make It
Any computer
attached to the
internet is
vulnerable unless
you protect it.
The cloud isn’t, in
of itself, more or
less secure

53. But Many Vendors Make Your Data Really Safe
Choose vendors who
show they’re serious
about data protection
(not all vendors are
created equal).
Consider a vendor’s
regulatory compliance.

54. Questions?