Month: March 2015

With the increasing number of digital gadgets in the market, there are just as many or probably more applications available to manage these devices. When you use your smart phone or iPod or any other device, you often get messages or warnings telling you your security is at risk and that there is a virus on our device.

This probably sends a chill up your spine thinking of all the money you spent purchasing the device and you will most likely download the app that will ostensibly protect your device. But how do you know that your device is really at risk? How do you know that you really have a virus or malware? And what exactly is Malware?

What is a Virus?

You will recall from the days of the desktop, a virus is nothing but a computer program that keeps duplicating itself so that your space gets clogged up and your computer malfunctions. Taken from the traditional meaning of the word, a virus infiltrates your system and simply jams it up. Malware (MALicious softWARE) on the other hand is software that can actually harm your PC.

Do Android Viruses Exist?

No, says Lookout while Walter Glenn of Lifehacker says “Viruses may be a more limited problem on smartphones and tablets, but they do exist.” Glenn substantiates his claim with the knowledge that applications on Android run sandboxed and have very little or no interaction with either the OS or other apps. Therefore even if you have a virus it cannot do much harm. So is there any real cause to worry?

What Sort of Malware can an Android Phone have?

Malware can enter phones through SMS or by downloading apps. Either way your system is at risk although as mentioned earlier, the risk is lesser than that for a PC that has malware.

SMS threat

The threat via SMS is through SMS Trojan. An SMS Trojan works behind the scenes and sends SMS from your phone to high priced numbers. The user account is debited each time an SMS is sent without the user being aware of it. By the time the user realizes that a Trojan has entered his phone he is already paid (or is being charged!) a pretty penny.

Downloaded Malware

Most of the downloaded malware is spyware that gains access to your data and sends it to the hacker. These apps are disguised as genuine apps like the Netflix app that appeared in 2011. The spyware could easily be mistaken for the real software and many guileless users were duped.

Conclusion

The lesson to be learned from Netflix is that you should be extremely cautious when downloading apps into your phone. Any which way, downloading too many apps may clog your system and if you download a spyware then Be Ware!

Sources: Lookout, Lifehacker, Securityweek

Microsoft, in an annual SMB Cloud Adoption Study 2011, found that nearly 50% of the small sized businesses plan to adopt cloud service in the next three years.

Businesses that have moved or are considering a shift to cloud computing are often concerned about the security of their data.

This concern is not unfounded. Jeff Beckham of Cisco lists the top five security risks of cloud computing. These relate to transfer of data, software interfaces, data storage, user accounts, and data separation.

Data Transfer

When businesses use cloud computing there is a great deal of data travelling over the internet, often from unsecure networks.

This means that data can be hacked while it is being transferred to and from the cloud. The first precaution therefore is to ensure that your data travels over a secure network.

Using (IPsec) Internet Protocol Security can also mitigate this risk to a great extent. IPsec is any internet protocol that uses encryption and decryption while transferring data over the internet.

What this means is that your data will be coded when it is despatched and decoded when received. In other words while your data travels over the intricate network it is coded and only the decoder stored in your computer and that of your provider can decode it.

User Interface

A user interface is a program or API that interacts with the database to store, retrieve, or update data.  The (CSA) Cloud Security Alliance recommends that you learn how your service provider keeps your data secure. This includes learning about the user interfaces the provider uses. A weak interface – one that does not include nor has checks and controls – can put your data at risk. Therefore it is important to discuss security issues with your provider before you sign the agreement.

Data Storage

Although your service provider may use encryption while transferring data between his server and your computer, few providers use encryption within their own network. Hyun-Suk Yu, Yvette E. Gelogo, & Kyung Jung Kim advise that ensuring data security within the cloud is one of the necessary factors to be considered before accepting the cloud computing package.

Conclusion

The security concerns discussed here are the three major concerns regarding data security. Organizations must keep in mind that employees of the CSP can always access their accounts and data. Therefore it is advisable to consider the sensitivity of the data before deciding to put it on cloud storage. In fact one must be extremely cautious when migrating to cloud computing and consider all aspects carefully before signing the dotted line.

Sources: Cloud Security Alliance, Wikipedia, Microsoft, IETF Tools, Science & Engineering Research Support Society 

One of the many concerns being voiced by businessmen with respect to cloud computing is loss of control. This concern stems from the fact that many organizations have their in-house programmers write applications specific to their needs. These applications are written to integrate with the software of the current cloud service provider.

When the organization decides to change the provider, many of the applications have to be rewritten resulting in additional costs in terms of time and resources.

The obvious solution to this problem is that organizations should use the applications written by the new service provider.

So how should businesses approach the private versus the public application problem?

Public or Private Applications – a matter of control

When writing applications for cloud computing, the approach would depend on the model the company has opted to deploy.

Whether the cloud is a public cloud or a private cloud would also be a factor in deciding the approach to development.

The problem of control would be minimal where the organization only rents the infrastructure since the data and applications would be built and owned by the organization.

Under the SaaS model where the organization rents the provider’s software along with the infrastructure, the problem with control would be the greatest.

Writing Applications for Cloud Computing

From a programmer or developer’s perspective, one major factor when considering private applications over public ones is that applications do not generally stand alone. Every application interacts with other applications, databases, and other objects. If most of these objects or frameworks are provided by the service provider, then using a public application may be a better option since it would be better integrated.

If on the other hand the database is stored locally, private applications may work better because they can then be tested locally to a great extent and only their integration with other applications stored on the cloud will have to be tested real time. Says Barney Beal of  Techtarget, “There are, of course some applications that simply aren’t made for the public cloud. For example, a retail bank’s demand deposit account program.”

Conclusion

Given the various factors on which the decision of whether to write private applications or use the ones provided by the service provider is based, one cannot advocate for one or the other. The needs of the client with regard to the volume of data, the number of applications he needs, the level of security required, and the sensitivity of data will all combine to form the basis for deciding on a solution.

Nor can the decision stand alone. The decision for development must be taken in conjunction with the decision about the deployment model. Since cloud computing is a relatively new concept, there are still a lot of teething troubles with developing software for cloud platform. With time and experience, will come the knowledge to take better decisions, and write better code.

Sources: UNH, Tech Target