Security in the age of cloud computing

With the focus of it technology from the user's computer terminals to the "cloud" side, that is, the network end of the transfer, China's security companies have proposed "cloud security" concept, the current cloud security has been identified as a new round of network security technology competition theme. Oscar, president of the trend technology greater China, said it will develop along the cloud computing axis in the next 20 years, which is also the driving force for cloud security.

A major challenge for Chinese cyber-security companies that have lost user trust in the era of personal computer protection technology is whether their security technologies can keep up with changes and protect personal information assets, allowing users to regain their trust.

The need to move defensive capabilities to the "cloud" side stems from the discovery by security vendors that traditional means are hard to come by in the face of emerging threats. On the surface, anti-virus software technology threshold is not high, a virus-interested programmers can make a simple tool to deal with a virus, a new manufacturer may also come up with one or two good products. But security vendors are not programming, but long-term, focused research on security issues, and the ability to comprehensively guard against various threats. To the embarrassment of manufacturers, every once in a while there is a new virus popular, "Zombie network", leaks and other security incidents occur frequently, this is more than any scandal and the war of words can damage the user's confidence.

In fact, note how many times a day to click the Warning pop-up window, calculate how much time in a week to spend on scanning, updating, restarting, it is inevitable to doubt that these lovely security guards are protected or hinder your work-and do not say whether they can provide effective protection.

Traditional anti-virus software uses signatures to identify a virus, which is feasible in the case of a limited number of viruses. However, the processing of viruses profitable, has long been developed into a black industry.

This means that an increasingly large library of features is needed to guard against it, but the security vendors are already struggling to cope and the computer itself cannot afford to sacrifice the cost of securing it. Using the cloud's more powerful computing power to replace user terminals and identify threats in the cloud is the first step to achieving cloud security.

The second step is to sound the alarm in the cloud. Security is not a single computer problem, but a system engineering. When the first user is infected with the virus, the security vendors can capture the threat in a very fast time, issuing early warning, determine the scope and extent of the loss.

"The so-called cloud security, rely on a large amount of ' probes ' to achieve." "McAfee China's pre-sales technology director Zheng said. A "probe" refers to a user terminal that can quickly perceive and feed back a virus or malicious software. When installing security software, users are invited to voluntarily join the network established by the security vendor.

"Feedback points are like meteorological observation points," Zheng said. How much it is and how the geographical region is distributed determines the observation effect. "It also reflects the number of users of security software and the strength of the manufacturer, and it can quickly capture and report new threats, in conjunction with the technical analysis of the background and the monitoring of network traffic and e-mail, thus enhancing the security of the entire network."

This monitoring-feedback mechanism applies not only to security on the public Internet, but also to the "Enterprise cloud" environment in which it organizations can quickly isolate threats. Oscar that only the introduction of threat discovery management technology to meet the needs of enterprises to detect, reduce and manage network internal threats, and through the cloud computing platform, enterprises can quickly and effectively deal with malicious software, reduce network damage control costs and improve the overall security level.

The third step in cloud security is to resist in the cloud and stop the threat from the network before it arrives. To do this, the security vendors will no longer just passively wait for the emergence of new threats. By tracking the source of malware and other suspicious behavior, vendors have established a reputable database of websites, e-mails and even files of all kinds. When a user accesses a site that is potentially risky or opens a file that may be infected, it is also alerted or blocked.

Compared with traditional methods, cloud security has several features that make it perform better in the face of unknown threats. Even a new virus that has never been seen before, in the user terminal has not left "criminal record", may also be tested on the server side, if there is an infection, the monitoring network can extract, analyze, crack the virus more quickly, even more likely the virus has not left the cradle was blocked.

The cloud of security will certainly change the current pattern of the industry. Cloud security is once known as "security as a service", when security is derived from the network, it will inevitably affect the way secure software sales, traditional software licensing revenue may be replaced by service charges.

Oscar that this change is not difficult to accept: "The Billing method (from one-time sales) into an annual fee, the beginning of the turnover seems to fall, but every year." We can accept that. ”

Zheng said that the benefits of the service fee approach is flexible, for users, update timely, maintenance costs are low. Security vendors can not only be directly targeted to SME users, but also with the telecommunications operators to provide business cooperation. McAfee has established a dedicated business unit for security as a service.

User demand for security is also changing. A user who uses netbooks, uses Google Docs for document processing, and entertainment to watch video online, even if the system crashes, his files and information are kept on the web, barely feeling the meaning of traditional antivirus software.

This also hints at future security threats, and if you can't find anything valuable on a user's computer, the target may be targeted at the cloud's core-gmail, Yahoo, Amazon's servers, or Facebook and other social networking sites with a lot of personal information. How to integrate different defense methods to achieve comprehensive protection of the cloud nodes is the next issue that security vendors must consider.

At present, almost all the major security manufacturers, whether international manufacturers such as McAfee, Symantec, trend technology, or domestic rising, Jinshan, 360 and so on, have put forward their own cloud security solutions. However, there is little consensus between them, technological innovation and the opportunity to hype a mixed bag. Cloud security may be an opportunity to rebuild trust, or to disappoint the hopes of redemption.