The widespread application of cloud computing and hacker attack

Perhaps the biggest hurdle for cloud computing's widespread use is ongoing security issues that plague and influence the idea of using cloud computing and ithttp://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/32836.html "> Outsourcing." However, one of the problems with these common cloud issues (for example, the special level of data privacy and security for cloud services providers) is that cloud computing can be a tool for hackers.

One of the benefits of cloud computing is that it allows users, whether individuals or groups, to buy only the IT resources they need when they need it. This instant-payment system provides excellent flexibility, allowing users to gain almost unlimited computing power over a small period of time. The model can be exploited by hackers as a basis for its powerful attacks because individuals can gain access to computing power, crack passwords, or perform other malicious activities that operate on a computer and may require large amounts of time or extensive and expensive computing resources. Cloud computing is likely to be in the hands of hackers who can provide the same level of computing power as supercomputers, and at very low cost, which means a high return on potential investment. Therefore, the potential value of the cloud is quite high for hackers.

If you've used a lot of IRC (Internet Relay Chat), you may encounter people called "Robot bots" (bots is the abbreviation for "Robot English Robots"), a software that behaves like a user, often for malicious purposes or just for some annoying purpose. Imagine the software running on other users ' computers-squeezing, and then a lot of robots working together, like a network. This is the "zombie network" phenomenon. Essentially, a botnet is an ad hoc cloud network that relies on stolen rather than actual, legally owned hardware and software resources. Botnets can involve thousands of or even millions of of machines, generating extensive computing power that can be used to send spam, denial of service attacks, and other malicious purposes. These amorphous networks are, in some ways, even more "cloudy" than "clouds" by many IT professionals.

Botnets are difficult to dismantle because they can be extended to many machines, and the actual users of these machines are generally unaware that their resources are being shared with a hacker. In addition, hackers who deploy botnets rely on user failures to implement measures on their systems. Colleges, in particular, are hotbeds of hacker activity, not to say that many college students are hackers (but some are, to be sure), but because universities offer high-bandwidth Internet connections that students often use sparingly to protect their computer equipment from attack. Security professionals at a prestigious university have said that "universities are indeed the root of all evils" in the context of malicious computer incidents.

But these malicious networks, which rely on stolen resources, are not the only tools that hackers can use. The cloud provides many tools to help hackers, especially those who use stolen credit cards and fake IP addresses to access resources, whose activities are hard to trace. As the article in Computer World, "password cracking in the cloud," points out, hackers can take advantage of cloud-based computing resources, such as cracking passwords, a powerful technique to crack a medium-length and medium-complexity password that takes a long time and a lot of computing resources. The article points out that when the password is cracked, the relationship between the botnet and the cloud, "for a hacker, there are two sources of resources available for computing, one is a zombie network of consumer PCs, and a cloud of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provided by service providers." Any one can provide a strong computing power, can meet the dedicated computing needs. ”

The power of hackers to use the cloud as a tool is enormous. The costs associated with computer equipment can be put aside and replaced by a payment plan that allows hackers to pay a relatively small operating fee for their services. Because the return on password breaking can be huge, the cloud offers a huge value to malicious users: it pays very little for a large computing service, and the benefits of the results (breaking the code) are huge.

Cloud and zombie networks illustrate a common feature of technology development: tools can be used both in goodwill and in malice. However, the same applies to security principles, which protects individual users and institutions from attack. Even though hackers have a wide range of computing resources, they still have difficulty in cracking long, complex passwords. Of course, long passwords may be a painful thing for users, but doing so can deal with the aftermath of a bank or company account that hackers have attacked.

(Responsible editor: Liu Fen)