It doesn’t matter what your name is.. -The Rock

People throw their money in the garbage all the time.   Go to Las Vegas and see for yourself.   It is called gambling right?  What are you willing to risk? I recently went on travel and taught a Cloud Computing Professional course in Las Vegas, I watched a sea of people get caught up in the lights and sounds of the one arm bandits.    At least in Vegas you can see when you lose right away, in business it takes just a little longer.

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in, there is always risk.    Banks won’t lend to you if you don’t show them a plan including an understanding of risk.  Now more often than not, business people are looking to save money on “a sure thing” known as cloud computing.   The government is going all in because it seems to make sense and so are commercial organizations all over the globe.

I believe in leveraging technology and technology patterns to create savings and efficiencies for business and government but these should come with an understanding of the Trade off.   Below you will find a document written by (ENISA), they do a very good job of breaking down risks for analysis.  If you are moving to a cloud model, please consider a glance at this document for a pulse check at the least.

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is an EU agency created to advance the functioning of the internal market. ENISA is a centre of excellence for the European Member States and European institutions in network and information security, giving advice and recommendations and acting as a switchboard for information on good practices. Moreover, the agency facilitates contacts between European institutions, the Member States, and private business and industry actors.

This work takes place in the context of ENISA’s Emerging and Future Risk programme.

CONTACT DETAILS:

This report has been edited by:

Daniele Catteddu and Giles Hogben

e-mail: Daniele.catteddu@enisa.europa.eu and Giles.hogben@enisa.europa.eu,

Cloud Computing Security Risk Assessment

“Risk should always be understood in relation to overall business opportunity and appetite for risk- sometimes risk is compensated by opportunity. ”

What about your wallet?

In the book Incognito by David Eagleman, he talks about a Trolly Problem  where people are faced with difficult choices and based on their perspective at the moment and what they PERCEIVE as risk, they are affected and the results may vary from their normal decision-making process.   One example is that if you had to push a button to kill someone to save others vs actually pushing someone physically.   Pushing the button is easier and we are more likely to do that if we are faced with this situation.  It is even easier if we have to push a button and we don’t actually physically see the result of our actions.

Let us apply this to business here.   You are reading my words here, you may or may not actually know me.   If you did, you would take what I am saying in context to your perspective about me.   Cloud Computing and remote business computing are realistically new concepts for people to manage (PEOPLE).   Technology is advancing faster than culture.

Would you hand someone your wallet?  Why would you give them all the information in your wallet?  You are doing this when you put your information in the cloud.   Wouldn’t you want to think about what information you are giving up?

Technology is advancing faster than culture

Technology is moving at speeds that people can barely keep pace with.   Everyone is busy with very little time to think and solving problems (real problems) as opposed to symptoms is a challenge at best.   Cloud is appealing because the cost of upfront engagement is generally lower.   What leaders need to think about is the TOTAL COST, not TCO, not ROI but the TOTAL COST including trade-off and risk to their business.

You have enough to look over with the PDF posted above! Good luck…