The Survey Says…

A web host industry report recently out from Webroot, a leading Internet security service firm, offers troubling results for most web host security analysts.  According to the recently conducted survey of over 2,660 participants, over 50% plan to do at least half of their holiday shopping online.  The number of online holiday shoppers increased from 38% in a similar survey conducted last year.  Perhaps online merchants are capitalizing on the convenience of customers being able to shop from home or taking five on a quick lunch break, combined with the alluring Black Friday online only specials.

High Ranked vs. Trusted Websites

An interesting find in the Webroot survey indicates that 59% of the participants would rather trust the top listings generated from an online search engine rather than typing in an established company’s website, compared to 38% in 2009.  This is troublesome for website owners because if their respected search ranking isn’t listed within the first couple of pages of displayed results, potential customers will never even land on a trusted site.  Furthermore, fraudulent sites have taken advantage of some online shoppers’ naivety to become a high ranked website, yet be a scam in every other sense of the word.

Weak Wi-Fi Hot Spots

With the increased number of online holiday shoppers, comes the increased potential for online fraud.  Often busy individuals take a break from a hectic schedule to “browser shop” using a personal laptop hitting a local Wi-Fi connection; however, often these enthralled shoppers don’t realize they are connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi hot spot. A caveat: submitting any credit card or other financial information is a very risky transaction unless via a secure connection.

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The Infamous Twitter Hack

What is being dubbed as the “Twitter Hack” has some questioning whether security is an issue for the phenomenon that is cloud computing.  The incident that sparked the debate was actually the hacking of a Google Apps account belonging to a Twitter employee.  It has been reported that the exploit occurred because one of Twitter’s co-founders create a password for Google Apps that was easily guessed by a hacker.  This in turn, enabled the hacker to access the user’s personal information, including the data on his wife’s personal computer.

A War of the Words

Andy Cordial, managing director of data storage solutions firm Origin Storage, stated that a large number of companies and their employees are becoming victims of the cloud.  Cordial’s logic is that because cloud computing is so prevalent, businesses are being rushed into it and forced “to adapt their IT security systems on the fly.” He remarked that Origin Storage saw the shift in the business industry on the horizon and that all the security “breaches occurring on the cloud front” is proof that there are discrepancies that still need to be resolved.  Although the cloud shouldn’t necessarily take all the blame for the most recent debacle, the news isn’t certainly isn’t making anyone feel any better about the overall security of Twitter or Google Apps.

Evan Williams, the Twitter co-founder who essentially caused his wife’s Gmail webmail account to be compromised, explained to blog site TechCrunch, that the hack was absolutely not due to a lack of security on the part of Twitter.  However, Andy Cordial stressed that if Twitter would have paid more focus on security rather than growing their user base at all cost, the company wouldn’t be in the midst of a such an embarrassing situation.  Cordial added that implementing encryption into an organization’s data storage arrangement, be it in on or off the cloud, will ensure that information stored on the server and in transit is protected from malicious intent.  His final shot at the Twitter co-founder was that creating a secure password on top of encryption and sound corporate policies would have likely prevented the matter.  However, it should be stated that it was personal user accounts, not business accounts that were compromised.

Who’s to Blame?

Who should take the bullet for the so-called Twitter Hack?  Is it really the fault of the cloud, or should blame lie with Google apps or the victim?  While it is probably a good combination of all parties, one would think that a co-founder and active member of what is arguably the most popular social networking platform of the moment would have the know-how to be a little more responsible.   In any event, this breach probably will not convince many of the users who are still concerned about internet security any time soon.

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