Monthly Archives: October 2018

Cloud Security Challenges and Opportunities

I recently attended the ISC2 Security Congress held on Oct 8 to 10, 2018 at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Based on the keynotes, workshops, and sessions at the conference, these are the challenges and opportunities facing cloud security:

  1. Container and serverless (e.g. AWS Lambda) security.  For instance, how will you ensure isolation of various applications?
  2. Internet of Things (IOT) and endpoint security.  As more and more sensors, smart appliances and devices with powerful CPUs and bigger memories are connected to the cloud, more computation will happen on the edge, thus increasing security risks.
  3. Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).  How can AI help guard against cyber-attacks, predicts impending security breach, or improve investigation or forensics?
  4. Blockchain technology. Blockchain will be transforming how audits will be performed in the future.
  5. Quantum computing if and when it comes into fruition will break cryptography.  Cryptography is the reason why commerce happens on the Internet.  New encryption algorithm is needed when quantum computing becomes a reality.
  6. How will the implementation of GPDR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the European Union affects data sovereignty (“a concept that information which is stored in digital form is subject to the laws of the country in which it is located”), data privacy, and alignment of privacy and security?
  7. DevSecOps (having a mindset about application and infrastructure security from the start) will continue to gain momentum.

We are likely to be seeing continuing innovations in these areas within the next few years.