From The New York Times Bits Blog
Computing Goes to the Cloud. So Does Crime.
By Quentin Hardy
As more of our world, from family photos to financial information, moves into the cloud, malicious hackers are following.
It is easy to see why: Cloud computing systems contain lots of critical information, from sensitive corporate and personal financial data to government secrets and even nude photographs never meant to be shared....
Just as recent hacks reached critical information through innocuous-seeming things like heating and air-conditioning systems that were networked to other computers, cloud systems may have even more pathways in, and a greater number of potential targets out — basically, any connected devices. Not far away, devices for health monitoring and building control, among other things, will make for even richer targets, says Steven Weber, who recently received a $15 million grant to start a center for long-term cybersecurity at the University of California, Berkeley.
“In a couple of years we’re not just going to be talking about finance and banking,” he said. “We’re going to be talking about control of your heart rate, what you eat, how you live. That’s where all this is going, with all kinds of critical stuff going into an environment with possibly variable security.”...