Cloudy Laws I – Cloud Computing Security and Legal Challenges
Cloud computing presents innumerable opportunities and brings with it enormous security and legal challenges. While there is no single accepted definition of the “cloud,” the National Institute of Standards and Technology created a reference model in 2011. NIST defined cloud computing by describing its five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. (NIST Special Publication 800-145): Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Essential Characteristics Service Models Deployment Models 1. On demand self service 1. Software as a Service (SaaS) 1. Private Cloud 2. Broad network access 2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) 2. Community Cloud 3. Resource pooling 3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 3. Public Cloud 4. Rapid elasticity 4. Hybrid Cloud 5. Measured service NIST Cloud Computing Reference Model The rapid increase in the availability of cloud computing solutions ranging from Enterprise systems, to Office 365, to the ad hoc use of unencrypted Dropbox accounts, has profound implications for privacy, information security, eDiscovery and legally defensible document retention policies. Hardly a …