Lib Dems: Gov must look at security of public data cloud

The Liberal Democrat party has said that the government should investigate the potential for abuse of data owners' rights if private companies hosted public data outside the UK. The junior Coalition partner raised the issue in in its Policies for Information Technology paper. "Cloud computing is an area where, if [it is] left …

[Gordon 10]

My god

A sensible IT policy from the lib dems!!

I'm sure normal service will be resumed soon.

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

Yep!

When tenders for any expensive kit go out and those profit margins need shaving down to the bone again!

[jake]

Am I allowed to lay a big "DUH!" ...

... on miscellaneous British .gov faces?

::wanders off, muttering about "kids these days"::

[Kevin Davidson]

PATRIOT Act

Which misses out one thing. Even if the servers are UK based the data is not safe if a US company is running it. The PATRIOT Act means that US company has to hand over any and all data requested by the US government.

[Ken Hagan]

Correction: it has to *try*.

The UK remains a sovereign state. If a UK court seized the server, the US company wouldn't be able to comply with such requests, like it or not. Such carelessness (losing the server) might put the US company on the wrong side of US law, but that's not the UK's problem.

Seen in that light, the Lib Dems are merely pointing out that such hypotheticals are worth thinking through before we put *our* servers in somebody else's jurisdiction. (Well, "Duh!", but I suppose these are politicians so we have to let them go at their own pace.)

Fortunately, we have laws against such recklessness. Unfortunately, UK.gov never seems to believe that its own laws apply to it. Therefore, whilst UK private companies are probably being diligent about their cloud use, UK.gov is probably already spraying confidential data around the globe to an extent that makes the Freedom of Information Act redundant.

[Anonymous Coward]

Woof Woof

"The Lib Dems said that the UK should work with other governments and international bodies to help establish a watchdog regime for cloud services."

Primary duty of said watchdog being to ensure that as much UK data as possible be handed over to organisations in the US of A. Whilst receiving nothing in return.

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for <international financial company> and this is the no. 1 reason we've not gone cloud-wards. The legal implications of "exporting" data is a can of worms nobody wants to open.

[5media]

instead of blabbing concerns about security the government should start working with other governments and international bodies which would seem best for monitoring and setting appropriate standards for cloud suppliers according to this article the future of cloud computing is going to be based on a hybrid approach, bringing in the best of public and private cloud services http://cloudtechsite.com/blogposts/liberal-democrat-party-has-fears-regarding-public-data-cloud.html

[Caro]

UK.gov should support its cloud industry - and the wider economy

The government needs to develop a proper strategy to support the cloud industry. This would help the UK economy out of recession. It could start by:

1. Ensuring cyber criminals are prosecuted through the criminal courts and permit cloud providers to take civil action against perpetrators.

At present, only those directly affected by an attack may take legal action.

2. Creating a statutory duty to preserve consumer data held in the cloud.

Current approaches vary wildly. A statutory duty would provide consistency.

3. Developing an agreed set of transparency principles, to promote consistent policies on data breaches, privacy and security.

This would enable UK consumers to make informed choices when selecting a cloud provider.

There also needs to discussion with other governments about how data regulation issues are handled.

Microsoft is soon to meet with the UK government to propose just such a strategy. More details here - http://lnkd.in/Aa_Yaf