'Controlled cloud' the way to go for security

By Vivian Yeo, ZDNet Asia Thursday, March 19, 2009 07:55 PM

Enterprise security will increasingly move to include a cloud component but in-the-cloud protection cannot be the only means of defense, according to security vendor Sophos.

Paul Ducklin, head of technology for the Asia-Pacific region at Sophos, told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview that the cloud "is something that will improve existing mechanisms for protection" as it can block access to harmful Web sites or retrieve updates in real time.

But, relying on a service in the cloud is not something that enterprises and individuals can afford to do. "The cloud isn't always there, no matter how incredibly connected you are," he pointed out, adding that there will be times when PCs are not connected due to flights, train rides or simply because there isn't a need to log on to the Internet.

"During those times you [still] want protection to continue--you want that protection to continue when someone plugs their USB drive or mobile phone into your computer so you can look at photographs and maybe pick up something along the way," said Sydney-based Ducklin. For instance, the Conficker worm used the USB drive as its primary attack vector, he noted.

In addition, users need to be protected when downloading content from the Internet that might be encrypted, where an external party is "not able to scan inside it by design".