US government agencies are preparing to draw up and implement a series of strategies and cybersecurity rules ahead of its move towards transferring data to cloud packages.
With the software likely to contribute to a significant reduction in IT costs, several lawmakers and IT experts have expressed their concerns that the security of information on external servers is not rigorous enough.
Gregory Wilshusen, director of information security issues at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), explained that a number of risks would be present if agencies made the switch to the cloud.
"These risks generally relate to dependence on the security assurances and practices of a service provider and the sharing of computing resources," he added.
Last week, the GAO released a report detailing its concerns.
It highlighted the inability of agencies to examine the security controls of vendors, cybercriminals targeting data-rich clouds and agencies losing access to their data if the relationship with a vendor ends.
According to an article by Yomiuri, cloud computing is likely to be popular with government agencies as well as corporate clients.
Posted by Richard Jones