UK.gov’s G Cloud may have security silver lining after all

Information security experts have said the U.K. government can take advantage of the G Cloud project to improve practices in the field. John Colley, European managing director for ISC2, the certification body for information security professionals, and Professor Howard Schmidt, president and chief executive officer of the Information Security Forum (ISF), said the emergence of cloud computing is making it possible to take a new approach to security. They were speaking to journalists at the RSA Conference in London against the backdrop of government plans to develop the G Cloud, a framework of virtualized applications and data storage facilities for the public sector. The Cabinet Office is leading the effort, which was announced in the Digital Britain paper during the summer.

Colley told GC News that U.K. government has previously kept its work on information security in specialist bodies such as GCHQ and CESG, separate from the development of business functions. “But there is a whole lot of commonality and it would be good to see the two working together,” he said. “The cloud gives us the opportunity to get the specification right before we get too far down the track.

http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/ukgovs-g-cloud-may-have-security-silver-lining-after-all

Cloud computing offers many benefits, but enhanced security is not one of them — or is it? An expert says that the emergence of cloud computing is making it possible to take a new approach to security; until now, the U.K. government has kept its work on information security in specialist bodies such as GCHQ and CESG, separate from the development of business functions; “The cloud gives us the opportunity to get the specification right before we get too far down the track,” he says