How to Security of cloud access devices

Users access the cloud and its application and data resources from a wide range of devices, including desktop computers, laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, smart phones, and tablet PCs. They can do this using the Internet from their corporate or home networks.

A growing trend blurs the border between personal and business computing devices, making it increasingly difficult for businesses to control the security posture of client access devices. As a consequence, you may prefer to give complete control of the client access device to the user—especially since the impact on the total cost of ownership for access device procurement, setup, and maintenance is significant for any organization. The main client access component to the cloud is the browser.

To let users access the cloud and its resources, there should be two mandatory requirements:

• User authentication based on the combination of user ID/password, user ID/security token, or user ID/public key infrastructure (PKI) credentials, before establishing a browser connection to the cloud

• Browser connection established using a secure remote access solution (for example: based on a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) tunnel and the associated device-level PKI credentials, and strong cryptographic algorithms)

In addition to access control and network security, security on the access device includes other security components and services. Even though only the browser interacts with the cloud, poor overall security health of the access device may affect the browser and indirectly the cloud.

Access devices must also be equipped with sufficient anti-malware, as well as data and host protection measures such as disk- and volume-level encryption software, host-based Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System (IDS/IPS) software and personal firewalls.

At easySERVICE, we believe security for the cloud era should be information centric, built in, adaptive, and proactive. We can help you properly respond to this new threat landscape and efficiently deal with the new security dynamics.