Security Regs Could Create 'Cyber Havens': Page 2 of 2

"I can imagine a situation where a cloud provider decides they’re going to set up shop in a cyber haven. They’re offering a service at a much reduced rate [compared] with someone who’s operating in a much more regulated environment," he says.

Small to midsize businesses looking to save money could be lured by a lower-cost service provider, perhaps not knowing the risk they may be taking. Durbin warns companies to be sure to ask the right questions of their prospective cloud provider. There’s also the risk that they may be a United States or an EU-based company that is unknowingly doing business with a provider that operates in a cyber haven.

"You could be moving into a bit of a minefield, and bear in mind that a lot of these cloud services are not bought by information security professionals; they are bought by business people on credit cards," he says.

To be sure, the information security industry continues to innovate to make networks safer, including those of cloud service providers. Data center services provider Equinix and infrastructure-as-a-service provider Tier 3 recently announced a partnership to run a private cloud computing environment on a public cloud service, allaying the security concerns of customers about operating in a multitenant environment.

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