Have you ever felt like the documents on your computer needed to be protected the best you could.How many feel that their own computer's hard drive is the safest place? I have a friend that works in computer security and most likely has his documents encrypted for the reason that if his computer would ever be stolen his documents could not be opened. Security is very important especially when you are dealing with student work and student information. I know that one of the big concerns in my school district is that others will be able to access the data we store in clouds. So, I found a blog article that was written by Huan Liu, Cloud is more secure than your hard disk .
After reading his article I commented to briefly explain what I am looking into for my school and where I see security being an issue for our main decision makers. This morning he replied with the comment, "The sad part is that, even after I put down the logical arguments, some of my colleagues are still not convinced to put their encrypted file on Cloud. When it comes to policy, people like to be really conservative rather than sorry. It could take a while for people to change their perception on Cloud." -Huan Liu
Huan is right on about Cloud Computing and data storage in the clouds. His example of Amazon S3 is a great way to look at how protected the Cloud really is. I hope that he is wrong about the time it will take to change the perception on Cloud. I believe that many people wanto to begin using the Cloud the way it has been intended, but are concerned. I hope that with the blog Cloud-Browser I am writing and the many others that I will refer to in my writing. Since security and control over what students bring into the school is a concern that is delaying decisions such as, Cloud Computing and students bringing in their own laptops.
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3 Comments
I think we really need to raise awareness on this issue, especially given current policies that are not-so-current. I don't know why people think a school district's security will somehow outperform a company like Google's. Honestly, the resources they have to devote to things like security & back-up far outweighs our own.
I hope that ignorance of online security doesn't continue to hold us back from doing great stuff with cloud apps.
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Jon Pierce Reply:
February 9th, 2009 at 4:39 am
Kellie, I think you are absolutely correct about school district policies. I would imagine that the issue of outdated policies don't stop with school districts but also spill over into other businesses and in epidemic proportions. Raising awareness is essential to bringing our current decision makers and policy writers into the present.
Just to give a brief insight to the security measure of Google, check out this article about Google Apps Security. One thing to make note of is that you do get slightly more in security when you have your own Google Apps domain. With your back-end admin user you can control more your documents and where they are shared. Check back later (Cloud-Browser) to read more about how safe your data is online.
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Jon - I was looking around and wanted to share this with you:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_docs_power_user_appointed_first_us_gov_cio.php
I am guessing that it wouldn't be easy to move over 38,000 government employees if the documents were going to be insecure. Looks like there may just be some proof in action here. Just thought I would share.
Will Lowrey’s last blog post..5 Steps To Getting Indexed By Google Fast
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Jon & Kellie,
Google Docs Privacy states, "Files you create with Google Docs may, if you choose, be read, copied, used and redistributed by people you know or, again if you choose, by people you do not know. Information you disclose using the chat function of Google Docs may be read, copied, used and redistributed by people participating in the chat. Use care when including sensitive personal information in documents you share or in chat sessions, such as social security numbers, financial account information, home addresses or phone numbers."
I would reinterpret the passage, "again if you choose" as "if you don't know any better, or accidentally hit the wrong button, or aren't paying attention, or think that giving Google responsibility for your data somehow abrogates your responsibility in the matter."
Reading various Google Apps horror stories on the net makes me realize that if your account is compromised, Google will quickly (and rightly) shut you down. Unless you know the hoops to jump through, you aren't going to have access to your docs, pictures or apps for a long, long time. I hope you aren't keeping mission critical data for your business up there. If they would allow you to keep files locally and yet still use all their functionality it would go a long way towards universal acceptance.
It looks like any school district large enough to be able to afford to keep data and network security people on staff haven't embraced Google Apps. I notice that there isn't a single k-12 district-wide implementation mentioned in their education link. School districts have to comply with a variety of state and federal laws regarding privacy. That might be a reason. Of course, since you have to be 18 to have a gMail account, that might be a better one. Just look at those ignorant outdated policies that Google uses. It is like they are being run by some unaware school board!
chotzi
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