Comments on: Twitter & the cloud!

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:48:13 +0000

RT @jimconnolly: Twitter & ‘cloud computing’ – http://bit.ly/2yPmq9

By: Claire Hammond

Claire Hammond — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:43:53 +0000

Twitter & ‘cloud computing’ – http://bit.ly/2yPmq9 (via @jimconnolly)

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:50:48 +0000

You just wrote my post in one sentence :)

By: Karl

Karl — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:44:58 +0000

Jims right. It’s a total fact that this data was only stolen because it was on cloud storage and the password was weak which is what the post said. How hards it to see that?!?!

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:41:28 +0000

I think the confusion here is to do with data – not hacking.

If Twitter had not stored those docs on Google Docs (the cloud), it would not have been possible for the hacker to steal them all, using the employees Google username and password.

If the docs were hosted locally at Twitter, they would have been safe from this attack.

By: SandPiper

SandPiper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:33:12 +0000

@ John
I did not confirm your comment coz its totally bogus. I agreed with the blog guy. Cloud security IS crap, the account that was hacked WAS stored in the cloud and the story WAS about improving could security.

By: John DeCarlo

John DeCarlo — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:16:26 +0000

1. Now everything on the Internet is “cloud computing”? I don’t think so.

2. SandPiper confirmed my original comment. There is nothing special about “cloud computing” going on here. If the account were “joesmith@princeton.edu” or “janedoe@pcmag.com” that got hacked, would everyone complain about the problems with “cloud computing”?

3. You still have a point about what can be lost by guessing people’s passwords. But that has been true long before cloud computing was even possible.

By: SandPiper

SandPiper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:11:23 +0000

All thats stopping someone stealing your crap online is your password. The average user uses the same passowrd for everything and thats how the twitter account got hacked. The tech guys right this has to get better before non geeks can use it.

By: Jim Connolly

Jim Connolly — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:06:32 +0000

John,

Not sure what you are disagreeing with here – Cloud computing IS based on servers. The difference is that with, for example Google Docs, instead of someone’s documents being held locally on their laptop or maybe their internal server – it’s stored on someone else’s server. When your docs are stored on your laptop, you are in charge of their security. When your docs are stored on Google or Amazon’s servers (cloud) they are responsible for security. My point is that before cloud computing (mass online storage) becomes mainstream, security needs to improve. It’s not good enough yet.

I use one of those credit card devices you mentioned by the way and it’s excellent.

By: John DeCarlo

John DeCarlo — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:01:13 +0000

I don’t understand what this has to do with cloud computing.

What if GMail were not “in the cloud”, but was at one big server farm? Would hacking into someone’s email account be any harder or easier?

What you are talking about is security for anything accessible via the Internet.

And things *are* changing, but slowly, for Internet accessible sites. Many more are supporting the credit card sized / key chain sized device needed to log in remotely.