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Google Encrypts Data
August 27, 2013 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
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Google officially announced it will by default encrypt data warehoused in its Cloud Storage service.
The server-side encryption is now active for all new data written to Cloud Storage, and older data will be encrypted in the coming months, wrote Dave Barth, a Google product manager, in a blog post.
“If you require encryption for your data, this functionality frees you from the hassle and risk of managing your own encryption and decryption keys,” Barth wrote. “We manage the cryptographic keys on your behalf using the same hardened key management systems that Google uses for our own encrypted data, including strict key access controls and auditing.”
The data and metadata around an object stored in Cloud Storage is encrypted with a unique key using 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm, and the “per-object key itself is encrypted with a unique key associated with the object owner,” Barth wrote.
“These keys are additionally encrypted by one of a regularly rotated set of master keys,” he wrote. “Of course, if you prefer to manage your own keys then you can still encrypt data yourself prior to writing it to Cloud Storage.”
Data collection programs revealed by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have raised questions about U.S. government data requests made to Internet companies such as Google for national security investigations.
A Google spokeswoman said via email the company does not provide encryption keys to any government and provides user data only in accordance with the law.
“Our legal team reviews each and every request, and we frequently push back when the requests appear to be fishing expeditions or don’t follow the correct process,” she wrote. “When we are required to comply with these requests, we deliver it to the authorities. No government has the ability to pull data directly from our servers or network.”
Is A Cyber Warfare On The Horizon?
F-secure’s chief security researcher, Mikko Hypponen, has warned that we are entering into a cyber warfare revolution, and that governments will soon attempt to outdo each other based on their computer weapons’ prowess.
The internet security expert said-any future crisis between technically advanced nations will involve cyber elements.
His comments came after hearing last week that China and the US have been engaging in “war games” simulations.
“I wasn’t expecting [war games] so soon,” Hypponen said.
“I’m surprised and I think it is a good move because everybody is worried about escalation. The way to fight unnecessary escalations is that you know more about how the perceived enemy would act if there would be an escalation. War games are exactly that.”
It was Hypponen’s observations on the war games which led him to remark that we must look at “the bigger picture”.
“We’ve seen a revolution in defence technology and in technology generally over the past 60 to 70 years and I believe we are right now seeing the beginning of the next revolution: a cyber warfare revolution, which is going to as big as the revolutions we’ve seen so far in technology becoming part of defence, and part of wars,” he added.
Hypponen also predicted that it won’t be long before the world sees its first cyber arms race, including cyber war rehearsals to prove how strong countries are and boasting about their cyber skills to make other countries pay attention.
“Like nuclear in the sixties, cyber attacks are a deterrent and deterrents only work if your perceived enemies know that you have it,” he said.