Experts say security concerns about cloud computing are overstated

Think tank and industry experts downplayed widespread security concerns surrounding a government transition to cloud computing, saying the cloud may actually be safer than traditional storage of government information in federally owned data centers.

Technology has been developed, though not widely implemented, that allows cloud storage providers to host encrypted data that only the data's creators can decrypt, not its hosts, said Dan Reed, Microsoft's vice president for technology policy. That technology also includes monitors that tell a government agency or other data creator if the cloud provider babysitting the data makes any attempt to decrypt it, he said. There's also new technology in the pipeline that would allow agencies and other data creators to analyze and sift their own data while it's in the cloud without first decrypting the data itself, he said. Reed was speaking at a panel discussion on the not-yet-introduced 2011 Cloud Computing Act, hosted by the Brookings Institution. There's been a great deal of speculation about what that act, sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), will include.