Australian Privacy Commissioner praises cloud privacy

While many corporations have hesitated to join the cloud over security concerns, one privacy expert believes cloud computing will improve information security.

Speaking at a cloud computing conference in Sydney, Australia, Timothy Pilgrim, Australia’s privacy commissioner, said cloud security fears are overblown and companies need to focus on how cloud computing enhances privacy.

"It's commonly accepted that cloud computing has the potential to be privacy disabling and not privacy enabling," Pilgrim said. "Many of the privacy issues identified around cloud computing already exist.”


Pilgrim noted that there has been a recent shift to storing data on local clouds, which should assuage some companies’ security worries. He also said cloud companies should work to assure customers that their data is always secure. "When it comes to using it for handling customer information it's essential that business comply with the privacy act at the minimum," he said.

Lately, cloud computing has shown how it can help protect data and increase security. Whistleblower website WikiLeaks was recently targeted by a distributed denial of service attack. However, the site’s data was protected after it was moved to a cloud during the attack.