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Christopher Fong

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

26 September 2019

Topic Proposal: Why Reaching for Cloud Computing is Dangerous

Introduction/Overview

The purpose of my research is to determine the potential security risks of implementing

cloud computing, and if companies should use cloud computing to store important private data.

According to Lexico, an online dictionary powered by Oxford University, cloud computing is the

use of the Internet to store, manage, and process data. Information is stored on a physical server

which a cloud computing provider maintains and controls.

The idea of cloud computing was first formed around mid-1960s. J.D.R. Licklider had

the idea for a system of interconnected systems of computers. This idea helped develop

ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), which is considered as the

predecessor of the Internet. These ideas stemmed from the lack of processing power and high

price of technology back in the day. It wasn’t until 1972 that cloud computing was truly possible.

With IBM releasing their operating system, the Virtual Machine operating system, cloud

computing caught on quickly and kept growing (ECPI University).

Recently there have been more and more security breaches, where large quantities of

customer data is stolen. According to writer Andrew Rossow from Forbes, these security

breaches are mainly occur when businesses put more emphasis on UI and UX, which make

everything look nice and simple of the customer, than security and privacy. A company that
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focuses on cloud computing is opening themselves up to potential threats, much like those who

focus too much on UI and UX.

There is much disagreement in the computer science world about the subject of cloud

computing. Some believe that the cloud is already extremely safe, such as Philippe Very, a

professor of strategic management and head of faculty at EDHEC Business School. He says that

dominant actors in cloud comping space, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Oracle,

are among the most secure companies in the world. While others like Bank of America refuse to

go on the cloud, for good reasons. Just this year Capital One made a large stride into cloud

computing, holding information on a server that Amazon owns; however, within the same year

they experienced a security breach that caused them to lose millions of credit card applications

and accounts (CNN Business).

For my preliminary research I used articles from a variety of news sources from The Wall

Street Journal, The New York Times, and CNN in order to gain insight on current topics and

occurrences of cloud computing and security breaches. After this I used the library’s search

engine to help me find out what cloud computing was and how it worked. I even got lucky

enough to meet and talk to a person on that currently works for Bank of America and got his

opinions on cloud computing.

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

 How safe is cloud computing?
 How can we make the cloud a safer place?
 Why do people put so much trust in companies protecting their info?
 What are companies currently doing to make the cloud a safer place to store data?
My Interest in this Topic
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I am interested in cyber security because I want to help protect people and their

information from people who are trying to steal it. When I was a kid I almost got hacked because

I was trying to download a Minecraft mod and clicked the wrong download link. The thing I

remember most about that memory was the fear. Fear of losing all my stuff and my parent’s

information, fear of breaking the only computer that my family owned. I lucked out because at

the time one of my sister’s friends was over and helped remove the virus. I don’t ever want

anyone to feel the same way I did in that moment. If I do research on this topic it will help me

stay informed and help inform other people about this problem.

Currently, I don’t know too much on the subject. I know that cloud computing is the

implementation of the internet in storing data. I also know that many companies that currently

use cloud storage have been hacked because they were storing data on the cloud, most recently

being the bank company Capital One.

I want to learn how why companies are rushing into cloud computing even though they

know the risk involved with implementing a new system that has previously broken. Along with

this, I want to learn how hackers are breaking into the cloud and how they are using this

information.

Next Steps

Why and how did the companies that primarily used the cloud get breached?

For the next part of my research I will look more into the different occurrences of

security breaches that happened on the cloud. To study this I will use journalistic sources such as

The Wall Street Journal, along with this I plan to use the library’s database to get more insight

on this topic. Along with this I will need to get more knowledge on cloud computing. To
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accomplish this I with try to interview an expert in the subject and/or uses sources in the library’s

database to obtain more knowledge.