Risky business

Although cloud computing seems to be the latest buzzword for IT solutions, there are many associated risks that companies need to consider before revamping their IT infrastructure. Since this technology is internet-based, users are obviously subject to risks inherent to the internet. Accounting firms work with large amounts of confidential data, so the security of client information would be one of the top priorities of any information system. Using the internet to store data leaves the firm vulnerable to the following security breaches:

• Hackers
• Identity theft
• Denial of service

Access is also a potential problem of using cloud computing. We must keep in mind that we are depending on the ability of the software provider to maintain a reliable system that can handle many users simultaneously. If the system were to go down, we need to be able to assess how long it will be for it to come back online and to quantify the effect on the business.

What if the service provider loses our data? Recovery of data can be a complicated undertaking because of data scatterings. If we must keep backups of our online data in house, then is there really value in using cloud computing?

Any of the above threats, among many others, can cause our firm’s data to end up in the wrong hands or in the case of data loss, no one's hands at all, which can have costly legal implications. Is our firm ready to trust the clouds and assume all the associated risks?