Mobile and cloud security biggest concern to head of iCANN

Former hacker turned security leader Jeff Moss, new head of iCANN and founder of Black Hat, is interviewed in Discover magazine. It's online at #50: The Net Watchman | Computers | DISCOVER Magazine

Of interest and note, and possible good news for RIM if it keeps focused on security:

What are the major security challenges coming up?

Cloud computing, where people store data or run programs not on their own computer but in a data center with thousands and thousands of servers, is a big one. The technology is moving very quickly because it has such promising benefits, since people don�t have to deal with the time and expense of maintaining all those computers. A big problem is that malicious hackers are pretty good at using the cloud too. They�ll use a fraudulent or prepaid credit card to buy an account from a cloud provider, like Amazon, and then they�ll upload their software, which might be a password-cracking utility or a tool that scans for vulnerable websites. Instead of having to break into people�s computers, they�ll just run their software directly from the cloud provider, connecting to other users in the cloud. If the scan is coming to you from Amazon cloud space, it�s hard to block that without blocking large parts of the cloud provider.

What about the rise of smartphones�is that a security challenge as well? 

When mobile devices were designed, security wasn�t a top concern. The phone companies were thinking that they controlled their own phone networks in a big, walled garden. Now with everything Internet connected and installing apps from third-party app stores, the age of mobile malware is coming. There are already some mobile botnets�networks of compromised devices that hackers can control. Phones are not as fast or as powerful as desktop computers, but they�re also generally less secure. Android phones, for instance, hardly ever get security updates. So if you can get malware on some of these mobile devices, you�re probably good for a long, long, long time.