Over the past few years, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has been tracking cloud computing initiatives at the federal, state and local level, including the decision of the states of Utah and Colorado to purchase cloud computing tools.  This past year, CAGW published two issue briefs (Cloud Computing 101: a Brief Introduction, and Cloud Computing 201: Guidelines for Successful Cloud Investments) to guide government entities in planning for these purchases.

On Friday, May 18, 2012, Jeff Gould, CEO and Director of Research for Peerstone Research wrote on the recent resignation of Utah’s Chief Information Officer following a data security breach of the state’s Medicaid database.  Highlighting issues such as poor password protection and data retention, Gould also raised another important consideration for agencies at the federal, state and local level when moving to the cloud – ensuring that the system has strong encryption built into the system, even when the system is at rest and not transmitting data.

Check out Jeff Gould’s article for more information on data encryption to protect information.

Filed under: Cloud Computing, State Issues, Technology