Tag Archive for: computing

US grid rules preclude reliability, security benefits of cloud computing, experts warn

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Cloud technologies could provide significant cost, security and reliability benefits to the U.S. electric grid but critical infrastructure rules do not allow them to be used for certain larger assets, multiple speakers said Thursday at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s annual reliability conference.

The Critical Infrastructure Protection rules, or CIP, are managed by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. and currently require grid asset owners to have certain control or knowledge of the devices operating their software. Cloud computing makes that difficult or impossible, experts agreed, in particular for what are known as high- or medium-impact grid assets.

Current NERC standards “do not provide clear guidance” on how regulated entities can implement new technologies that may not have been envisioned by the current CIP rules, Joseph Mosher, portfolio manager at EDF Renewables, told the commission. “Attempts to incorporate newer technology into the NERC CIP standards can be painful and time consuming,” he said.

Experts expressed concerns over the outdated CIP rules, at a time when grid officials say they face growing threats.

“One can definitely make the argument that the grid is less secure today than it would be” if cloud computing solutions were allowed, “and that gap is growing every day,” security consultant Tom Alrich said. “This is the biggest problem with NERC CIP today.”

A related problem — that important information about those systems can’t today be stored in the cloud — will be fixed beginning next year when two revised CIP standards come into effect, he said.

A sector under attack

The cyber threat to the electric power sector is growing, and grid officials say they must utilize new tools to counter it.

“The electricity sector is under constant attack by nation states and organized criminals. We see billions of attempts a day to survey our networks, identify vulnerabilities or gaps in protection, steal credentials or data, or exact a ransom,” Manny Cancel, senior vice president and CEO of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, told regulators…

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Edge computing security issues attract attention amid AI application development boom

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ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, bringing unprecedented AI experiences to numerous consumers. This highlights the continuous development of AI technology and its rapid proliferation in people’s daily lives. Meanwhile, with the vigorous development of technologies such as 5G, IoT, and cloud native computing, the concept of edge computing has also emerged to provide the best online experience for Internet users.

Traditional AI applications involve using the Internet to upload raw data to large cloud servers for analysis. However, with the increasing number of IoT devices, this often leads to issues such as raw data leakage, insufficient network bandwidth, and communication delays. Therefore, when cloud AI is deployed in smart manufacturing, smart transportation, and other scenarios, there may be a significant degradation in service quality as devices may not work together properly, potentially causing traffic accidents, industrial safety hazards, and other problems. For this reason, using edge computing servers to analyze data locally to mitigate such problems is a popular option in the market today. However, with the rapid proliferation of AI services, the issue of potential information security risks has also come to the fore. Hacker groups have begun launching attacks on AI applications such as ChatGPT to steal large amounts of sensitive data. Edge computing security has therefore become a major challenge that needs to be addressed in the development of AI services.

Dr. John K. Zao, the founder and chairman of FiduciaEdge Technologies, pointed out that existing information security solutions can be roughly divided into three categories. The first category includes the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), firewalls, and other mechanisms to protect data in transit. The second category deals with security mechanisms for websites and databases to ensure the security of data in storage. The third category aims to implement appropriate information isolation in the trusted edge computing environments to protect those data in use. Trusted edge computing is becoming increasingly important as more manufacturers are now running AI applications on their sites to…

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What is Cloud Computing? Here’s Everything You Need to Know.

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Cloud computing has taken the world by storm, and for good reason. It’s a meaningful, effective way to provide software and computer resources to people around the globe. Hence, enterprises and businesses of all levels now use cloud computing for various needs.

It’s widely known that cloud storage does not involve big data; instead, it deals with physical servers and operating systems. However, beyond that, for many Americans and front-line workers, cloud solutions can seem a little hard to understand.

Below is a breakdown of everything you need to know about cloud computing, including what it is, how it works and the types of cloud computing you may encounter.

Related: This is how cloud computing advances, a valuable resource for companies

Cloud computing explained

Cloud computing is the internet-based, on-demand delivery of platforms, applications and other IT resources from one terminal to another.

Without cloud computing, a company must typically create or purchase its software, then host that software on its own data centers, servers, hard drives or computers. For instance, a company might buy project management software and install the software using a disc.

Cloud computing instead transmits the information needed for software — such as a project management platform — over the internet, which corporate computers then access on the fly.

The company’s computers connect to the internet, access the project management software provider’s servers, and the information for the project management software is downloaded straight to those terminals.

In this way, cloud computing allows organizations of all sizes to access IT resources without purchasing, owning and maintaining the data centers and services necessary to carry out IT tasks.

Cloud computing provides organizations with more bandwidth and cost savings, allowing access to open-source data without having to house massive computer mainframes on-site.

Related: 4 Ways You Should Be Using Cloud Computing to Scale Your Business

How does cloud computing work?

Cloud computing allows client devices, like computer terminals, to access cloud applications and data over the internet. Those applications and data are stored remotely —…

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New research collaboration leverages edge computing to meet defence and security challenges

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Professor David Lie (ECE) is collaborating with researchers from across Canada to develop edge computing solutions to address defence and security challenges.

The project — A Platform for Secure and Dependable Hierarchical Edge Processing on 5G — has received $1.5 million in funding over three years from Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND).

Edge computing refers to the processing of data near its originating source, not in distant servers. The project proposes a hierarchy of data centres that provides computation and storage at the peripheries, shifting from a country level all the way down to a neighbourhood level. The strategy aims to mitigate the high latency of cloud-based applications caused by limited internet bandwidth.

“Imagine you’re trying to run an intelligent transportation system, where vehicles are sending and receiving large amounts of data to the cloud in real time,” says Lie. “Today, the cloud’s architecture means there’s some distance between the servers and the vehicles. Even at the speed of an electron, there are processing delays, and that makes a difference when you’re dealing with a moving vehicle. Edge computing can reduce those delays.”

As part of its Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program, DND is supporting the creation of ‘micro-nets’ — self-organized multidisciplinary teams of at least three eligible organizations/institutions who carry out interdisciplinary research on aspects of a science and technology challenge of common interest.

In addition to Lie, the team includes Professor Eyal de Lara, Chair of U of T’s Department of Computer Science, as well as Professor Oana Balmau of the School of Computer Science at McGill University, Professor Julien Gascon-Samson of the Software and IT Engineering Department at ÉTS Montréal / University of Québec, and Professor Aastha Mehta of the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia.

Together, they will design a new platform based on localized data centres situated near the field of use. The idea is that these centres would better deliver reliable, predictable and secure performance for future high-performance…

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