Cloud computing s growing pains

　　云計算的發軔之困

　　Break-ins and breakdowns

　　侵入和故障

　　The lessons from Sony s big security lapse andAmazon s cloud-computing outage

　　從索尼的巨大安全漏洞和亞馬遜的云計算中斷中汲取的教訓

　　IT COULD turn out to be the biggest breach of dataprivacy since the advent of the internet. Sonyadmitted this week that hackers had stolen personalinformation, possibly including credit-card details, of many of the 77m-plus users of its online-gaming and entertainment networks. The Japanese company did not admit the full extent ofthe potential risks to its customers until nearly a week after it had taken its PlayStationNetwork off air, though it insisted that it had done so as soon as it realised how serious theintrusion into its systems had been.

　　這可能是互聯網出現以來最大一宗違反數據保密的事件了。本周，索尼承認，黑客們盜走其在線游戲和娛樂網絡中超過7700萬用戶的個人信息很可能包括信用卡資料。在將PlayStation網絡關閉近一周之后，索尼才向它的客戶承認其潛在風險。盡管如此，索尼堅稱，在它意識到系統被侵的嚴重性之后，它便做出了反應。

　　Amazon, an American online retailer and provider of cloud computing services, has alsosuffered a lengthy breakdown at one of the giant server farms whose storage and processingfacilities it rents to other companies. The two lapses, though unconnected and different innature, have raised the question of whether customers can really trust the basic idea behind thecloud-that you can buy computing services from the internet, just like gas or water from autility.

　　美國網上零售商以及 云計算服務的供應商亞馬遜的其中一個巨型服務器場也經歷了漫長的故障。這一服務器場的存儲器和處理設備被用來租借給其它公司。盡管兩起事故并無關聯且本質不同，但人們不禁要問，我們能真的能相信云背后的基本理念嗎?我們從互聯網購買計算服務就像從公用事業單位購買煤氣或水那樣?

　　Sony s security breach is particularly embarrassingbecause it wants to position its PlayStation consoleas an entertainment hub capable of delivering filmsand music over the internet, in addition to videogames. An entertainment one-stop-shop of thisnature will appeal to consumers only if it is secureand reliable; a DVD, after all, does not suddenlyrefuse to play for a week. Sony also failed to encryptsome of the personal details of its customers-anelementary error for a company that prides itself onits technological prowess. In Amazon s case, theproblems were caused by a glitch that took longer than expected to resolve, affecting theoperations of several internet firms thatuse its services, and denting the reputations of all concerned-as well as that of the cloud itself.

　　安全漏洞讓索尼陷入相當尷尬的境地因為索尼希望將PlayStation游戲機定位為能夠通過互聯網提供電影和音樂的娛樂中心，而不僅僅是電子游戲。只有足夠安全且值得信賴，這種性質的一站式娛樂才能吸引用戶。畢竟，僅僅是DVD的話，不會突然被關閉一周。在加密其用戶個人資料方面索尼也是失敗的對于一個標榜其技術實力的公司而言，這是一個基本的失誤。在亞馬遜的案例中，問題是由一個小故障造成的，解決這一問題耗時比預期要長，影響了一些互聯網公司的運營，對所有相關方的名譽都產生了不利影響云本身也概莫能外。

　　But building a totally secure and reliable cloud-based system, or indeed any other kind ofcomputer system, is impossible. More break-ins and breakdowns are inevitable. What mattersis that service-providers, consumers and corporate clients all learn the right lessons from theevents of the past week.

　　不過，建立一個完全安全、值得信賴的基于云的系統或者實際上其它類型的計算機系統是不可能的。更多的侵入與故障不可避免。重要的是，服務供應商、用戶、企業用戶從上周的事件當中汲取正確的教訓。

　　Cloud-cuckoo-land

　　太虛幻境

　　For providers of online services, the main lesson, beyond the obvious need to adhere to basicprinciples of computer security, is the importance of being open with customers when thingsgo wrong. This seems to be something that is particularly difficult for Japanese firms, with theirconsensus-based decision-making and a reluctance to tell superiors when problems arise.Sony remained tight-lipped when it should have been forthcoming. Amazon has also beencriticised for providing only a small amount of rather vague information about the outage. Oneuser gave the company an F for communication this week; another complained that itsupdates seemed to have been written by its lawyers rather than its engineers.

　　對網絡服務供應商而言，最大的教訓除了明顯需要堅持計算機安全基本原則以外，就是出了問題要及時向用戶公開信息。對日本公司而言，這似乎相當困難。日本公司以共識為基礎進行決策，當出現問題時不愿向上級反映。索尼本應透露一些信息的，但是它守口如瓶。亞馬遜也因在中斷服務后只提供了少量語焉不詳的信息而遭批評。本周，一位用戶向亞馬遜傳達的信息是F___，另一位抱怨說，亞馬遜的程序更新似乎是它的律師而非工程師編寫的。

　　Consumers, meanwhile, should ensure that they donot use the same passwords on multiple onlinesystems, which exposes them to the danger that acompromise in one system will enable the samecredentials to be used to access another. Being ableto manage passwords and spot phishing e-mailsthat try to trick recipients into revealing bank detailsand other information are now important life skills,like it or not.

　　與此同時，用戶們應當確保在多個聯機系統上不要使用同樣的密碼，那很危險：對一個系統的妥協，會在進入另外一個系統時使用相同的憑據。不管你喜歡不喜歡，能夠管理密碼、識別意欲欺騙收信人透漏銀行或其它信息現在都是重要的生活技能。

　　The lesson for companies let down by Amazon s outage is that they need to be aware of therisks of being too reliant on a single supplier, with cloud computing as with anything else. Firmsthat use cloud-based systems should be looking at ways to distribute work across multipleproviders. Although the cloud has many benefits and is generally quite reliable, it is clearlybound to produce the odd thunderstorm.

　　對于那些受亞馬遜中斷影響而感到沮喪的公司而言，他們應該意識到對單一供應商提供云計算也好，其它服務也好過于信賴的風險。使用基于云系統的公司應當探究將雞蛋在不同的籃子里面。盡管云有許多有點，總體上相當值得信賴，但偶爾會產生雷雨，這也是不爭的事實。

　　Cloud computing s growing pains

　　云計算的發軔之困

　　Break-ins and breakdowns

　　侵入和故障

　　The lessons from Sony s big security lapse andAmazon s cloud-computing outage

　　從索尼的巨大安全漏洞和亞馬遜的云計算中斷中汲取的教訓

　　IT COULD turn out to be the biggest breach of dataprivacy since the advent of the internet. Sonyadmitted this week that hackers had stolen personalinformation, possibly including credit-card details, of many of the 77m-plus users of its online-gaming and entertainment networks. The Japanese company did not admit the full extent ofthe potential risks to its customers until nearly a week after it had taken its PlayStationNetwork off air, though it insisted that it had done so as soon as it realised how serious theintrusion into its systems had been.

　　這可能是互聯網出現以來最大一宗違反數據保密的事件了。本周，索尼承認，黑客們盜走其在線游戲和娛樂網絡中超過7700萬用戶的個人信息很可能包括信用卡資料。在將PlayStation網絡關閉近一周之后，索尼才向它的客戶承認其潛在風險。盡管如此，索尼堅稱，在它意識到系統被侵的嚴重性之后，它便做出了反應。

　　Amazon, an American online retailer and provider of cloud computing services, has alsosuffered a lengthy breakdown at one of the giant server farms whose storage and processingfacilities it rents to other companies. The two lapses, though unconnected and different innature, have raised the question of whether customers can really trust the basic idea behind thecloud-that you can buy computing services from the internet, just like gas or water from autility.

　　美國網上零售商以及 云計算服務的供應商亞馬遜的其中一個巨型服務器場也經歷了漫長的故障。這一服務器場的存儲器和處理設備被用來租借給其它公司。盡管兩起事故并無關聯且本質不同，但人們不禁要問，我們能真的能相信云背后的基本理念嗎?我們從互聯網購買計算服務就像從公用事業單位購買煤氣或水那樣?

　　Sony s security breach is particularly embarrassingbecause it wants to position its PlayStation consoleas an entertainment hub capable of delivering filmsand music over the internet, in addition to videogames. An entertainment one-stop-shop of thisnature will appeal to consumers only if it is secureand reliable; a DVD, after all, does not suddenlyrefuse to play for a week. Sony also failed to encryptsome of the personal details of its customers-anelementary error for a company that prides itself onits technological prowess. In Amazon s case, theproblems were caused by a glitch that took longer than expected to resolve, affecting theoperations of several internet firms thatuse its services, and denting the reputations of all concerned-as well as that of the cloud itself.

　　安全漏洞讓索尼陷入相當尷尬的境地因為索尼希望將PlayStation游戲機定位為能夠通過互聯網提供電影和音樂的娛樂中心，而不僅僅是電子游戲。只有足夠安全且值得信賴，這種性質的一站式娛樂才能吸引用戶。畢竟，僅僅是DVD的話，不會突然被關閉一周。在加密其用戶個人資料方面索尼也是失敗的對于一個標榜其技術實力的公司而言，這是一個基本的失誤。在亞馬遜的案例中，問題是由一個小故障造成的，解決這一問題耗時比預期要長，影響了一些互聯網公司的運營，對所有相關方的名譽都產生了不利影響云本身也概莫能外。

　　But building a totally secure and reliable cloud-based system, or indeed any other kind ofcomputer system, is impossible. More break-ins and breakdowns are inevitable. What mattersis that service-providers, consumers and corporate clients all learn the right lessons from theevents of the past week.

　　不過，建立一個完全安全、值得信賴的基于云的系統或者實際上其它類型的計算機系統是不可能的。更多的侵入與故障不可避免。重要的是，服務供應商、用戶、企業用戶從上周的事件當中汲取正確的教訓。

　　Cloud-cuckoo-land

　　太虛幻境

　　For providers of online services, the main lesson, beyond the obvious need to adhere to basicprinciples of computer security, is the importance of being open with customers when thingsgo wrong. This seems to be something that is particularly difficult for Japanese firms, with theirconsensus-based decision-making and a reluctance to tell superiors when problems arise.Sony remained tight-lipped when it should have been forthcoming. Amazon has also beencriticised for providing only a small amount of rather vague information about the outage. Oneuser gave the company an F for communication this week; another complained that itsupdates seemed to have been written by its lawyers rather than its engineers.

　　對網絡服務供應商而言，最大的教訓除了明顯需要堅持計算機安全基本原則以外，就是出了問題要及時向用戶公開信息。對日本公司而言，這似乎相當困難。日本公司以共識為基礎進行決策，當出現問題時不愿向上級反映。索尼本應透露一些信息的，但是它守口如瓶。亞馬遜也因在中斷服務后只提供了少量語焉不詳的信息而遭批評。本周，一位用戶向亞馬遜傳達的信息是F___，另一位抱怨說，亞馬遜的程序更新似乎是它的律師而非工程師編寫的。

　　Consumers, meanwhile, should ensure that they donot use the same passwords on multiple onlinesystems, which exposes them to the danger that acompromise in one system will enable the samecredentials to be used to access another. Being ableto manage passwords and spot phishing e-mailsthat try to trick recipients into revealing bank detailsand other information are now important life skills,like it or not.

　　與此同時，用戶們應當確保在多個聯機系統上不要使用同樣的密碼，那很危險：對一個系統的妥協，會在進入另外一個系統時使用相同的憑據。不管你喜歡不喜歡，能夠管理密碼、識別意欲欺騙收信人透漏銀行或其它信息現在都是重要的生活技能。

　　The lesson for companies let down by Amazon s outage is that they need to be aware of therisks of being too reliant on a single supplier, with cloud computing as with anything else. Firmsthat use cloud-based systems should be looking at ways to distribute work across multipleproviders. Although the cloud has many benefits and is generally quite reliable, it is clearlybound to produce the odd thunderstorm.

　　對于那些受亞馬遜中斷影響而感到沮喪的公司而言，他們應該意識到對單一供應商提供云計算也好，其它服務也好過于信賴的風險。使用基于云系統的公司應當探究將雞蛋在不同的籃子里面。盡管云有許多有點，總體上相當值得信賴，但偶爾會產生雷雨，這也是不爭的事實。