Structure News: Could Microsoft's big cloud privacy win wind up being counterproductive?

This week, we'll talk about a big win for Microsoft and the tech industry that could have far-reached consequences and an important Structure Security deadline.   Where We're Too Old For Pokemon Go But Love Augmented Reality August 7th, 2016 / by Tom Krazit This week, we'll talk about a big win for Microsoft and the tech industry that could have far-reached consequences, the phenomenon that added billions to Nintendo's market value in less than a week, and an important Structure Security deadline.  BIG PICTURE As more and more people use cloud services to run various parts of their lives and businesses, the complexity of the issues around the care and feeding of the data they generate will increase. Even trickier are the issues raised by the international networks of giant U.S.-based tech companies, who won a big case this week over government access to data stored outside the U.S. Microsoft’s win of an appeal directing it to reveal information stored on servers outside the U.S. to the U.S. government could, if it stands, have profound effects on how cloud computing will be managed as it expands. For now, it’s a win for the tech industry (which joined Microsoft almost en masse) privacy advocates, and wary governments -- especially in Europe -- but the decision could wind up having mixed results. There’s a good chance this decision makes some governments take a hard look at data localization laws, which already exist in countries like South Korea and Brazil. Such laws require all data a government investigator might find interesting be stored on computers within its borders, and if these laws to were to expand to a greater number of countries, picking and choosing sites for data centers and storage facilities could become a lot more complicated, and therefore expensive. Obviously, other countries aren’t bound by U.S. court decisions, but they’ll inevitably encounter the same issue at home, seeking data stored in another country. 2016 is not looking like the best year in the history of international cooperation, as nationalist movements gain steam around the globe. Data localization could be easily pitched as the need to keep your data safe from the prying hands of creepy foreign companies or countries, a talking point handed to its advocates by Edward Snowden’s exposure of widespread U.S. government surveillance of the internet. But data localization laws are a bad idea: they’ll make it far more difficult to operate international clouds with the speed and security that modern data centers arranged strategically around the globe can provide. So while Microsoft and its allies may have won a battle over user privacy, the result of that battle might make governments decide that if they can’t get access to data stored outside their borders, international data storage is no longer allowed. (Datacenter picture courtesy Wikimedia Commons) STRUCTURE NEWS If you’ve been thinking about buying a ticket to Structure Security, September 28th and 29th in San Francisco, today is a good day to do it. Ticket prices go up $100 first thing Saturday morning (literally), so do your budget a solid and purchase that ticket today. We’re going to have a great show this September at the Golden Gate Club, joined by some of the finest people in information security and technology, like Gerhard Eschelbeck, CSO of Google (pictured), Arlette Hart, CISO of the FBI, and Geoff Belknap, CISO of Slack. Certain speakers already have plans for interesting announcements, and we’re going to add a few more speakers over the next few weeks, so it’s a good time to make sure you register now to join us in the Presidio in late September, which just so happens to be the most beautiful time of year in San Francisco. INDUSTRY NEWS POKEMON GO CREATORS SAY THEY AREN’T ACCESSING YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT Just after last week’s newsletter was delivered, the tech world was swept with the biggest sensation since Draw Something and Yo (sigh), as an astounding number of people wandered around their neighborhoods staring at smartphones running Pokemon Go in hopes of catching them all. While Google’s cloud services struggled to keep up with the explosion in demand, Fortune reported that game developer Niantic was forced to clarify that when the application demanded access to one’s full Google account, that was a bug, not a feature. ALEX GIBNEY ON STUXNET AND WHY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT CYBERWAR A new movie is out called “Zero Days,” which examines the U.S. government’s development of the Stuxnet virus used to disable Iranian centrifuges that many feared were being used to enrich uranium for bomb-making purposes. While most Structure Security attendees will probably be better off reading Kim Zetter’s book, Countdown to Zero Day, Engadget interviewed documentary film maker Alex Gibney about the new film and how the U.S. cybersecurity machine works on offense. VPN COMPANY CLAIMS RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT SEIZED ITS SERVERS Speaking of governments that play offense in cyberspace, Russia has reportedly seized the servers of a company that provided VPN services in the country, which heavily regulated such services last year. Motherboard points outs that Private Internet Access milked the opportunity to point out how incredible it’s services are, but the development would be a dramatic expansion of Russia’s policy on VPNs. A LOOK INSIDE FACEBOOK’S DATA CENTER Data centers are such an extremely valuable part of the modern economy that it’s not too surprising that they are largely off limits to the public. However, Facebook recently invited several members of the tech media up to its Prineville, Oregon, facility, and Techcrunch put together a slideshow of some parts of Facebook’s first data center. AMAZON’S AWS ACQUIRES CLOUD-BASED IDE STARTUP CLOUD9 Amazon Web Services took a step toward making its services even more friendly to developers, snapping up Cloud9 for an undisclosed sum. Cloud9 built a developer environment for creating web and mobile apps, according to ZDNet, and keeping developers happy on AWS is a key priority for the company as Microsoft and Google court its customers with aggressive deals. MICROSOFT’S AZURE EARNS A HIGH-PROFILE NEW CUSTOMER - GE Structure 2015 attendees learned from GE’s Chris Drumgoole that the company is very enthusiastic about public cloud services and is willing to work with a wide variety of cloud providers to accomplish its goals. CNBC reports that GE has now linked up with one of the Big Three -- Microsoft’s Azure -- to offer Azure’s infrastructure as an option for GE customers who are running its Predix software. QUOTE OF THE WEEK Pokémon Go represents one of those moments when a new technology — in this case, augmented reality or A.R., which fuses digital technology with the physical world — breaks through from a niche toy for early adopters to something much bigger.” — Nick Wingfield and Mike Issac, The New York Times     The Future of Security > The price goes up on July 15, so register now and save $200 #structuresecurity https://t.co/iB4wHId9sh11:01AM Bringing your team to #structuresecurity? Didya know we have a team bundle? Grab your colleagues, snag a ticket! https://t.co/iB4wHId9sh6:10PM How will CISOs plan for the security skills gap? Jay Leek CISO @blackstone shares https://t.co/iB4wHId9sh2:45PM   Click here to unsubscribe from this list. Our mailing address is: Structure 405 El Camino Real, #215 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2016 Structure All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend. Update your profile.