Google Sees ‘Everything’, says Cryptography Pioneer Whitfield Diffie

Internet public key cryptography pioneer Whitfield Diffie says Google can see what everyone in the world is interested in, and warns there will be security and intellectual property challenges ahead as cloud computing gathers steam. Cloud computing means you are doing your computing on somebody else’s computer, Professor Diffie told the AusCERT 2010 conference yesterday. Looking ahead a little, I firmly believe cloud — previously called grid computing — will become very widespread. It’s much cheaper than buying your own computing infrastructure, or maybe you don’t have the power to do what you want on your own computer. But Stanford University’s visiting scholar at the Centre for International Security and Cooperation and former Sun chief security officer warns that companies that base their business on third-party proprietary systems will have to find ways of protecting their trade secrets