My premise has always been that just as fast as the white hat guys write good stuff, the black hat ones are hacking into it. We see advantages occasionaly accruing to one side or the other but it is never a static situation. The intellectual property generated by CAD programs is the life blood of companies that use this software and the value is considerable both to you and those who can steal it.
Whether you agree with Wikileaks or not it has been a very revealing window into the world of govenmental abuses of power and trust. One of these areas last week involved hacking programs that can be used for things such as corporate espionage. Remember here that companies make a living figuring out ways to get to your data whether you are a bad guy terrorist or a builder of JSF-135 aircraft. And they sell it to people who want to know all about what you don’t want them to know about.
This following link goes to a column that should quite frankly put paid to the idea that SAAS or Cloud-for-CAD can be made secure by anything other than NOT going on the web in any way shape or form.
If after reading Zack’s column you think any Dassault or Autodesk, or anyone else’s software for that matter, can be made secure for web transmittals if someone with deep pockets or the right knowledge really wants it, I have some stock in a famous bridge for sale you might be interested in.
You have to know there is a lot of capability out there that has not been revealed and in daily use by companies and governments to part you from the value of your intellectual property. If you rely on a collander to hold your water don’t be surprised to see the bad guys with a bucket standing below you. Is it any wonder why no CAD-on-the-CLOUD company has given written guarantees of data security? Please correct me if I am wrong with some documentation here anyone. Any takers on this?
Don’t tell me this is just for silly things like I-Phones or Blackberries and the like. I know you can extrapolate as well as I to see how many different ways the bad guys can get to you if you ever move to the cloud. So if you do elect to go to the cloud it seems to me you have two strategies possible. Prayers or finding dumb customers who won’t make you sign confidentiality agreements. A good backup strategy might be a sharp legal staff and or that hidden Bahamas bank account.
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