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Computer systems from the Ukraine to the United States were affected last week by the Petya cyber attack. Its similar to the recent WannaCry ransomware attack last month.

The WannaCry ransomware took advantage of vulnerabilities in the older versions of Windows that allowed the infection to spread. All someone needed to do was click a malicious link andbang!they were infected. That is, if they hadnt installed the patches and updates.

These attacks are a reminder of why the cloud is a safer place to do your computing.

The parade of attacks in recent years have forced enterprise IT tobecome more diligent about holistic security. These attacks are successful when security is not holistic, such as when patches and fixes are not applied.

But the generalized security fears have also caused many IT organizations to delay the adoption of new technologies, such as cloud computing. Theres a sense that something new, especially something managed by others, will make things more vulnerable.

Actually, the opposite is true.

Using the public cloud makes you less likely to get attacked and breached. The layers of security in the cloud are more than a deterrent for most attacks. The cloud providers proactively monitor these clouds, and they quickly spot and quickly block them. And they automatically apply operating system, application, and service patches and fixes are automatically behind the scenes.

Extremely few IT organizations do the same.The cost of security is just too much for most enterprises to bear, and most cant keep up with all that needs to be done to keep their systems and users secure enough from WannaCry, Petya, and other malware that shut down systems.

Enterprises should not run in place when these attacks occur, but instead do a look in the mirror assessment around the state of systems and security. Youre likely to find deep issues that cant be solved overnight.From there, youll need to plan the to be state of things, including how data, processes, PCs, mobile devices, IoT devices, and other elements are going to be secure.

As you undertake that effort, youll find that using the cloud is becoming the best fit for security. It may be counterintuitive to those who equate hands-on control with effective control, but its simply true. The cloud has had outages, yes, just like enterprise IT systems. But no major cloud provider has fallen victim to all the malware attacks of the last few years. What does that tell you?

David S. Linthicum is a consultant at Cloud Technology Partners and an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader. Dave has authored 13 books on computing and also writes regularly for HPE Software's TechBeacon site.

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The latest cyber attacks show why the cloud is safer - InfoWorld