We were discussing security by obscurity in the office today – it’s always a topic that we end up having a laugh at. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read about security by obscurity here.

That’s all fine and funny, until you witness it. Us Maltese just witnessed it, last weekend, with a twist. Instead of being in some poorly written software, this was in a shop. Basically, a local Jewellery shop was robbed by professionals and they removed / deleted all security footage in the process!

You might say that this is not IT related – but I’m afraid that it’s very relevant. This got me thinking – how did they get access to the security footage? Was it there, exposed, just waiting for some person to meddle and delete with the footage? It seemed that these people thought so. Although I don’t have much details on how this was done, I would assume that these shops don’t have another site where these footage are kept just in case accidents like these happen.

So, what do I propose? Simple – it’s a bit illogical to keep the security footage at the same site where it’s being recorded. Ideally, this footage would be (instantly) moved to some off-site storage, making use of the cloud. Is there any provider doing this? A quick Google Search says yes: I’ve found examples such as CamCloud. Of course, I have no idea what the company offers since I’m not affiliated with it.

Given that today’s world is moving to the cloud, I can’t help but wonder if incidents like these can be mitigated by using such cloud services.