Following on from my article that looked at the effects that a government ordered shut down of the internet could have on cloud services hosted in that county (and the effect on companies that rely on that cloud service).
A further issue with cloud computing could materialise; again during periods of social unrest (especially prolonged periods such as what is being encountered currently in Libya), there is a risk of looting and general lawlessness. Also interruption can be experienced with utilities such as telecoms and power.
This is a lot like the effects experienced by a country going through the post war phase (Iraq 2003 is an ideal example), where looting and damage to local infrastructure caused mass disruption. If this occurred in a country where cloud providers based their resource then the inherent security and infrastructure issues could place organisations with no real geographic link to the country at real risk.
Although how organisations should control the risk is not clear, would most companies enquire about the geographic location of the cloud providers equipment as part of the contract/procurement process? Also should a responsible cloud provider apply due diligence and inform customers when their service is at risk in this way?
Research struggles to find any cloud providers that have based their infrastructure in countries that have experienced the recent social unrest. So it is not clear if the risk has materialised, although risks in this case are exactly that. They are events that could happen and the effects of which would be negative.
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