Securing next-generation grids

Grid computing poses tough security challenges. What do we have - and what do we still need - to make grids safe for tomorrow? Grid computing harnesses existing self contained systems - from personal computers to supercomputers to let users share processing cycles and data across geographical and organizational boundaries. This emerging technology can transform the computational infrastructure into an integrated, pervasive virtual environment. However, although commercial and research organizations might have collaborative or monetary reasons to share resources, they are unlikely to adopt such a distributed infrastructure until they can rely on the confidentiality of the communication, the integrity of their data and resources, and the privacy of the user information. In other words, large-scale deployment of grids will occur when users can count on their security.