Cloud Security Alliance

Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to “promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and to provide education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing”.

The CSA has over 80,000 individual members worldwide. CSA gained significant reputability in 2011 when the U.S.A.'s Presidential Administration selected the CSA Summit as the venue for announcing the federal government’s cloud computing strategy.

The CSA was formed in December 2008 as a coalition by individuals who saw a need to provide objective enterprise user guidance on the adoption and use of cloud computing. Its initial work product “Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing,” was put together -style, by dozens of volunteers.

In 2014, the Chairman of the Board of the CSA was Dave Cullinane, VP of Global Security and Privacy for Catalina Marketing, St Petersburg, Florida, and former CISO for eBay. Cullinane has said, "If you have an application exposed to the Internet that will allow people to make money, it will be probed."

In 2009 the Cloud Security Alliance incorporated in Nevada as a Corporation and achieved US Federal 501(c)6 non-profit status. It is registered as a Foreign Non-Profit Corporation in Washington.

The CSA works to support a number of global policy makers in their focus on cloud security initiatives including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),European Commission, Singapore Government and the various data protection authorities. In March 2012, the CSA was selected to partner with three of Europe’s largest research centers (CERN, EMBL and ESA) to launch “Helix Nebula – the Science Cloud”.

The Cloud Security Alliance employs roughly sixteen full-time and contract staff worldwide. It has over 400 active volunteers participating in research at any time.

According to CSA, they are a member-driven organization, chartered with promoting the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and providing education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing.

Individuals who are interested in cloud computing and have experience to assist in making it more secure receive a complimentary individual membership based on a minimum level of participation.

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Wikipedia