ABSTRACT

The advent of cloud computing and the continuing movement toward SaaS (software as a service) paradigms has posed an increasing need for assured information sharing (AIS) as a service in the cloud. The urgency of this need was voiced in April 2011 by National Security Agency (NSA) Chief Information Officer Lonny Anderson in describing the agency’s focus on a cloud-centric approach to information sharing with other agencies (Hoover, 2011). Likewise, the Department of Defense (DoD) has been embracing cloud computing paradigms to more efficiently, economically, flexibly, and scalably meet its vision of “delivering the power of information to ensure mission success through an agile enterprise with freedom of maneuverability across the information environment” (DoD, 2007, 2012). Both agencies, therefore, have a tremendous need for effective AIS technologies and tools for cloud environments. Furthermore, there is also an urgent need for those in different social circles within agencies to share the information in the cloud securely and in a timely manner. Therefore, extending the AIS tools to function in a cloud-centric social media environment is becoming a need for many organizations.