Google has improved the security of its hosted cloud development services by adding support for certificate-based authentication technology. Google Cloud Storage, Google Prediction API, Google URL Shortener, Google OAuth 2.0 Authorization Server, Google APIs Console and Google APIs Client Libraries for Python, Java, and PHP can now authenticate users through certificate-based Service Accounts. According to the company, this makes developers more secure because the certificates aren’t “human-readable or guessable.” The company plans to add more developer services to the list in the future.
IDC’s Stephen Hendrick noted, “Since the cloud is predicated on service enablement, security improvements specific to service invocation are likely to gain attention and garner praise. Initiatives like OAuth 2.0 and Google’s decision to align their Service Account support with OAuth is an important step forward in improving cloud security.”