At the ongoing RSA Conference in San Francisco, California, Hewlett-Packard and the Cloud Security Alliance released a report citing the seven most severe threats to cloud computing on Monday.

With increasingly sensitive data moving in to the cloud, the report states that further measures must be taken to protect individuals from potential identity theft. As has been the case with most web trends, there is very little governance in place to regulate the cloud.

The report publishers cited abuse of cloud computing, poor security practices and potential data loss as some of the worst threats to SaaS and other forms of cloud computing.

"Cloud services are clearly the next generation of information technology that enterprises must master. We have a shared responsibility to understand the security threats that accompany the cloud and apply the necessary best practices to mitigate them," said Jim Reavis, founder of the Cloud Security Alliance.

Businesses waiting to make the move may end up doing so before they planned to save money. Cloud computing experts Jim Taylor and Jim Metzler wrote for Network World recently that cost reduction is the primary goal of outsourcing IT to the cloud.ADNFCR-2553-ID-19646204-ADNFCR