We've written of our love of so-called cloud computing, and of Google's wonderful, if still somewhat primitive, suite of cloud computing software such as Google Docs. But the danger in cloud computing is that you and your company's information is stored in that "cloud," that murky cyberspace, potentially accessible to hackers...or to whatever random souls to whom you happen to bestow a key.

Such is the cautionary tale described in the New York Times's Bits blog, in which the author, one David Gallagher, recounts how he gained access to the Web traffic reports of numerous newspapers owned by Community Newspapers Holdings Inc. that were compiled and stored via Google Analytics, the search giant's free traffic-counting software, another proud Google cloud computing program. How did this breach--in this case not a huge deal, but potentially devastating--occur? Likely, someone decided to share the information with one Deirdre Gallagher, a CNHI employee, but instead of entering Ms. Gallagher's Gmail address, the sharer entered MR. Gallagher's.

There is no getting around the fact that this sequence of events could not have happened if the information were stored on a secure server rather than in that cloud. And there is no getting around human error, no matter how sophisticated cloud computing software becomes.

On the other hand, hackers had their ways before there was cloud computing. And while Google Analytics does possess this extra security risk, it also lets its users quickly, easily, and (still pretty) securely share information with disparate others--the cloud computing advantage.

Oh, and kudos to Mr. Gallagher (so David, not Deidre) for that headline.