Even though the tech world seems so gung-ho about the rise of cloud computing, potential security issues seem to be stressing out the FBI. Computerworld reports that all cloud vendors doing business with U.S. law enforcement agencies must now abide by the “ FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) security requirements.”

Jaikumar Vijayan writes that the FBI will not make any compromises to the new requirements, which Google says “are incompatible with cloud computing.”

From Computerworld:

"The FBI remains committed to using technology in its information-sharing processes, but not at the sacrifice of the security of the information with which it has been entrusted," Stephen Fischer Jr., a spokesman for the FBI's CJIS division said today in an email to Computerworld.

Fischer's comments come less than two months after the Los Angeles Police Department canceled a planned migration to Google Apps because it said the cloud service was not compliant with CJIS security requirements.

At the time, two city officials noted that U.S. Department of Justice requirements for the CJIS are not currently compatible with cloud computing.

Over at Wired, Mike Barton sheds his thoughts on the new mandate and writes about the LAPD’s recently unfulfilled journey to the cloud.

From Wired:

The LAPD and the city attorney’s office ultimately decided, some two years after deciding to move their e-mail systems to the cloud in order to save costs, that no cloud computing solution is really compatible with the federal security guidelines that the departments are required to follow, Cloudline’s Jon Stokes wrote at the time.

Carole Ditosti at Technorati explains that cloud vendors who wish to meet the FBI’s requirements “must use secure data centers and employ individuals who have been background checked by the FBI,” which is a strike for the bigwigs of the cloud world, but a win for smaller vendors.

From Technorati:

The problem with servicing the U.S. Justice Department with what it needs will be most challenging to large cloud providers whose foundations are in the business of providing hosted services to consumers.