The Sixth Circuit has just ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and review e-mail from cloud providers. This decision marks the first time this issue was squarely addressed by a federal court. The bad news is that this is only one federal circuit. Much of the rest of the country remains without a clear legal precedent. Businesses must understand the inherent risk of placing their e-mail in the cloud. Providers who host their e-mail may be subject to these types of governmental requests and e-mail may be produced without the business every knowing it. In addition to all the other challenges of operating in the cloud (e.g., service levels, security, etc.), this type of risk must also become part of the overall assessment businesses conduct in evaluating whether to move to the cloud. Related content opinion Finding Common Threads in Privacy and Information Security Laws. By Michael Overly Apr 26, 2013 3 mins Compliance opinion Ensure Your Data is Securely Deleted By Michael Overly Mar 11, 2013 2 mins Cloud Security opinion CIA in the Cloud By Michael Overly Dec 18, 2012 2 mins Cloud Security opinion Overreacting to Information Security By Michael Overly Dec 10, 2012 2 mins Privacy Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe