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Category Archives for "Networking"

Down the rabbit hole, part 4: Securing your email

As I strive to make my life safe and secure from prying eyes, one area stands out as being astoundingly critical: email.Heck, you can barely go 24 hours without another example of leaked or hacked emails being released to the public. Add to that the recent revelations that Yahoo has been working secretly with United States government agencies to scan all email going through their system, and it quickly becomes clear that the majority of us have email accounts that are not even remotely private or secure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Here’s how Zenefits is trying to reinvent itself

Zenefits had a rough year. The company -- previously a darling of Silicon Valley -- was rocked by a massive insurance scandal in February and has been fighting to regain the trust of customers and regulators since.David Sacks, the Yammer cofounder and former Zenefits COO, has been leading the charge after taking over the CEO role in February. The company made its biggest announcement under his tenure Tuesday, unveiling Z2, a redesign and upgrade of its capabilities.The marquee change of Z2 is a design that brings the app store model popularized by smartphones to the world of human resources. Zenefits's offerings, like vacation tracking, offer letter generation, and employee insurance, are still available as apps in the new Z2 platform. But now, users will also be able to add third-party integrations from a set of 17 services. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Half of US adults are profiled in police facial recognition databases

Photographs of nearly half of all U.S. adults -- 117 million people -- are collected in police facial recognition databases across the country with little regulation over how the networks are searched and used, according to a new study.Along with a lack of regulation, critics question the accuracy of facial recognition algorithms. Meanwhile, state, city, and federal facial recognition databases include 48 percent of U.S. adults, said the report from the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. The search of facial recognition databases is largely unregulated, the report said. "A few agencies have instituted meaningful protections to prevent the misuse of the technology," its authors wrote. "In many more cases, it is out of control."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Half of US adults are profiled in police facial recognition databases

Photographs of nearly half of all U.S. adults -- 117 million people -- are collected in police facial recognition databases across the country with little regulation over how the networks are searched and used, according to a new study.Along with a lack of regulation, critics question the accuracy of facial recognition algorithms. Meanwhile, state, city, and federal facial recognition databases include 48 percent of U.S. adults, said the report from the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. The search of facial recognition databases is largely unregulated, the report said. "A few agencies have instituted meaningful protections to prevent the misuse of the technology," its authors wrote. "In many more cases, it is out of control."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Wi-Fi troubleshooting remains a challenge for most organizations

Bring your own device (BYOD), digital transformation and other trends have raised the bar on Wi-Fi. A decade or so ago, Wi-Fi was a “nice to have” for most organizations, and users understood the tradeoff: high-quality, consistent access through the wired connection or freedom of movement coupled with spotty quality with wireless access.+ Also on Network World: Wi-Fi speeds will triple, get more range with MegaMimo 2.0 +Today, that’s not the case. Wi-Fi is the primary network and a mission-critical resource for most companies, as many devices today do not even have a wired option. Users need high-quality, consistent and secure wireless connectivity to do their jobs. When Wi-Fi isn’t working, it isn’t just internal employees who are affected. Student’s can’t do research, shoppers can’t purchase goods, clinicians can treat patients and IoT devices can’t connect. Poor Wi-Fi is no longer simply an inconvenience; it means lost customers, degraded teaching experiences, lost revenue and brand damage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Flokibot Invades PoS: Trouble in Brazil

Introduction Threat actors salivate at the thought of an increased volume of credit and debit card transactions flowing through endpoints they have compromised with card-stealing malware. While there are many distinct malware families that scrape unencrypted process memory to obtain cards, some of these malware […]

FDA to healthcare execs on DMCA exemption: Researchers will find new medical device flaws

The FDA wants the medical device industry to quickly fix cybersecurity issues, reminding healthcare executives that they may soon be hearing about vulnerabilities more frequently from security researchers thanks to a DMCA exemption which will soon go into effect.Although the Librarian of Congress issued the new exemptions (pdf) last year, there was a one year hold supposedly so various agencies could update their policies. It’s silly, since the exemptions are not permanent; they must be argued and renewed every three years, which basically means security researchers can take advantage of it for two years. They can hope that if their research will take longer than two years, that the exemption is renewed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FDA to healthcare execs on DMCA exemption: Researchers will find new medical device flaws

The FDA wants the medical device industry to quickly fix cybersecurity issues, reminding healthcare executives that they may soon be hearing about vulnerabilities more frequently from security researchers thanks to a DMCA exemption which will soon go into effect.Although the Librarian of Congress issued the new exemptions (pdf) last year, there was a one year hold supposedly so various agencies could update their policies. It’s silly, since the exemptions are not permanent; they must be argued and renewed every three years, which basically means security researchers can take advantage of it for two years. They can hope that if their research will take longer than two years, that the exemption is renewed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network performance monitoring

Today, network performance monitoring typically relies on probe devices to perform active tests and/or observe network traffic in order to try and infer performance. This article demonstrates that hosts already track network performance and that exporting host-based network performance information provides an attractive alternative to complex and expensive in-network approaches.
# tcpdump -ni eth0 tcp
11:29:28.949783 IP 10.0.0.162.ssh > 10.0.0.70.56174: Flags [P.], seq 1424968:1425312, ack 1081, win 218, options [nop,nop,TS val 2823262261 ecr 2337599335], length 344
11:29:28.950393 IP 10.0.0.70.56174 > 10.0.0.162.ssh: Flags [.], ack 1425312, win 4085, options [nop,nop,TS val 2337599335 ecr 2823262261], length 0
The host TCP/IP stack continuously measured round trip time and estimates available bandwidth for each active connection as part of its normal operation. The tcpdump output shown above highlights timestamp information that is exchanged in TCP packets to provide the accurate round trip time measurements needed for reliable high speed data transfer.

The open source Host sFlow agent already makes use of Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF) capability on Linux to efficiently sample packets and provide visibility into traffic flows. Adding support Continue reading

Self-learning supply chains? The store of the future? A conversation with an expert about what comes next

JDA is a global supply chain and retail planning software company with 4,500 employees and almost a billion dollars in revenue.  Suresh Acharya heads JDA Labs, the company’s 50 person research group exploring the science, emerging technologies and user experiences that are critical to this complex field.  Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up to Acharya to talk about everything from customer segmentation to self-learning supply chains and the store of the future.  Suresh Acharya, Head of JDA Labs, Research and DevelopmentTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hillary Clinton considered Bill Gates and Tim Cook as VP candidates

Earlier today, Wikileaks published a new set of documents from John Podesta's private Gmail account. Of all the new revelations, one of the more intriguing developments is an email that lays out many of the vice president candidates Hillary Clinton's campaign had under consideration. In an email Podesta sent out in March of 2016, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign listed a number of potential VP picks, including former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and current Apple CEO Tim Cook.The list, according to Podesta, was a "first cut," so it's anybody's guess as to how seriously the Clinton campaign thought about pursuing either Gates or Cook. As a point of interest, Cook is a noted supporter of Clinton and just this past summer held a fundraiser where all proceeds were donated to Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft speech recognition technology now understands a conversation as well as a person

Microsoft researchers say they have created a speech recognition system that understands human conversation as well as the average person does.In a paper published this week the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research group said its speech recognition system had attained “human parity” and made fewer errors than a human professional transcriptionist.+More on Network World: Feds want to set a trail for future AI advances+“The error rate of professional transcriptionists is 5.9% for the Switchboard portion of the data, in which newly acquainted pairs of people discuss an assigned topic, and 11.3% for the CallHome portion where friends and family members have open-ended conversations. In both cases, our automated system establishes a new state-of-the-art, and edges past the human benchmark. This marks the first time that human parity has been reported for conversational speech,” the researchers wrote in their paper. Switchboard is a standard set of conversational speech and text used in speech recognition tests.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Ubuntu 16.10 targets hybrid cloud deployments, supports Unity 8 development

Canonical, developer of Ubuntu, a distribution of Linux, released a new version of its software that targets hybrid cloud deployments. Ubuntu is often mentioned as one of the top 3 distributions of Linux when shipments are considered, depending upon which research firm one cites.What Canonical has to say about Ubuntu 16.10 Canonical pointed out that this release of Ubuntu targets high-performance network deployments, including hybrid cloud implementations. The following summarizes the announcement: Ubuntu is the platform used in the majority of cloud deployments worldwide. Version 16.10 includes tools or hybrid cloud operations, bare-metal cloud performance. It provides enterprises with the ability to "lift and shift" 80 percent of Linux virtual machines to machine containers. It includes Kubernetes for process-container coordination. It also includes full container support in OpenStack, as well as "telco-grade" networking latency enhancements. Canonical went on to discuss other features of this release:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How technology is improving the hiring process

In recent years, the concept of employer brand has taken hold as companies compete for talent. Just as a strong market identity gives a company the capability to charge premium prices — think Apple, American Express and BMW — a strong employer brand assists with recruiting in a competitive job market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

57% off RAVPower FileHub Wireless Hard Drive, WiFi Bridge & Sharing Media Streamer – Deal Alert

You may find many uses for this versatile and powerful file hub from RAVPower, currently discounted 58% on Amazon from $75.99 down to just $32.49. Let's run down the features: Let up to 5 devices wirelessly connect to the FileHub wireless network, to access its SD card and/or USB storage to share files Media server capabilities, allowing wirelessly connected devices to stream audio and video from any attached storage device Move files freely between all connected methods of storage and devices, including tablets and phones Bridge an existing wireless network, create a new secure network and share with family or friends, or bridge to connect to devices such as Chromecast in hotels Built-in power bank charges your device when you can't access a power source RAVPower's FileHub currently averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 1,800 customers (read reviews). For more information or to explore buying options, see the discounted FileHub now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

57% off RAVPower FileHub Wireless Hard Drive, WiFi Bridge & Sharing Media Streamer – Deal Alert

You may find many uses for this versatile and powerful file hub from RAVPower, currently discounted 58% on Amazon from $75.99 down to just $32.49. Let's run down the features: Let up to 5 devices wirelessly connect to the FileHub wireless network, to access its SD card and/or USB storage to share files Media server capabilities, allowing wirelessly connected devices to stream audio and video from any attached storage device Move files freely between all connected methods of storage and devices, including tablets and phones Bridge an existing wireless network, create a new secure network and share with family or friends, or bridge to connect to devices such as Chromecast in hotels Built-in power bank charges your device when you can't access a power source RAVPower's FileHub currently averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 1,800 customers (read reviews). For more information or to explore buying options, see the discounted FileHub now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here