Columns and Pews

Weekend Reads ‭18B62‬

Members of the EU Parliament voted to advance the new Copyright Directive, even though it contained two extreme and unworkable clauses: Article 13 (“Censorship Machines”) that would filter everything everyone posts to online platforms to see if matches a crowdsourced database of “copyrighted works” that anyone could add anything to; and Article 11 (“The Link Tax”), a ban on quote more than one word from an article when linking to them unless you are using a platform that has paid for a linking license. The link tax provision allows, but does not require, member states to create exceptions and limitations to protect online speech. —Cory Doctorow @EFF

So it is my belief that 5G will initially be used by industries in constrained, “safe” environments. In these environments, operators and the industries involved will learn what is possible and what the limitations are. Then, if necessary, new requirements can be generated that allow the mobile technology to meet all the needs of the mission critical businesses. If these new requirements are extensive, then it will herald the start of 6G. —David Stokes @LightTalk

The shortage of qualified security analysts is an issue that the IT security industry has been dealing with Continue reading

Worth Reading: Upstream visibility

The most common approach for displaying BGP data collected is to use an animated graph, for example, BGPlay. In this type of visualization, each node of the graph is an AS and each link is a peering session among ASes. Every time a BGP update is applied, the links in the graph change according to the new status. —Massimo Candela @APNIC

Technologies that Didn’t: The OSI Protocol Stack

The Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model is the most often taught model of data transmission—although it is not all that useful in terms of describing how modern networks work. What many engineers who have come into network engineering more recently do not know is there was an entire protocol suite that went with the OSI model. Each of the layers within the OSI model, in fact, had multiple protocols specified to fill the functions of that layer. For instance, X.25, while older than the OSI model, was adopted into the OSI suite to provide point-to-point connectivity over some specific kinds of physical circuits. Moving up the stack a little, there were several protocols that provided much the same service as the widely used Internet Protocol (IP). @ECI

Worth Reading: iptables tips and tricks

The iptables userspace command-line tool builds upon this functionality to provide a powerful firewall, which you can configure by adding rules to form a firewall policy. iptables can be very daunting with its rich set of capabilities and baroque command syntax. —Gary Smith @opensource.com

Worth Reading: eVPN on the host

Virtual machines in the Linux ecosystem are mostly KVM deployments and in many cases deployed in combination with Openstack. There are different multi tenant architectures, but the most common one is to build an overlay network with VXLAN between the hypervisors. To reach resources outside the specific tenant environment, dedicated network nodes are being used. —Attilla de Groot @Cumulus

The State of IPv6 Deployment

Worth Reading: Network Troubleshooting

Approach a problem with an open mind, distill the “signal from the noise”, and test your hypothesis. A well-defined problem description is essential to moving forward towards final resolution. When a sports team wins the championship (you pick your favorite activity), it is not by accident. Behind every team is a coach, who leads by experience — with a game plan. Plans are built upon communication between team members. @IPSpace

Worth Reading: Most home routers are insecure

Research conducted by the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research indicates that the routers commonly found in homes are huge security vulnerabilities for consumers and their employers. The center’s analysis shows that of 186 sampled routers, 155 (83%) were found vulnerable to potential cyberattacks. @Dark Reading

Short Take: It’s always been done that way

Worth Reading: Packet level network telemetry

Continuous monitoring is an essential part of detecting security issues, misconfiguration, equipment failure, as well as performing traffic engineering. With networks growing in size, complexity, and traffic volume, the need for continuous and precise monitoring is greater than ever before. —Oliver Michel @APNIC

Worth Reading: Who do you trust?

Trust. It’s a simple word, but I think it’s at the heart of a recent social media brouhaha surrounding Apple’s recent revelations regarding “iTunes device trust scores.” —Richard Ford @Dark Reading

Worth Reading: WiFi Rebrands

According to a Wednesday press release, the new approach will name the generations in a numerical sequence relative to new advancements in Wi-Fi technology. This will make it easier for vendors to denote which standards their devices support, for service providers to explain what their network offers, and for users to understand which products work with which standards. —Conner Forrest @Tech Republic

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Weekend Reads ‭188A6‬

The security skills gap is real, and it is a problem. But what if you could replace the most basic security jobs with an AI? According to Gunter Ollmann @CircleID, this is possible today. The next question you might want to ask is this: if AI’s replace all the entry level positions, then how are we going to train up senior level engineers? Remember that every hiring manager wants someone with ten years of experience on a product that has only been out for two years…

US customers pay some of the highest prices for broadband in the developed world, and broadband availability is sketchy at best for millions of Americans. But instead of tackling that problem head on, the FCC is increasingly looking the other way, relying on ISP data that paints an inaccurately rosy picture of Americans’ internet access. And as long as regulators are relying on a false picture of US broadband access, actually solving the problem may be impossible. —Karl Bode @The Verge

American businesses are in for a rude awakening. Sweeping new privacy regulations, such as the EU’s landmark GDPR law and California’s Consumer Privacy Act, along with the ongoing SEC probe of Facebook’s data Continue reading

Worth Reading: Outing your Outages

How are you supposed to handle outages? What happens when everything around you goes upside down in an instant? How much communication is “too much”? Or “not enough”? And is all of this written down now instead of being figured out when the world is on fire? —Tom @Networking Nerd

Worth Reading: How Edge Computing will Impact the Enterprise

Data published at the start of 2018 reveals a prediction that spending in the edge computing sector will grow by a compound annual growth rate of more than 30 percent through 2022. That means regardless of IT professionals’ focus and the companies they work for now, their jobs paths will inevitably feature more edge computing-related elements soon. —Kayla Matthews @Information Week

Worth Reading: WPA3 brings new authentication to wireless

WPA3 is the latest version of Wi-Fi Protected Access, a suite of protocols and technologies that provide authentication and encryption for Wi-Fi networks. WPA3, which was first announced earlier this year, is now available for inclusion in products. It brings two deployment models, personal and enterprise, along with a related security set called Easy Connect. —Curtis Franklin Jr. @Dark Reading

History of Networking: BGP Route Servers and the IXP

Worth Reading: Beyond Cookbook Mathematics

Most of you who are reading this have likely taken a calculus course or two, and probably some basic linear algebra/matrix theory (especially if you’re in computer science). You’ve been exposed to limits, differentiation, continuity, determinants, and linear maps. —Rachel Traylor @The Math Citadel