rule 11 reader 2017-11-14 18:00:50

Worth Reading: GPL Licenses

The GPL family of licenses is unique among open source licenses in how past, current, and future versions of the license may apply to the software program. By not fully understanding this unique license feature, open source software developers may inadvertently create ambiguity. — Jeffrey Robert Kaufman @ oensource.com

Worth Reading: Fog and Open Source

Edge computing, like public cloud at scale, requires a convenient, powerful cloud software stack that can be deployed in a unified, efficient and sustainable way. Open source is leading the way. — Mark Collier @ opensource.com

Learning to Ask Questions

One thing I’m often asked in email and in person is: why should I bother learning theory? After all, you don’t install SPF in your network; you install a router or switch, which you then configure OSPF or IS-IS on. The SPF algorithm is not exposed to the user, and does not seem to really have any impact on the operation of the network. Such internal functionality might be neat to know, but ultimately–who cares? Maybe it will be useful in some projected troubleshooting situation, but the key to effective troubleshooting is understanding the output of the device, rather than in understanding what the device is doing.

In other words, there is no reason to treat network devices as anything more than black boxes. You put some stuff in, other stuff comes out, and the vendor takes care of everything in the middle. I dealt with a related line of thinking in this video, but what about this black box argument? Do network engineers really need to know what goes on inside the vendor’s black box?

Let me anser this question with another question. Wen you shift to a new piece of hardware, how do you know what you are Continue reading

Worth Reading: Another Way to Overcome Fingerprint Security

The woman had unlocked her husband’s phone using his thumb impression when he was sleeping and then blew her top after discovering his infidelity. The crew tried to pacify her but she did not listen. @ Hindustan Times

Weekend Reads 2017-05-11

We’re quietly replacing an open web that connects and empowers with one that restricts and commoditizes people. We need to stop it. I quit Facebook seven months ago. Despite its undeniable value, I think Facebook is at odds with the open web that I love and defend. This essay is my attempt to explain not only why I quit Facebook but why I believe we’re slowly replacing a web that empowers with one that restricts and commoditizes people. And why we should, at the very least, stop and think about the consequences of that shift. –Parimal Satyal @ Neustadt.fr

Two clocks are ticking for US tech companies in the power centers of the modern world. In Washington, lawmakers are working to reform FISA Section 702 before it expires on December 31st, 2017. Section 702 is the main legal basis for US mass surveillance, including the programs and techniques that scoop up the data transferred by non-US individuals to US servers. Upstream surveillance collects communications as they travel over the Internet backbone, and downstream surveillance (better known as PRISM) collects communications from companies like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. –Danny O’Brien @ EFF

Arguably, a good deal of Americans are in Continue reading

Hummingbird

Worth Reading: Fixing the Plumbing

At LinkedIn, we pay attention to site speed at every step of the release process, from code development to production ramp. But inevitably, the performance of our pages degrades over time (we use the word “pages” to denote webpages as well as mobile apps). In this post, we go over the tools and processes we use to catch and fix these degradations. While this is a post about automation to identify latency leaks, it is also a tale of how a human touch is still necessary. –Ritesh Maheshwari @ LinkedIn

Worth Reading: Choosing a developer job

See, in my employment searches, I’ve always focused on which tech stack a company used or if I thought I would be a successful employee from a technical perspective. If I liked the people and the job enough and my skill-set aligned, I would accept the job. I was happy just working as a developer with my head buried in code all day solving problems. –Gwendolyn Faraday @ Free Code Camp

Worth Reading: The ROCA Encryption Vulnerability

Yes. It’s serious in practice and in principle. Infineon used a flawed key generation routine, which means those keys are easier to crack, and the routine is used in chips embedded in a wide variety of devices. It’s reckoned that the flawed routine has been in use since 2012 and has probably been used to generate tens of millions of keys. Naturally, many of those keys will have been generated precisely because someone had data or resources that they particularly wanted to secure. –Robin Wilton @ The Internet Society

What is a Tunnel

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a… tunnel? In this video, I take on the age old question: what is a tunnel? Is it a protocol, or is it something else?

Worth Reading: New Exploits, Old Techniques

The use of tunnelling to subvert traffic is in no way new and the article itself covers many of the tunnelling approaches that have been used to set up covert channels for well over a decade. However, what this research has highlighted is the need to draw attention and validation to logging and intrusion detection tools that can correlate between IPv4 and IPv6 traffic and find commonalities to detect any potential abusive and/or criminal behaviour. These solutions should encompass all of the varying IPv6 transition/coexistence mechanisms that are widely being deployed. –Merike Kaeo @ APNIC

Worth Reading: Why 5G is in trouble

I have a somewhat unconventional view of 5G. I just happen to believe it is the right one. It is trapped inside a category error about the nature of packet networking, and this means it is in trouble. As context, we are seeing the present broadband Internet access model maturing and begin to reach its peak. 5G eagerly anticipates the next wave of applications. –Martin Geddes @ CircleID

A glance back at the looking glass: Will IP really take over the world?

In 2003, the world of network engineering was far different than it is today. For instance, EIGRP was still being implemented on the basis of its ability to support multi-protocol routing. SONET, and other optical technologies, were just starting to come into their own, and all optical switching was just beginning to be considered for large scale deployment. What Hartley says of history holds true when looking back at what seems to be a former age: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

In the midst of this change, the Association for Computing Machinery (the ACM) published a paper entitled “Will IP really take over the world (of communications)?” This paper, written during the ongoing discussion within the engineering community over whether packet switching or circuit switching is the “better” technology, provides a lot of insight into the thinking of the time. Specifically, as the author say, the belief that IP is better:

…is based on our collective belief that packet switching is inherently superior to circuit switching because of the efficiencies of statistical multiplexing, and the ability of IP to route around failures. It is widely assumed that IP is simpler than circuit Continue reading

Worth Reading: Should we trust geolocation?

Geolocation databases are often used by both researchers and network operators to learn the real-world location of a given IP address. But how reliable are these in terms of coverage and accuracy at both country- or city-level resolutions? Evaluation studies of previous geolocation databases are dominated by the results over end-host addresses. As a result, the users are left unsure about the reliability of geolocation databases over infrastructure IP addresses such as those of router interfaces. –Manaf Gharaibeh @ APNIC

Marsh

Weekend Read: Don’t be true to yourself

A dedication to egalitarianism can cut both ways: uplifting the lower or bringing down the higher. I would argue that this happens not only in society but also within our souls. For egalitarianism would have us treat all our parts as equally deserving of honor, and this leaves us lost in deciding which of our impulses to be true to. —Molly Brigid Flynn @ Law and Liberty

Reaction: Enabling Privacy is not Harmful

The argument for end-to-end encryption is apparently heating up with the work moving forward on TLSv1.3 currently in progress in the IETF. The naysayers, however, are also out in force, arguing that end-to-end encryption is a net negative. What is the line of argument? According to a recent article in CircleID, it seems to be something like this:

• Governments have a right to asymmetrical encryption capabilities in order to maintain order. In other words, governments have the right to ensure that all private communication is ultimately readable by the government for any lawful purpose.
• Standards bodies that enable end-to-end encryption that will prevent this absolute governmental good endanger society. The leaders of such standards bodies may, in fact, be prosecuted for their role in subverting government power.

The idea of end-to-end encryption is recast as a form of extremism, a radical idea that should not be supported by the network engineering community. Is end-to-end encryption really extremist? Is it really a threat to the social order?

Let me begin here: this is not just a technical issue. There are two opposing worldviews in play. Engineers don’t often study worldviews, or philosophy, so these questions tend to get buried in Continue reading

Worth Reading: Days of our stolen identities

The Equifax saga continues like a soap opera, Days of Our Stolen Identity. Every time it appears the Equifax drama is ending, a new report surfaces confirming additional security issues. —Kate Donofrio @ CSA

Worth Reading: Checklists

Thirty-six seconds after launch, lightning struck the Apollo 12 and its six million pounds of high explosive fuel. The instruments blacked out. Twenty-two seconds later lightning struck again. What few instruments remained started flashing red failure lights. The “you’re about to die” alarm started blaring. Over the radio the crew heard the voice of John Aaron: “Flight, try SCE to Aux.” Astronaut Alan Bean flipped the tiny switch immediately. —Jonathan Solórzano-Hamilton @ Free Code Camp