Archive

Category Archives for "Network World SDN"

Detecting insider threats is easier than you think

When it came to the physical plant, it used to be easy with surveillance cameras and access badges to tell if an insider was up to no good. Now with a more virtual network, you can’t always know if the person sitting in the next cubicle is gaining access to confidential documents. While the insider threat still connotes an employee of the company, the intruder is no longer someone located within the confines of the building. Accessing the network can happen from such public places as the local coffee shop. “For companies today, where old corporate lines are disappearing more frequently, the challenges only increase. Enterprises need to adapt their policies and procedures to prevent threats by securing corporate end-point equipment and the right tools that protect and allow users to do their work,” said Matias Brutti, a hacker at Okta. “Work environments are constantly changing, so monitoring is difficult on a corporate level.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fortinet upgrades for better cloud, SD-WAN protection

Fortinet has rolled out a new version of its FortiOS operating system that gives customers the ability to manage security capabilities across their cloud assets and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) environments.With FortiOS 5.6, the company’s Fortinet Security Fabric gives a view of customers’ public and private clouds – including Amazon Web Services and Azure – as well as assets on and their software-defined WANs, says John Maddison, Fortinet’s senior vice president of products.+More on Network World: DARPA to eliminate “patch & pray” by baking chips with cybersecurity fortification+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to decide between cloud, on-premise and As-a-Service

Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not advocate a position that is particular to the author’s employer and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.Deciding whether and how to use cloud computing is a complex, and made all the more complicated by the overwhelming number of vendors and products. What’s more, hybrid and multicloud approaches blur the lines between the cloud and on-premise deployment options.With an operations team that counsels organizations on which type of architecture is best for them – on premise, cloud, hybrid or multicloud – and then evaluates what went well and didn’t in all four kinds of deployments, here’s our view of what situations tip the scale toward one approach or another.  While the context is data storage, this analysis applies to most enterprise IT scenarios.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

21% off Seagate Backup Plus Hub for Mac, 4TB External Desktop Hard Drive – Deal Alert

Back up your files, precious photos and videos while connecting to and recharging any USB device, such as your tablet, smartphone or camera -- even if your system is off or in standby mode. The Backup Plus Hub for Mac is fully compatible with Time Machine, and will work with Windows based computers as well. This model has integrated USB ports, and packs a generous 4TB of space for just $109.99, a 21% discount over its typical list price of $139.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Today, Get 43% off SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 200GB – Deal Alert

Note: This deal is only active until 2am ET, 4/12The SanDisk Connect wireless stick is a flash drive with a unique twist -- you can access it wirelessly. Whether it's in your pants pocket, in your bag, or on the picnic table at your campsite, the Connect wireless stick lets you stream media or move files wirelessly with up to three computers, phones or tablets simultaneously. Connections are made via built-in wifi (think "hotspot"), so no external wireless or internet services are needed. A USB connection is also available, if desired. Storage on this model is a generous 200GB. Reviewers on Amazon report at least 8-10 hours of battery life on one charge. This model is currently discounted 43%, from $119.99 down to $67.99. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

People, Process, and Technology Challenges with Security Operations

These days, it’s tough for any organization to keep up with cybersecurity operations.  Why?  Well the bad guys are pretty persistent for starters, launching a blitzkrieg of attacks and new types of exploits all the time. Okay, hackers are relentless but we’ve always know this and their behavior isn’t likely to change anytime soon.  What’s really disturbing however is that a lot of problems associated with cybersecurity are based upon our own intransigence.  And organizations aren’t struggling with one issue, rather cybersecurity operations challenges tend to be spread across people, processes and technology.  When it comes to security operations, it’s kind of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ situation. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: NetOps: Can networks be both available and agile?

Do you believe in a future where the leading source of value creation is through the experience of digital connections? If you don’t, you may want to compare the growth and value of AirBnB with many of the world’s largest hotel chains. And don’t think that this is a phenomenon limited to certain industries—evidence is mounting that across the landscape of public and private sectors, and across every industry segment, the future of business is digital business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dridex gang uses unpatched Microsoft Word exploit to target millions

The gang behind the Dridex computer trojan has adopted an unpatched Microsoft Word exploit and used it to target millions of users.The exploit's existence was revealed Friday by security researchers from antivirus vendor McAfee, but targeted attacks using it have been happening since January. After McAfee's limited public disclosure, researchers from FireEye confirmed having tracked the attacks for several weeks as well.The exploit takes advantage of a logic bug in the Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) feature of Microsoft Office. It allows attackers to embed malicious code inside of Microsoft Word documents, with the code automatically executed when those files are opened.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco fortifies storage throughput, analytics

Cisco this week took the wraps off several products aimed at helping existing Fibre Channel customers grow the speed, capacity and management of their storage environments.In particular, Cisco rolled out a 32Gb Fibre Channel module for its MDS 9700 storage switch family with baked-in storage networking analytics, a 32Gb Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter for the rack-mounted Cisco UCS C-Series server, as well as non-volatile memory express (NVMe) over FC support for flash memory appliances.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple is developing its own power management chips, says analyst

It appears that Apple is developing its own power management chips, according to a report from German private bank Bankhaus Lampe. The release of the report Tuesday led to a sharp drop in the shares of Dialog Semiconductor, the current supplier of these chips to the iPhone maker.“The teams of both companies collaborate very closely and thus, Dialog cannot be replaced by a third-party supplier. However, Apple itself could replace Dialog,” wrote analyst Karsten Iltgen.As evidence, the report cited 16 different job openings on Apple’s website for analog/power management engineers for the design center in Munich alone.“A search on social networks such as LinkedIn revealed that Apple has already poached about 20 chip designers, some of them with long-standing experience, from Dialog,” said the report, which estimates that about 40 power-management chip engineers are currently working at the design center in Munich, with a similar number working in the area at the center in California.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Inside look at Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s next-generation infrastructure

In the 18 months since the company split from its sister consumer business, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has been in an almost constant state of refining its strategy.The company backed out of the public cloud market; sold off its Enterprise Services Business to competitor CSC for $8.5 billion; dealt other “non-core” assets to Micro Focus in an $8.8 billion deal; and dumped its OpenStack and Cloud Foundry development efforts off to Suse. HPE also bought all-flash storage vendor Nimble storage for $1 billion last month and snapped up hyperconverged infrastructure vendor Simplivity for another $650 million in January.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Data centers decline as users turn to rented servers

Data centers are declining worldwide both in numbers and square footage, according to IDC -- a remarkable change for an industry that has seen booming growth for many years.Users are consolidating data centers and increasingly renting server power. These two trends are having a major impact on data center space.[ Further reading: The march toward exascale computers ] The number of data centers worldwide peaked at 8.55 million in 2015, according to IDC. That figure began declining last year, and is expected to drop to an expected 8.4 million this year. By 2021, the research firm expects there to be 7.2 million data centers globally, more than 15% fewer than in 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: DevOps—The path to sustainable competitive advantages

A fundamental shift is happening in software development, and the way applications are built and brought to market is changing rapidly. As IT infrastructure has moved to the cloud and the age of the customer has made digital experiences pivotal in creating competitive advantages, DevOps has emerged. IT has refocused from managing servers to supporting lines of business managers and developers in their quest to provide integrated experiences across devices and touchpoints.+ Also on Network World: How DevOps can redefine your IT strategy + This shift can be compared to Henry Ford's innovation of the assembly line. Ford was able to set up a process that could produce more reliable cars faster and at lower costs. Similarly, the future of digital experiences belongs to the companies that can standardize and optimize their app delivery process. Companies that are able to align DevOps stratigeis and tools to deliver digital experiences faster and better than their competition have an advantage that will be difficult to replicate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: When phone systems attack

A telephony denial of service (TDoS) attack is a specific type of DDoS attack that originates from or is directed towards a telephone system with the intent of bringing down the targeted system. These attacks commonly focus on commercial businesses and may often include ransomware requests. In reality, these attacks can affect anyone, including our nation’s 911 infrastructure, because even it is not isolated from or immune from these types of attacks. And based on its mission, in many ways, it is more fragile.Unintentional TDoS attack Just last year, 911 centers across the country, including a site in Phoenix, Arizona, were the targets of allegedly unintentional 911 TDoS attacks when some malicious JavaScript code was published on a web page. The code, once loaded on a smartphone browser, would cause some devices to automatically dial 911 repeatedly without user intervention and without the user’s knowledge. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Arista gets important win over Cisco in patent battle

In yet another twist to the ongoing patent and copyright infringement case between Cisco and Arista, Arista has landed a significant win that will let it once again import redesigned products to the US that have been under import embargo since January.Specifically, according to a post on Arista’s site, on “April 7, 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) completed its review and once again ruled that Arista’s redesigned products do not infringe the ’592, ’145, or ’537 patents that were the subject of a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order issued by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) in Investigation No. 337-TA-944 and that Arista may resume importing its redesigned products into the United States.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Dallas blames hacker for setting off all 156 emergency warning sirens

Imagine it being nearly midnight and the emergency warning sirens start wailing and continue to scream for about an hour and a half. That’s what happened in Dallas on Friday; at 11:42 p.m., the city’s 156 emergency sirens blasted out warnings and continued to wail until 1:17 a.m. on Saturday. Dallas officials claim the siren warning system was hacked and it was one of the largest breaches of an emergency siren system.At first, a city spokesperson blamed the blaring sirens on a “system malfunction.” The 1.6 million people in the city were asked to stop calling 911 because there was no emergency. The normal wait time for a 911 call in Dallas is reportedly 10 seconds, but at one point the 911 system was so clogged with calls that the wait time stretched to six minutes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Startup founded by FireEye alum goes after FireEye

A former FireEye engineer has kicked off a startup whose machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies will compete against his former employer’s threat-prevention platforms.SlashNext makes Active Cyber Defense System, a service with a cloud-based learning component that can detect data exfiltration, malware, exploits and social engineering attacks, says the company’s founder and CEO Atif Mushtaq. SlashNext SlashNext CEO Atif Mushtaq: "The system has a low false positive rate."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Today Get 36% off JBL Flip 3 Splash Proof Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Deal Alert

The all-purpose, all-weather companion JBL Flip 3 is the next generation wireless speaker in the award-winning Flip series. It is a comprehensive portable Bluetooth speaker that delivers surprisingly powerful, room-filling stereo sound everywhere. This ultra-compact speaker is powered by a 3000mAh rechargeable Li-ion battery that offers up to 10 hours of continuous playtime. Sporting a durable, splashproof fabric and available in 8 vibrant colors, Flip 3 is the all-purpose, all-weather companion that integrates music into every aspect of your life - from tabletop to poolside, from sunny mornings to rainy nights. Flip 3 also features a built-in noise and echo cancelling speakerphone for crystal clear conference calls, and JBL Connect technology that can wirelessly link multiple JBL Connect-enabled speakers together to amplify the listening experience.  The JBL Flip 3 Speaker averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from 3,200+ people on Amazon (read reviews) and its typical list price of $99.50 is currently reduced to just $63.99.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung’s profit soars after recovery from Note7 debacle

The costly Galaxy Note7 debacle, which led to the recall of about 3 million smartphones because of overheating batteries, seems to be behind Samsung Electronics, with the company forecasting a 48 percent growth in operating profit in the first quarter.Samsung has not had a new flagship smartphone on the shelves ever since it stopped production of the Note7 in October after replacement phones shipped by the company were also found in some cases to have the battery issue. The company now has its hopes for the high-end of the smartphone market pinned on the new Galaxy S8 and S8+, which is expected to reach shelves later this month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here