A stolen cache of files that may belong to the National Security Agency contains genuine hacking tools that not only work, but show a level of sophistication rarely seen, according to security researchers.That includes malware that can infect a device’s firmware and persist, even if the operating system is reinstalled. “It's terrifying because it demonstrates a serious level of expertise and technical ability,” said Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, an assistant professor at New York University’s school of engineering.He’s been among the researchers going over the sample files from the cache, after an anonymous group called the Shadow Brokers posted them online.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems plans to lay off about 7 percent of its global workforce in a restructuring that will see it further focus on hot IT areas such as the internet of things, security, collaboration, next-generation data centers, and the cloud.The move will cost the company around $700 million in redundancy payments to the roughly 5,500 staff who will be out of jobs in the coming months. The layoffs will hit some of Cisco's smaller and more mature business areas where long-term growth prospects are low, the company said."We expect to reinvest substantially all of the cost savings from these actions back into these businesses and will continue to aggressively invest to focus on our areas of future growth," Cisco said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Customers of certain Cisco and Fortinet security gear need to patch exploits made public this week after a purported hack of NSA malware.Both companies have issued fixes to address exploits that were posted online and after they found the exploits represent real threats to some of their products, including versions of Cisco’s popular PIX and ASA firewalls and versions of Fortinet’s signature Fortigate firewalls.Other exploits may affect Watchguard and TOPSEC products, but those companies did not immediately respond to inquiries. When they do this story will be updated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco today confirmed it will lay off about 7% of its workforce – about 5,500 jobs.During its earnings announcement the company said total revenue was $48.7 billion, an increase of 3% over last year. Still the company faces challenges in its core switching and routing business.“Product revenue growth was led by Security at 16%. Collaboration, Wireless and switching product revenue increased by 6%, 5%, and 2%, respectively. Service Provider Video, NGN Routing and Data Center product revenue decreased by 12%, 6%, and 1%, respectively,” Cisco stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco today confirmed it will lay off about 7% of its workforce – about 5,500 jobs.Or as Cisco put it: "Today, we announced a restructuring enabling us to optimize our cost base in lower growth areas of our portfolio and further invest in key priority areas such as security, IoT, collaboration, next generation data center and cloud. We expect to reinvest substantially all of the cost savings from these actions back into these businesses and will continue to aggressively invest to focus on our areas of future growth."During its earnings announcement the company said total revenue actually increased 3% to $48.7 billion for its fiscal year ended July 30. Still, the company faces challenges in its core switching and routing business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Unlike most other sleep masks, this one from Hibermate has integrated speakers, allowing you to drift off in complete darkness while drowning out the world with relaxing music, sounds or white noise, without disturbing those around you. Fully adjustable and made from super-durable materials, the mask features a generous 3.3 feet of high quality Kevlar-coated cable for maximum reliability, durability and tangle free listening. Its speakers are super flat, fully removable, and produce loud, rich sound. The sleep mask with integrated audio averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon (read reviews) and its typical list price of $59.95 has been reduced 33% to $39.97.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the dog days of summer, tech news seems to slow down, as many companies hold off on big announcements until the world returns from their vacations. That means mid-August is the perfect time for Sunil Rajaraman’s brilliant, scathing and terrifyingly familiar satire of life in the trenches of Silicon Valley.By turns hilarious and discomfiting, This is Your Life in Silicon Valley is the tale of one man’s stupifyingly superficial day in the Valley. It will ring true for anyone who toils in the middle levels of the tech industry here in the Bay Area—and beyond.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Industry watcher CB Insights earlier this month showed that venture capital funding of internet of things companies is actually on the decline after years of growth. But we've still seen enough fresh funding in the months since we rounded up 10 Internet of Things companies to watch back in April, to justify doing this follow-up with 7 additional firms, most of them startups.As always, we’ve narrowed down our list -- which is not intended to be all-inclusive -- by restricting it to those vendors that have announced venture funding over the past few months and that have an enterprise focus.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Quiet, portable power for when you're off-the-grid or faced with an unexpected outage. The Goal Zero Yeti 400 Generator produces a ton of juice without the noise and fumes of traditional back-up generators. The Yeti 400 gets charged from either a wall outlet, a vehicle's 12V port, or an optional solar panel (see the "frequently bought together" section on Amazon for the solar package). Once fully charged, it can power everything from an inflatable mattress to a CPAP machine. It can recharge a laptop up to 5 times. A digital camera over 20 times. A smartphone 30 times. A head lamp over 70 times. Outputs include 1.5 amp USB, 12 volt, and 300 watts pure sine AC inverters. The Yeti 400 averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 350 people (read reviews). It's typical list price of $460 has been reduced a generous 19% to $375 on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you're using a version of Linux based on the 4.6 series of the kernel, the software's lead maintainer has a message for you: It's time to upgrade.Greg Kroah-Hartman on Tuesday announced the arrival of Linux 4.6.7 and made it clear that it will be the last in the kernel's 4.6 series. Version 4.7.1 made its debut on Tuesday as well, and that's where the future lies, Kroah-Hartman said."This is the LAST 4.6.y kernel to be released," he wrote in the 4.6.7 announcement. "Please move to 4.7.1 now, you have been warned."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel believes the days of using copper wires for data transfers, both between computers and inside of them, are numbered because optical communications are on the horizon.The chipmaker has started shipping silicon photonics modules, which use light and lasers to speed up data transfers between computers.The silicon photonics components will initially allow for optical communications between servers and data centers, stretching over long distances, said Diane Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group.Over time, Intel will put optical communications at the chip level, Bryant said during a keynote at Intel Developer Forum on Wednesday. That means light will drive communications inside computers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There are many possible ways to build what 5G is supposed to deliver, but only one standard. To avoid putting money and effort into technologies that don’t make the cut, the big mobile players want to get others on their side.AT&T is hoping to collaborate with a set of carriers and equipment vendors that’s so broad and powerful it might be unstoppable. On Wednesday, the company said it’s having preliminary discussions with an A-list lineup of players to align their efforts on defining the future standard.The names include Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei Technologies, Qualcomm Technologies, Intel, Samsung, and LG. AT&T also wants to pull in some big carriers, including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Telstra, and Vodafone. One name notably missing from the list on AT&T ‘s press release was archrival Verizon, which itself is running trials of potential 5G technologies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Not me, at least not in this instance. The self-described doofus here is a contributor to Reddit’s section devoted to networking, who says he acquired his doofus bona fides while troubleshooting his company’s VoIP system. Mr. Doofus explains:
I've been struggling with nasty packet drops occurring on VoIP calls at our data center for a few weeks now and for the life of me I couldn't find the source of the issue. I thought at first that the servers I have running our custom VoIP applications were just overloaded, but the issue would show up on just a single active call. Restarting the VoIP servers didn't help, all of the QoS markings and switch/router prioritization were spot on, the ISP was returning a clean bill of health on the circuit, etc., nothing was making sense. I made a few internal VoIP calls that stayed on the LAN which were crystal clear, and made some calls that also traverse the router to another internal subnet which were also clear, so I now knew the ISP connection was where the trouble was beginning.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We might have to limit the growth of the Internet of Things, according Lancaster University researchers.The reason for the frightening suggestion is that massive data-collection efforts from billions of projected-to-be-commissioned IoT sensors threaten to suck up so much power that carbon emissions will be impossible to tame and global warming will escalate, they say.A kind of “speed limit” should be introduced now, the scientists suggest. By imposing restrictions in the short term, internet traffic won’t have to be curtailed in the future—when things will be really out of hand—the experts propose in their recently published paper (PDF).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Donald Trump’s call for "extreme vetting" of visa applications, as well as the temporary suspension of immigration from certain countries, would raise fees and add delays for anyone seeking a visa, including H-1B visas, immigration experts said.In particular, a plan by Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, to stop issuing visas -- at least temporarily -- "from some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world" may make it difficult for a significant number of people to get visas.Data assembled by Computerworld through a Freedom of Information Act request shows foreign workers come from all corners of the world, including "dangerous and volatile regions." Trump outlined his immigration enforcement plan in a speech Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Let's face it, a data breach at your organization seems inevitable. And the response should be managed "in such a way as to limit damage, increase the confidence of external stakeholders, and reduce recovery time and costs," according to a Harvard Business Review article.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Apple doesn’t talk about its supply chain very often, but the company does love to tout its environmental efforts. On Tuesday, Apple announced that its supplier Lens Technology has committed to using 100 percent renewable energy to manufacture glass for Apple, by the end of 2018.
Lens Technology is expected to use wind power to reach this goal. Currently, it produces glass for Apple at two factories in Changsha, Human province, in southern China. By using clean wind power, the firm will avoid releasing nearly 450,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
“We want to show the world that you can manufacture responsibly and we’re working alongside our suppliers to help them lower their environmental impact in China,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, in a press statement. “We congratulate Lens for their bold step, and hope by sharing the lessons we’ve learned in our transition to renewable energy, our suppliers will continue to access clean power projects, moving China closer to its green manufacturing goals.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Despite their limited driving range, electric vehicles could easily meet the needs of about nine in 10 car owners and bring about a meaningful reduction in the greenhouse-gas emissions causing global climate change, a new study found.
Researchers from MIT and the Santa Fe Institute published their four year-long study in the journal Nature Energy this week. The study amassed an enormous amount of data on millions of trips made by drivers across the U.S. The data included a highly detailed set of second-by-second driving behavior based on GPS data, and another broader, more comprehensive set of national data based on travel surveys.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Phaiser's BHS-730 Bluetooth Sport earbuds are both highly rated and dramatically discounted on Amazon. Averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,100 people (read reviews), the list price of $160 has been reduced a significant 76% to just $39. The BHS-730 uses the highest quality hardware, as well as Bluetooth 4.1 and A2DP stereo transfer protocols to produce bigger bass, lighter-than-air treble, and perfect phone call clarity every time. Bullet-shaped Comply T-400 M memory foam tips provide total isolation from external noise. It's designed to withstand the toughest environments, and the earbuds are made from Aviation Grade Aluminum-Magnesium-Alloy which doesn't add weight. And a LiquipelTM Nano-Coating means it can be dropped into water and will live to see another day. The BHS-730's are magnetized, so they stick to each other and stay securely around your neck when you need to take them out of your ears. Along with the earbuds you get a generous 7 sets of ear tips, a 60-day "no questions asked" return policy, and a lifetime sweatproof warranty as well. See the discounted Phaiser BHS-730 now on Amazon. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Have you ever wanted to order something online, perhaps from a dark web marketplace, but didn’t want to give your real name? Someone claiming to be an attorney addressed the subject during an OPSEC discussion on Reddit’s DarkNetMarkets.A computer science professor of mine once advised the class to never use your real name online. He wasn’t suggesting for us to go all out with fake names, but to continually tweak your ‘real’ name such as changing the spelling, shortening it, using nicknames, adding A through Z as a middle initial, etc. That way you see who is tracking you and who is selling your information. If Joey Z Doe gets snail mail or email after registering to purchase something from an online marketplace, then you know that site is selling your information. If you get too wild with the naming convention, then the transaction cannot go through a traditional credit card payment since it’s too far from a match.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here