Net Neutrality Round Table
Debates regarding net neutrality regulation in the United States have been carried out for over a decade. Rulemakings by the FCC have been passed numerous times, won and lost in court, and been repealed, resulting in years of political back and forth. Now, net neutrality is being argued for and against on Capitol Hill and its regulatory future is unclear.
To address this political limbo, the Internet Society convened experts from the technical community, public interest groups, and academia to discuss how we can create a permanent solution for net neutrality that protect the interests of Internet users while fostering an environment that encourages investment and innovation. During this half-day event, participants began a conversation to define net neutrality, what conduct it should cover, how compliance could be assured, and how to balance consumer and private sector interests.
The discussion was moderated by Larry Stickling, Executive Director of the Collaborative Governance Project at the Internet Society, and included a balanced group of politically left- and right-leaning public interest groups, private sector organizations, and academics. The event was under Chatham House Rule and did not allow tweeting during the meeting in order to encourage participants to freely and respectfully voice their Continue reading
The Week in Internet News: X-Ray I
AI to get X-ray vision: Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are getting close to creating AI that can see through walls, Geek.com reported. The research team is using AI to analyze radio signals bouncing off human bodies. The result is a neural network-generated stick figure that moves like the targeted person does.
Dr. AI will see you now: Perhaps more useful that looking through walls, some AI technologies are now being used to identify tuberculosis, pneumonia, upper respiratory infection, and bronchitis based on how a cough sounds, said AdWeek. Several companies are exploring other ways to use AI in healthcare settings.
Encryption wars, part 207: Apple has moved to close a security hole that law enforcement agencies used to defeat encryption on iPhones, according to many news reports, including one in the New York Times. The Apple move set off a new round of debate about encrypted devices and law enforcement access, the Washington Post noted.
It appears that at least one company that builds iPhone cracking tools already has a workaround, however, Motherboard reported.
Meanwhile, an FBI official suggested that each encrypted device that law enforcement agencies cannot crack represents a victim without justice, BusinessInsider. Continue reading
10 Key Interview Questions for Network Administrators
Getting ready for your first network admin interview? Here are technical questions to expect, along with the answers.
Fully Automated Warehouse and Future of Network Operations
Its all automated
Vertical Integration Musings
One of my readers asked me a question that came up in his business strategy class:
Why did routers and switches end up being vertically integrated (the same person makes the hardware and the software)? Why didn't they go down the same horizontal path as compute (with Intel making chips, OEMs making systems and Microsoft providing the OS)? Why did this resemble the pre-Intel model of IBM, DEC, Sun…?
Simple answer: because nobody was interested in disaggregating them.
Read more ...SEE 7: Connectivity, Routing Security & IoT
The 7th RIPE South-East Europe (SEE 7) meeting is being held on 18-19 June 2018 in Timisoara, Romania, and is focusing on several of the subjects of interest to the Internet Society. It’s also being chaired by our colleague Jan Žorž, whilst I’ll be talking about IoT Security and the OTA IoT Trust Framework.
In Monday, there are talks on BGP monitoring from Paolo Lucente (pmacct), and from Krzysztof Grzegorz Szarkowicz (Juniper Networks) on improvements to routing protocols to suit the centralised data centre-based architectures that are becoming more prevalent on the Internet, and which are the subject of an Internet Draft. Zoran Perovic (SOX) will also talk about paradigm shifts in the implementation of Internet Exchange Points.
On Tuesday, there will be a discussion led by Goran Slavic (SOX) on implementing MANRS in an IXP, which is very relevant to the current MANRS initiative which is increasingly being adopted by IXPs. Our colleague Jan will then be presenting about RIPE-690 which provides recommendations for IPv6 address prefix assignments for end-users. Preceding this, will be an update on IPv6 adoption in the SEE region from Massimiliano Stucchi (RIPE NCC).
Some other highlights are the talk on Quad9DNS by Nishal Goburdhan (PCH) that’s supporting Continue reading
Don’t Rely on Long Support Lifecycles
I hate long support lifecycles for hardware and software. Yes, you should be able to buy a new iPhone or switch and use it for 3+ years. But some people want 10+yrs of support, and wail and moan when vendors end support. This is wrong. It drives up costs & complexity, and makes your systems less robust, not more. It’s a false sense of security. Plan to buy smaller & cheaper, and upgrade frequently.
Why Vendors Don’t Like Them
Vendors don’t want to do long support lifecycles. They will do them, because people pay for it, but there comes a point where they put a line in the sand. “Sorry, that system is now EoL.”
Why?
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Costs: Testing software and hardware combinations is hard work. Add many years of released hardware & software combinations, and it gets much harder. More racks of gear & more permutations == more costs.
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Complexity: It’s hard enough to test against a small set. But now you have to deal with obscure systems acquired from a third party 7 years ago? Complexity == time and money.
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Motivation: Hands up who wants to work on legacy systems? Exactly. It’s hard to motivate engineers to support Continue reading
Ubuntu image for EVE-NG – Python for network engineers
Lately I’ve started working more and more with EVE-NG to test various network scenarios, automation and in general to try and learn something everyday. If you’re familiar with EVE-NG, you know where to find various Linux images which you can download and install . Very helpful indeed, however all of them are coming without any … Continue reading Ubuntu image for EVE-NG – Python for network engineersSalt SSH Getting Started
Install, configure and use Salt in SSH mode.Salt SSH Getting Started
Salt SSH allows you to execute commands and apply state to minions without having to install a salt-minion. The only requirement is for the minion to have python installed unless using the -r option to execute raw commands. For reference the following software will be used in this post. ...Cisco Live Roundup: DevNet Milestones, DNA Center As A Platform, All-In On Intent
News highlights from Cisco Live US 2018 include a DevNet milestone, DNA Center being opened for developers, and Cisco's commitment to intent-based networking.How Hans Vestberg Will Change Verizon’s Future
By elevating Vestberg to CEO, Verizon is signaling how important the network and the underlying technology is to the future of the operator’s business.
Weekend Reads 061518: A 51% attack materializes
We have also discovered a new stage 3 module that injects malicious content into web traffic as it passes through a network device. At the time of our initial posting, we did not have all of the information regarding the suspected stage 3 modules. The new module allows the actor to deliver exploits to endpoints via a man-in-the-middle capability (e.g. they can intercept network traffic and inject malicious code into it without the user’s knowledge). With this new finding, we can confirm that the threat goes beyond what the actor could do on the network device itself, and extends the threat into the networks that a compromised network Continue reading