How to protect your network from ransomware attacks

Ransomware attacks are becoming more rampant now that criminals have learned they are an effective way to make money in a short amount of time. Attackers do not even need any programming skills to launch an attack because they can obtain code that is shared among the many hacker communities. There are even services that will collect the ransom via Bitcoin on behalf of the attackers and just require them to pay a commission. This all makes it more difficult for the authorities to identify an attacker.+ Also on Network World: Network vulnerability analysis 101: Free online training + Many small and medium-size businesses pay ransoms because they do not backup their data and do not have any other options available to recover their data. They sometimes face the decision of either paying the ransom or being forced out of business. Also, hospitals that do not back up all their critical patient data and are not able to retrieve it in a timely manner will immediately pay the ransom because it is critical to access records of patients who require immediate care. It can become a life-or-death situation for someone in intensive care.To read this article in full Continue reading

How to protect your network from ransomware attacks

Ransomware attacks are becoming more rampant now that criminals have learned they are an effective way to make money in a short amount of time. Attackers do not even need any programming skills to launch an attack because they can obtain code that is shared among the many hacker communities. There are even services that will collect the ransom via Bitcoin on behalf of the attackers and just require them to pay a commission. This all makes it more difficult for the authorities to identify an attacker.+ Also on Network World: Network vulnerability analysis 101: Free online training + Many small and medium-size businesses pay ransoms because they do not backup their data and do not have any other options available to recover their data. They sometimes face the decision of either paying the ransom or being forced out of business. Also, hospitals that do not back up all their critical patient data and are not able to retrieve it in a timely manner will immediately pay the ransom because it is critical to access records of patients who require immediate care. It can become a life-or-death situation for someone in intensive care.To read this article in full Continue reading

65% off Etekcity 2 Pack Portable Collapsible LED Camping Lantern – Deal Alert

The Etekcity collapsible LED Lantern provides up to 12 hours of bright omnidirectional lighting for your surroundings. It’s lighter, brighter, and more portable than most flashlights while still featuring the rugged durability to withstand the outdoors. The military-grade exterior is water resistant for more practical use in a high range of environments. Save time, energy, and luggage weight with its simple design and practicality. The fold-out collapsible handles make the lantern portable and easy to hang. Keep it on a table or hanging on a branch to illuminate your environment, and the lantern will take care of the rest. Right now a 2-pack of lanterns, with batteries included, is discounted 65% to just $13.99. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Coder: Getting Started and Finding Your Path

Having decided it’s time to learn how to code, and having chosen the right language to use, the next step is to find some resources and start programming that masterpiece. But what’s the best way to learn that language?

On the Solarwinds Thwack Geek Speak blog I spoke about how I started learning to code, and look at some of the different resources out there to kickstart your programming mastery. Please do take a trip to Thwack and check out my post, “New Coder: Getting Started and Finding Your Path“.

Please see my Disclosures page for more information about my role as a Solarwinds Ambassador.

If you liked this post, please do click through to the source at New Coder: Getting Started and Finding Your Path and give me a share/like. Thank you!

Hiding the information from network core

Hiding the information from network core is important.   But why hiding the information is important ? What type of information we are trying to hide ? Why from network core only ? How we can hide the information from network core ?   Let’s start, why information hiding is important.   One of the […]

The post Hiding the information from network core appeared first on Cisco Network Design and Architecture | CCDE Bootcamp | orhanergun.net.

How log rotation works with logrotate

Log rotation on Linux systems is more complicated than you might expect. Which log files are rotated, when and how often, whether or not the rotated log files are compressed, and how many instances of the log files are retained all depend on settings in configuration files.Rotating log files is important for several reasons. First, you probably don't want older log files eating up too much of your disk space. Second, when you need to analyze log data, you probably don't want those log files to be extremely large and cumbersome. And last, organizing log files by date probably makes spotting and analyzing changes quite a bit easier (e.g., comparing last week's log data to this week's).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Upgrade Network Device Software with Ansible Playbook

One of the engineers going through my Ansible for Networking Engineers online course sent me this question:

In the Introduction section, you mention a use case of upgrading software. Do you have an example playbook?

Unfortunately, I don’t. Upgrading software is one of those things that’s almost impossible to simulate in a virtual lab.

NAT64check proves popular

We’ve already mentioned this a few times this year, but we’ve just published an more in-depth article about NAT64check over on the RIPE Labs and APNIC websites.

NAT64check is a tool developed by the Internet Society, Go6, SJM Steffann and Simply Understand that allows you to enter the URL of a particular website, and then run tests over IPv4, IPv6 and NAT64 in order to check whether the website is actually reachable in each case, whether identical web pages are returned, and whether all the resources such as images, stylesheets and scripts load correctly. The rationale behind NAT64check is also explained, how it works, and how you can use it.

If you just want to take a look at the tool, then please go to either https://nat64check.go6lab.si/ or https://nat64check.ipv6-lab.net/, type the URL you wish to check into the box at the top of the page, and the result should be returned within a few seconds. It’s simple and easy, and will help you identify what needs to be done to make your website accessible with IPv6.

Deploy360 also want to help you deploy IPv6, so please take a look at our Start Here page to learn more.

The post Continue reading

Introducing Host Pack — host software essentials for fabric-wide connectivity + visibility

From day one, Cumulus Networks has always believed in making data center networking easier and better. To us, that never stopped at just an operating system. Our goal has always been to unify the entire stack on Linux and bring web-scale principles to all aspects of the data center networking process — from network to operations; from host to switch. This was one of the many key drivers behind our introduction of NetQ, a fabric validation system designed to make network operator’s lives easier by ensuring the network is behaving as intended. Today, we launch the next critical step in web-scale networking — Cumulus Host Pack.

Host Pack offers software essentials that bring the host into the network. It optimizes visibility and connectivity into Cumulus Linux network fabric from end to end. Your entire stack can now be unified with the same language and the same tooling using the Linux networking model. Host Pack ensures real-time reliability and uptime to the container by leveraging NetQ to enhance visibility of the host. In addition to visibility, Host Pack enhances network scalability and connectivity by enabling the host to be part of the layer 3 network, while completely supporting popular layer 2 Continue reading

VxLAN on the CSR1Kv

By now, VxLAN is becoming the standard way of tunneling in the Datacenter.
Using VxLAN, i will show how to use the CSR1Kv to extend your Datacenter L2 reach between sites as well.

First off, what is VxLAN?
It stands for Virtual Extensible LAN. Basically you have a way of decoupling your vlan’s into a new scheme.

You basically map your VLAN into a VNI (Virtual Network Identifier), which in essence makes your VLAN numbering scheme locally significant.

Also, since the numbering for VNI’s is a 24 bit identifier, you have alot more flexibility than just the regular 4096 definable VLAN’s. (12 Bits .1q tags)

Each endpoint that does the encapsulation/decapsulation is called a VTEP (VxLAN Tunnel EndPoint). In our example this would be CSR3 and CSR5.

After the VxLAN header, the packet is further encapsulated into a UDP packet and forwarded across the network. This is a great solution as it doesnt impose any technical restrictions on the core of the network. Only the VTEPs needs to understand VxLAN (and probably have hardware acceleration for it as well).

Since we wont be using BGP EVPN, we will rely solely on multicasting in the network to establish who is the Continue reading

Is the Network Part of Your Data Backup Strategy?

IDG Contributor Network: The future of disaster recovery lies in a future without the public internet

What is it that’s driving enterprises to the cloud?That’s a long list: Web-based storage, stability, easier remote access and reductions in maintenance and associated costs are a few of the most frequently cited reasons. But, the number one application on organizations’ minds when they’re mapping out cloud migration strategies is disaster recovery (DR). Consequently, disaster recovery has become a primary source of value for enterprises who are not only pursuing cloud adoption, but who are also building out hybrid- or multi-cloud strategies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hyperconvergence Market In Flux

Docker brings containers to mainframes

Docker announced the first major update to its flagship Docker Enterprise Edition 17.06, with a clear eye to on-premises data centers and DevOps. Docker rolled out the rebranded Docker EE in March, based on what was previously known as the Docker Commercially Supported and Docker Datacenter products. With that launch, Docker added the ability to port legacy apps to containers without having to modify the code.The major new feature of this update — which seems to borrow from Microsoft’s year/month naming convention for Windows 10 updates — is support for IBM z Systems mainframes running Linux. Now containerized apps can be run on a mainframe, with all of the scale and uptime reliability it brings, and they run with no modifications necessary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker brings containers to mainframes

Docker announced the first major update to its flagship Docker Enterprise Edition 17.06, with a clear eye to on-premises data centers and DevOps. Docker rolled out the rebranded Docker EE in March, based on what was previously known as the Docker Commercially Supported and Docker Datacenter products. With that launch, Docker added the ability to port legacy apps to containers without having to modify the code.The major new feature of this update — which seems to borrow from Microsoft’s year/month naming convention for Windows 10 updates — is support for IBM z Systems mainframes running Linux. Now containerized apps can be run on a mainframe, with all of the scale and uptime reliability it brings, and they run with no modifications necessary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker brings containers to mainframes

Docker announced the first major update to its flagship Docker Enterprise Edition 17.06, with a clear eye to on-premises data centers and DevOps. Docker rolled out the rebranded Docker EE in March, based on what was previously known as the Docker Commercially Supported and Docker Datacenter products. With that launch, Docker added the ability to port legacy apps to containers without having to modify the code.The major new feature of this update — which seems to borrow from Microsoft’s year/month naming convention for Windows 10 updates — is support for IBM z Systems mainframes running Linux. Now containerized apps can be run on a mainframe, with all of the scale and uptime reliability it brings, and they run with no modifications necessary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 Questions to Ask Your SD-WAN Vendor

Worth Reading: Transitioning to a single root

APNIC is in the process of transitioning from the current Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) trust anchor arrangement to a new configuration which has been agreed among the RIRs, and announced by the NRO. In this new configuration, each RIR will publish an “all resources” global trust anchor, under which its own regional resources (IP addresses and ASNs) will be certified. —Tom Harrison @ APNIC

The post Worth Reading: Transitioning to a single root appeared first on rule 11 reader.

IoT is about to tell you when your food is spoiled

“It’s not getting any younger.”In my house, that’s code for either eating or trashing something in the refrigerator that’s flirting with its “best-by” date — or just no longer looks as appetizing as it once did.Sensors are the core of the Internet of Things But what if Internet of Things (IoT) sensor technology could tell you whether that lasagna was still safe for dinner or whether it’s time to toss the hair-coloring product slowly drying out in the back of your medicine cabinet? That promise is what’s on the menu at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington, D.C., this week. So, what does the world’s largest scientific society, with more than 157,000 members, have to do with IoT? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Versa Cinches Deal with Verizon for Software-Defined Branch

Versa sees uptick now that Viptela belongs to Cisco.