Dealing with NIST’s about-face on password complexity

NIST's new guidelines for password complexity have reversed many of rules on what defines a good password

Dealing with NIST’s about-face on password complexity

In the last few years, we've been seeing some significant changes in the suggestions that security experts are making for password security. While previous guidance increasingly pushed complexity in terms of password length, the mix of characters used, controls over password reuse, and forced periodic changes, specialists have been questioning whether making passwords complex wasn't actually working against security concerns rather than promoting them.Security specialists have also argued that forcing complexity down users' throats has led to them writing passwords down or forgetting them and having to get them reset. They argued that replacing a password character with a digit or an uppercase character might make a password look complicated, but does not actually make it any less vulnerable to compromise. In fact, when users are forced to include a variety of characters in their passwords, they generally do so in very predictable ways. Instead of “password”, they might use “Passw0rd” or even “P4ssw0rd!”, but the variations don't make the passwords significantly less guessable. People are just not very good at generating anything that's truly random.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AT&T’s purchase of Vyatta Software bolsters its virtualization push

Last week, AT&T agreed to buy Vyatta Software’s network operating system, distributed services platform, software still under development, existing software licenses, and related intellectual property and other assets—including the vRouter product line. It will also acqui-hire some Brocade workers, mostly in California and the U.K.All about virtualization The point, it seems, is to further boost AT&T’s industry-leading virtualization efforts, particularly in the and areas of software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ethereum: The “Next New Internet?”

According to this article, we now have a new Internet being developed: Ethereum (thanks to Chase Mitchell, one of my regular readers, for pointing this new development out). In fact, it’s called “web 3.0,” in a bid to become “The Next New Internet.” Given I tend to be a little concerned about the future of the Internet, I thought I’d look into this new one a bit to discover what it’s all about… Pardon the length of the ensuing investigation.

To begin to understand Ethereum, you have to understand block chainsbecause Ethereum is a type of block chain. To understand block chains, you must begin with the hash. A has is a simple concept that is actually quite difficult to implement in a useful way: a hash takes any a string of numbers of any size and returns a fixed length number, or hash, that (more or less) uniquely represents the original string. The simple to implement part is this—one rather naive hash is it simply add the numbers in a set of numbers until you reach a single digit, calling the result the hash. For instance…

23523
2 + 3 + 5 + 2 + 3 ==  Continue reading

Headcount: The Latest in Hirings, Firings And Retirings — June 5, 2017

BT cuts 4,000 jobs; CenturyLink's new CEO plan; Intel's new DCG leader.

NEC/Netcracker’s Controller Gives a View Over Other Controllers

It controls others’ IP and optical SDN controllers.

Oracle Adds Machine Learning, AI to Cloud Security Services

Adds Slack to list of CASB Cloud Service-supported applications.

OpenStack, CORD Remain Central to AT&T Virtualization Plans

CORD is considered a key part of the operator's 5G plans.

Research: Mary Meeker’s 2017 internet trends report

Anyone working in IT Infrastructure need to have some awareness of what is happening on the Internet. This is the fastest, densest, most compressive information you can get in 30 minutes. You can see into the future if you look hard enough, this is a major source.     Link: 2017 Internet Trends — Kleiner […]

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Network Virtualization Makes it Easier to Enforce Security Policy

Defining a set of security and compliance policies is a key first step. But enforcing security policy is not as easy.

SD-WAN Monitoring Won’t Become an Independent Segment, Analyst Says

The technology will either be integrated into the product itself or will be complementary.

Worth Reading: Tainted Leaks

This report describes an extensive Russia-linked phishing and disinformation campaign. It provides evidence of how documents stolen from a prominent journalist and critic of Russia was tampered with and then “leaked” to achieve specific propaganda aims. We name this technique “tainted leaks.” The report illustrates how the twin strategies of phishing and tainted leaks are sometimes used in combination to infiltrate civil society targets, and to seed mistrust and disinformation. It also illustrates how domestic considerations, specifically concerns about regime security, can motivate espionage operations, particularly those targeting civil society. —Citizen Lab

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15% off Battery Tender 12 Volt 1.25 Amp Plus Battery Charger and Maintainer – Deal Alert

Ideal for automobiles, ATVs, boats, motorcycles, lawn mowers and jetskis, the Tender will offset the draw electronics have on your battery, even when it’s off. The Battery Tender Plus High Efficiency model operates using less electricity while producing the same amount of output, and switches from charge to float as needed to keep your battery strong all the time. The very popular Battery Tender Plus typically lists for $49.99 but is currently discounted 15% to $42.49. If dad has a recreational vehicle, this is a good consideration for Father's Day as well. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lack of Experience May Plague IoT Security Startups

Eighty-five percent of businesses plan to implement IoT by 2019.

Using CGNAT to Navigate the Path from IPv4 to IPv6

A new A10 Networks white paper provides an overview of the various components required for a complete CGNAT and IPv6 migration solution that encompasses the entire lifecycle of the transition to IPv6.

Save money and make your website better—by killing JavaScript

Bandwidth, storage space and computing power (CPU/RAM/etc.) on your web servers represent a distinct and noteworthy cost for any company with a major online presence.As traffic to a company’s website increases, most opt to throw money at the problem. More servers. Caching systems. More bandwidth. But these are Band-Aids—temporary solutions to the problem, solutions that will only suffice for so long before yet another round of "throw money at the problem" is required to keep up with ever-growing web traffic. The real problem is simple: Your web pages are just plain too big.Way too big. Enormously large. The average website is 2.9 MB in size (as of May 15, 2017). And that's just the average—an average that is growing. Fast.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Save money and make your website better—by killing JavaScript

Bandwidth, storage space and computing power (CPU/RAM/etc.) on your web servers represent a distinct and noteworthy cost for any company with a major online presence.As traffic to a company’s website increases, most opt to throw money at the problem. More servers. Caching systems. More bandwidth. But these are Band-Aids—temporary solutions to the problem, solutions that will only suffice for so long before yet another round of "throw money at the problem" is required to keep up with ever-growing web traffic. The real problem is simple: Your web pages are just plain too big.Way too big. Enormously large. The average website is 2.9 MB in size (as of May 15, 2017). And that's just the average—an average that is growing. Fast.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers leak 8 unaired episodes of ABC’s Steve Harvey’s Funderdome TV series

They’re back…The Dark Overlord, the hacking group which released 10 of 13 new Orange Is the New Black episodes in late April after Netflix refused to pay a ransom, has now leaked nearly the entire first season of ABC’s upcoming Steve Harvey’s Funderdome.Back in April, TDO warned ABC, National Geographic, Fox and IFC that the group wasn’t playing games anymore. Then on June 2, TDO tweeted, “American Broadcasting Company may be up next, ladies and gentlemen.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hackers leak 8 unaired episodes of ABC’s Steve Harvey’s Funderdome TV series

They’re back…The Dark Overlord, the hacking group which released 10 of 13 new Orange Is the New Black episodes in late April after Netflix refused to pay a ransom, has now leaked nearly the entire first season of ABC’s upcoming Steve Harvey’s Funderdome.Back in April, TDO warned ABC, National Geographic, Fox and IFC that the group wasn’t playing games anymore. Then on June 2, TDO tweeted, “American Broadcasting Company may be up next, ladies and gentlemen.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

27% off TaoTronics Bluetooth Sweatproof Headphones with Built in Mic – Deal Alert

These headphones feature sweatproof construction, fast and reliable Bluetooth 4.1, and a generous 7 hours of play time on a charge. A built-in mic with noise concellation allows for taking crystal clear calls on the run. TaoTronics sports headphones average 4.2 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 4,800 people (read reviews), and its typical list price of $29.99 has been reduced right now 27% to $21.99. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here