Microsoft shelves all February security updates

Microsoft today took the unprecedented step of postponing an entire month's slate of security updates for Windows and its other products just hours before the patches were to begin rolling out to customers."We discovered a last-minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today," Microsoft said in a post to the MSRC (Microsoft Security Research Center) blog. "After considering all options, we made the decision to delay this month's updates."Today was set as Patch Tuesday, the monthly release of security fixes from Microsoft. Normally, Microsoft issues the updates around 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). Although Microsoft did not time stamp its blog post, the SAN Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) pointed out the delay at 8:22 a.m. PT (11:22 ET).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft shelves all February security updates

Microsoft today took the unprecedented step of postponing an entire month's slate of security updates for Windows and its other products just hours before the patches were to begin rolling out to customers."We discovered a last-minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today," Microsoft said in a post to the MSRC (Microsoft Security Research Center) blog. "After considering all options, we made the decision to delay this month's updates."Today was set as Patch Tuesday, the monthly release of security fixes from Microsoft. Normally, Microsoft issues the updates around 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). Although Microsoft did not time stamp its blog post, the SAN Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) pointed out the delay at 8:22 a.m. PT (11:22 ET).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Secrets of successful CISOs [Infographic]

A new report from IANS Research shines a light on the current state of CISOs and their role in building in influence in leadership across an organization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Response: Network Icons – ‘net work

These are great icons for network diagrams from Russ White. Much more useful for all diagrams purposes than most other icons.

I’ve developed this set of vendor neutral network icons for drawing diagrams in presentations, books, and the like. I’m placing them here in the public domain in four different formats

Network Icons – ‘net work : http://rule11.us/net-icons/

Personally, I use simple shapes and colours for my diagrams for simplicity but I suspect these will appeal to people who are Visio-centric in their workflow.

The post Response: Network Icons – ‘net work appeared first on EtherealMind.

Neela Jacques Departs OpenDaylight for Bain Capital

His gig at Bain Capital is only short-term.

Juniper facing fatal clock flaw that impacts Cisco routers, switches

The fatal clock timing flaw that causes a variety switches, routers and security appliances to crash and die after about 18 months of service is apparently part of some Juniper products.Cisco was the first vendor to post a notice about mortal clock fail earlier this month saying the notice includes some of the company’s most widely deployed products, such as certain models of its Series 4000 Integrated Services Routers, Nexus 9000 Series switches, ASA security devices and Meraki Cloud Managed Switches. Clock components are critical to the synchronization of multiple levels of a given device.+More on Network World: Cisco: Faulty clock part could cause failure in some Nexus switches, ISR routers, ASA security appliances+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Juniper facing fatal clock flaw that impacts Cisco routers, switches

The fatal clock timing flaw that causes a variety switches, routers and security appliances to crash and die after about 18 months of service is apparently part of some Juniper products.Cisco was the first vendor to post a notice about mortal clock fail earlier this month saying the notice includes some of the company’s most widely deployed products, such as certain models of its Series 4000 Integrated Services Routers, Nexus 9000 Series switches, ASA security devices and Meraki Cloud Managed Switches. Clock components are critical to the synchronization of multiple levels of a given device.+More on Network World: Cisco: Faulty clock part could cause failure in some Nexus switches, ISR routers, ASA security appliances+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: IBM should buy…

We spend a lot of time contemplating what technologies will be deployed at the heart of servers, storage, and networks and thereby form the foundation of the next successive generations of platforms in the datacenter for running applications old and new. While technology is inherently interesting, we are cognizant of the fact that the companies producing technology need global reach and a certain critical mass. —The Next Platform

The post Worth Reading: IBM should buy… appeared first on 'net work.

ADVA Hypervisor Brings SDN to Legacy Optical Networks

The hypervisor works with open source and commercial SDN controllers

IDG Contributor Network: Gigabit LTE, a 5G stopgap, is now live

Groundbreaking peak download speeds of 930 Mbps were obtained last week at the operational launch of Telstra’s Gigabit LTE network. Peak upload speeds of 127 Mbps were obtained at the same event.The ultra-fast service has now rolled out in major Australian Central Business Districts (CBDs), Qualcomm says in a blog post. That includes the CBDs of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, according to Android Central.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Gigabit LTE, a 5G stopgap, is now live

Groundbreaking peak download speeds of 930 Mbps were obtained last week at the operational launch of Telstra’s Gigabit LTE network. Peak upload speeds of 127 Mbps were obtained at the same event.The ultra-fast service has now rolled out in major Australian Central Business Districts (CBDs), Qualcomm says in a blog post. That includes the CBDs of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, according to Android Central.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon releases Chime, a new cloud-based UCaaS

Amazon today announced Chime, a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) offering hosted in Amazon Web Service’s cloud.Amazon is entering a crowded market of UC solutions, some of which are already cloud-based and others that run on customer premises. Nevertheless, analysts who track Amazon say the company has an opportunity here.Chime uses a mobile or desktop application that is available across iOS, Android and Windows environments. It uses noise-cancelling wideband audio, which Amazon says allows it to deliver high quality audio and video experiences. When a meeting starts, Chime calls all the participants, who can join by clicking a button; there is no PIN required. Chime shows a visual roster of all attendees, which Amazon says eliminates the “who just joined” questions that can occur on conference calls. Any user has the ability to mute a noisy participant. Advanced editions of Chime allow IT to centrally manage users and settings, including integrating it with existing corporate directories.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Christian Slater wants you to check your printer security

In IT circles, actor Christian Slater is known for the very popular USA Network show "Mr. Robot", so fans of that show might like watching him in this short film, sponsored/created by HP. The film, titled "The Wolf", showcases the security vulnerabilities found at companies through the connected office printer.It’s certainly a clever way to get people to think about printer security, especially as more of them become connected not only to the office network, but the Internet. Plus, Slater is really good here.Enjoy! To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Christian Slater wants you to check your printer security

In IT circles, actor Christian Slater is known for the very popular USA Network show "Mr. Robot", so fans of that show might like watching him in this short film, sponsored/created by HP. The film, titled "The Wolf", showcases the security vulnerabilities found at companies through the connected office printer.It’s certainly a clever way to get people to think about printer security, especially as more of them become connected not only to the office network, but the Internet. Plus, Slater is really good here.Enjoy! To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft says tech companies need to protect and not to help attack customers

No Microsoft patches today, but have you looked at your Office 365 Secure Score? It is one step Microsoft has taken to help customer mitigate risks. And at RSA, the company called on tech companies to be a “neutral Digital Switzerland” and to be committed to “100 percent defense and zero percent offense.”No patches on February Patch TuesdayMicrosoft opted not to release patches on Valentine’s Day, which should have been Patch Tuesday.The “delay” was announced by MSRC: Our top priority is to provide the best possible experience for customers in maintaining and protecting their systems. This month, we discovered a last minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft says tech companies need to protect and not to help attack customers

No Microsoft patches today, but have you looked at your Office 365 Secure Score? It is one step Microsoft has taken to help customer mitigate risks. And at RSA, the company called on tech companies to be a “neutral Digital Switzerland” and to be committed to “100 percent defense and zero percent offense.”No patches on February Patch TuesdayMicrosoft opted not to release patches on Valentine’s Day, which should have been Patch Tuesday.The “delay” was announced by MSRC: Our top priority is to provide the best possible experience for customers in maintaining and protecting their systems. This month, we discovered a last minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Toshiba’s in chaos, but not quitting PCs — yet

Toshiba is more than a laptop maker, but the vast Japanese conglomerate shrunk on Tuesday under a wave of bad news.In one day, the company lost its chairman, said it will stop building nuclear power plants, wrote off about US$6.2 billion relating to that business, and postponed its fourth-quarter earnings report for a month.Its financial problems were no secret: Two weeks ago, it revealed plans to sell stakes in its memory chip and SSD businesses to cover the nuclear write-offs.Last June, it sold an 80 percent stake in its domestic appliances business, Toshiba Lifestyle, for $450 million. Before that sale, it had been planning to develop a series of smart appliances that could link up with its TVs and PCs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On the ‘net: I2RS Architecture

The last post on the topic of interface to the routing system (I2RS) discussed use cases; this one will provide an overview of the I2RS architecture, and then consider some challenges in the neighborhood of I2RS. —ECI

The post On the ‘net: I2RS Architecture appeared first on 'net work.

Comcast Works on Virtualizing the Cable Modem Termination System

A virtual CMTS would affect the hardware businesses of some big vendors.

Intel ships latest Itanium chip called Kittson, but grim future looms

Intel's Itanium chip is hanging by a thread, and after more than three years, the company is now shipping the next and possibly final version of the processor, which is code-named Kittson.The chip is now shipping to test customers, and volume shipments will commence later this year, a company spokesman said.Itanium chips have been used in mainframes and mission-critical servers. Hewlett Packard Enterprise will ship servers with Kittson later this year.Itanium has been dying a slow and painful death, and Kittson will likely be the end of the line. Support for the chip has been dwindling, and software development has stalled.Intel may be happy to see Itanium sink as it looks to drop irrelevant products in its pursuit of profitable markets. Intel has been openly lobbying customers to switch from Itanium to x86-based Xeon chips, which commands a server chip market share of more than 90 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here