Archive

Category Archives for "Networking"

New products of the week 1.23.17

New products of the weekImage by SonusOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Backblaze Business GroupsImage by BackblazeTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New products of the week 1.23.17

New products of the weekImage by SonusOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Backblaze Business GroupsImage by BackblazeTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

REVIEW: Home security cameras fall short on security

How secure are IP-based “security cameras”? Based on our review of seven home security cameras, the answer is: Not very. While these devices may get high marks for features and ease of use, security is another story. Our tests turned up results like these: One camera allows plaintext logins as the root user, with no password. That’s horrifying in this day and age. The same camera uses an outdated version of SSL that allows data leakage. A firmware update fixes both issues, but the upgrade is optional and many users skip it. Another camera leaks its private API structure in plaintext even though it uses TLS to encrypt traffic. This potentially allows attackers to change video streams and possibly other device parameters. Yet another camera can run a hacked firmware image that disables some services and enables others. Two more cameras present SSL certificates that not only claim to be a different host, but also come from a certificate authority with a record of issuing bogus credentials. It’s not all bad news. One camera, the CAN100USWT from Canary Connect, stood head and shoulders over the field in baking security into its product design. The Canary camera runs no services Continue reading

6 steps to secure a home security camera

No device is 100 percent immune from vulnerabilities, but there are some simple, common-sense steps you can take to protect IP-based cameras:1. Don’t put cameras on the public internet. Given the wide availability of free scanning and vulnerability detection tools, it makes sense to avoid using routable IP addresses for IP cameras if at all possible. The recent DDoS attacks on core DNS infrastructure used botnets of public cameras, and all the attackers had to do was find the cameras.Instead, put cameras behind a firewall and run network address translation (NAT). While NAT is not itself a security mechanism, and has a long and well-deserved history of derision for breaking the Internet’s core principle of end-to-end connectivity, it will at least offer some protection from probes by scanning tools.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

35 – East-West Endpoint localization with LISP IGP Assist

East-West Communication Intra and Inter-sites

For the following scenario, subnets are stretched across multiple locations using a Layer 2 DCI solution. There are several use cases that require LAN extension between multiple sites, such as Live migration, Health-check probing for HA cluster (heartbeat), Operational Cost containment such as migration of Mainframes, etc.  It is assumed that due to long distances between sites, the network services are duplicated and active on each of the sites. This option allows the use of local network services such as default gateways, load balancer’s and security engines distributed across each location, helps reduce server to server communication latency (East-West work flows).

Traditionally, an IP address uses a unique identifier assigned to a specific network entity such as physical system, virtual machine or firewall, default gateway, etc. The routed WAN uses the identifier to also determine the network entity’s location in the IP subnet. When a Virtual Machine migrates from one data center to another, the traditional IP address schema retains its original unique identifier and location, although the physical location has actually changed. As a result, the extended VLAN must share the same subnet so that the TCP/IP parameters of the VM remain the same from site Continue reading

LSA issue @ January 23, 2017 at 10:41AM

It is always tempting and interesting to see how big guys do their networks. We saw some pieces from Google, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn and now Twitter comes. Big 5 is all set! Last week engineering force at Twitter released an article titled ""The Infrastructure Behind Twitter: Scale"" [1]. The article starts off with networking field

Samsung blames batteries from two makers for Note7 explosions

Samsung Electronics on Monday blamed batteries supplied by two manufacturers for the overheating and even explosions of some Galaxy Note7 phones, as it tried to provide a long due explanation for the issues surrounding the smartphone.The announcement by the company, a day ahead of it reporting its fourth quarter results, had experts from TUV Rheinland, Exponent and UL stating that internal manufacturing and design defects of the batteries, including missing insulating tape in some cases, and not the design of the phones were responsible for the battery issues.The negative electrode windings in the battery of an unnamed “manufacturer A,” who first supplied the batteries for the Note7 phones, were found in some cases to be damaged and bent over because the cell pouch did not provide enough volume to accommodate the battery assembly, said Kevin White, Exponent’s principal scientist, at a press conference that was webcast.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung blames batteries from two makers for Note7 smartphone explosions

Samsung Electronics on Monday blamed batteries supplied by two manufacturers for the overheating and even explosions of some Galaxy Note7 phones, as it tried to provide a long due explanation for the issues surrounding the smartphone.The announcement by the company, a day ahead of it reporting its fourth quarter results, had experts from TUV Rheinland, Exponent and UL stating that internal manufacturing and design defects of the batteries, including missing insulating tape in some cases, and not the design of the phones were responsible for the battery issues.MORE: Our Interactive Samsung Note7 Phenomenal Phablet Flame-Out TimelineTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Admin of anonymous, Tor-friendly email service has electronics seized at US border

If you don’t live in the US and run an anonymous, Tor-friendly email service – such as one used by 4chan and 8chan – sadly, it’s a pretty decent bet that you would experience some drama when entering the US. At least that was the case for Vincent Canfield as he was detained by US Customs and Border Protection and had all of his electronics seized by the agency. He is originally from the US, but currently resides in Romania.Canfield, the admin of the cock.li e-mail hosting service, came to vacation in the US after attending the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress held in Germany during December. He claims CBP detained him for over three hours, asking “lots of strange” and “some offensive questions” about his personal life. He refused to comply and instead gave them his attorney’s contact information. Agents allegedly demanded that he decrypt his phone so they could “make sure there isn't any bad stuff on there.” Again he refused, so CPB seized the 14 electronic devices that Canfield had with him.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Admin of anonymous, Tor-friendly email service has electronics seized at U.S. border

If you live outside the U.S. and run an anonymous, Tor-friendly email service—such as one used by 4chan and 8chan—sadly, it’s a pretty decent bet you will experience some drama when entering the U.S. At least that was the case for Vincent Canfield as he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and had all of his electronics seized by the agency. He is originally from the U.S., but he currently resides in Romania.Canfield, the admin of the cock.li e-mail hosting service, came to vacation in the U.S. after attending the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress held in Germany in December. He claims CBP detained him for over three hours, asking “lots of strange” and “some offensive questions” about his personal life. He refused to comply and instead gave them his attorney’s contact information. Agents allegedly demanded he decrypt his phone so they could “make sure there isn't any bad stuff on there.” Again, he refused, so CPB seized the 14 electronic devices Canfield had with him.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Admin of anonymous, Tor-friendly email service has electronics seized at US border

If you don’t live in the US and run an anonymous, Tor-friendly email service – such as one used by 4chan and 8chan – sadly, it’s a pretty decent bet that you would experience some drama when entering the US. At least that was the case for Vincent Canfield as he was detained by US Customs and Border Protection and had all of his electronics seized by the agency. He is originally from the US, but currently resides in Romania.Canfield, the admin of the cock.li e-mail hosting service, came to vacation in the US after attending the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress held in Germany during December. He claims CBP detained him for over three hours, asking “lots of strange” and “some offensive questions” about his personal life. He refused to comply and instead gave them his attorney’s contact information. Agents allegedly demanded that he decrypt his phone so they could “make sure there isn't any bad stuff on there.” Again he refused, so CPB seized the 14 electronic devices that Canfield had with him.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Admin of anonymous, Tor-friendly email service has electronics seized at U.S. border

If you live outside the U.S. and run an anonymous, Tor-friendly email service—such as one used by 4chan and 8chan—sadly, it’s a pretty decent bet you will experience some drama when entering the U.S. At least that was the case for Vincent Canfield as he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and had all of his electronics seized by the agency. He is originally from the U.S., but he currently resides in Romania.Canfield, the admin of the cock.li e-mail hosting service, came to vacation in the U.S. after attending the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress held in Germany in December. He claims CBP detained him for over three hours, asking “lots of strange” and “some offensive questions” about his personal life. He refused to comply and instead gave them his attorney’s contact information. Agents allegedly demanded he decrypt his phone so they could “make sure there isn't any bad stuff on there.” Again, he refused, so CPB seized the 14 electronic devices Canfield had with him.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Reading Tech Books Via The All-At-Once Method

I was recently asked by a friend to read and review a book his publisher had just released. This was a technical book on a topic I was keenly interested in, so I was happy to oblige.

I tackled the book in the way that I normally tackle technical books — a chapter a day, or maybe two chapters in a day. Technical books aren’t recreational fiction for me. I want to grasp the contents of technical books to best make use of the information. This often leads to slow reading. I mull over paragraphs and digest.

This time, I broke that habit. I wanted to get this book done quickly. I wanted the information immediately. I didn’t want to take a few weeks to get through it. Thus, I tried reading the book all at once.

Surprisingly, this worked out well. I ended up getting through the book in four sittings, which perhaps doesn’t sound like “all at once.” Bear with me. The first sitting was a single chapter. The second sitting was a single chapter. Then came the holidays and a complete disruption to my workflow. And then came the epiphany as I stared at the book post-holidays. Continue reading

25% off YETI Hopper 20 Portable Cooler – Deal Alert

The YETI Hopper 20 ice-for-days portable cooler and is tough as nails so it can be hauled anywhere you want to take it.  It features a DryHide Shell and nearly indestructible straps will stand up to an abundance of abuse in the field.  It's HydroLok Zipper is completely leakproof, eliminating spills and locking in cold.  It can hold 18 cans, a limit of rainbow trout, or 20 pounds of ice.  The YETI Hopper 20 is currently selling at the discounted price of $225, a good deal considering its $299.95 list price. See this high-end portable cooler now on Amazon. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

34% off SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 200GB – Deal Alert

The SanDisk Connect wireless stick is a flash drive with a unique twist -- you can access it wirelessly. Whether it's in your pants pocket, in your bag, or on the picnic table at your campsite, the Connect wireless stick lets you stream media or move files wirelessly with up to three computers, phones or tablets simultaneously. Connections are made via built-in wifi (think "hotspot"), so no external wireless or internet services are needed. A USB connection is also available, if desired. Storage on this model is a generous 200GB. Reviewers on Amazon report at least 8-10 hours of battery life on one charge. This model is currently discounted 34%, from $119.99 down to $78.95. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

34% off SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 200GB – Deal Alert

The SanDisk Connect wireless stick is a flash drive with a unique twist -- you can access it wirelessly. Whether it's in your pants pocket, in your bag, or on the picnic table at your campsite, the Connect wireless stick lets you stream media or move files wirelessly with up to three computers, phones or tablets simultaneously. Connections are made via built-in wifi (think "hotspot"), so no external wireless or internet services are needed. A USB connection is also available, if desired. Storage on this model is a generous 200GB. Reviewers on Amazon report at least 8-10 hours of battery life on one charge. This model is currently discounted 34%, from $119.99 down to $78.95. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here