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Category Archives for "Networking"

Old networks can hobble IoT, even in tech paradise

IoT isn’t all brand-new, cutting-edge technology. In fact, some of it’s already suffering through painful upgrade cycles.A case in point is the system that tells transit passengers in the tech hub of San Francisco when the next train or bus will arrive. The NextMuni system, based on the third-party platform NextBus, recently began sending out wildly inaccurate forecasts on many lines.Why? Because most trains and buses had been communicating with NextMuni over AT&T’s 2G network, which was decommissioned on Jan. 1. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) said Friday that about 70 percent of its vehicles haven’t yet been upgraded with newer 3G technology. It was awkward timing, as that same day, the agency was playing up its innovation credentials as it announced a federal grant to fund six transit pilot projects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

66% Off Nero 2017 Platinum HD Multimedia Suite Software, PC Disk or Download – Deal Alert

Create, edit, burn, convert, organize, stream, rip and play back videos, photos, and music like a professional, with the familiar maximum quality. Create audio CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs. Import and play back your videos in HEVC (H.265) and edit your films with full HD video-editing previews. In addition, the new, direct export of individual sections from long videos saves time and effort. For that special touch, add striking 4K templates and effects, as well as perfect transitions to your videos. Play videos with embedded subtitles and drag and drop extra ones to the playback functions. Use the new Gracenote integration to add and play back original album art for single songs and whole albums. And with the improved Nero MediaHome WiFi Sync App, you can easily transfer photos and videos wirelessly from your iOS and Android smartphone to your PC and vice versa. The PC version typically lists for $129.99, but its price has been discounted a significant 68% to just $44.72 on Amazon, making this a very good deal on the popular software package. See the discounted Nero Platinum 2017 on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

21% off House of Marley Stir It Up Turntable with bonus Bob Marley Legend Album – Deal Alert

A classically designed turntable and category first for House of Marley, the Stir It Up Turntable is simple in form and rich in materials with natural bamboo details and a built-in pre-amp to sync with your favorite speakers and USB jack in back to record on PC.  This deal includes a BOB Marley legend album.  With a typical list price of $249.99, this 21% off deal is now $199.  See the discounted Stir It Up Turntable on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

On the ‘net: Is Proprietary Dead?

A new age of openness is coming upon us. At least that’s what we’re being told. For instance — “The reign of closed solution suites is over, shifting to the rise of open, heterogeneous software ecosystems.” Maybe it’s my 30 years in the information technology business (how many people remember Thomas-Conrad ARCnet hardware?), but I’m not convinced. It’s worth taking a moment to consider the case. —CircleID

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Oops, this Redditor accidentally deleted his company’s DNS in Microsoft Azure’s cloud

One Redditor has made a mistake that you can be assured he will not make again: He deleted an entire zone of his company’s Domain Name System in the Microsoft Azure cloud.“I meant to delete a single record, but it’s the same button in the same place as deleting a zone. As soon as I hit the button I knew what I had done, then all our websites start failing,” the Redditor confesses.That’s an oops. He goes on to describe how his unidentified company’s VOIP phones went offline and the backup domain controller began having issues resolving DNS.Meanwhile, in the 'when it rains it pours' line of thinking, an unrelated error occurred AT THE SAME TIME on the company’s Hyper-V server network interface cards (NICs).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft releases only 4 security bulletins, 2 critical, on first 2017 Patch Tuesday

For the first Patch Tuesday of 2017, Microsoft is easing us into it by releasing only four security bulletins, half are of which are rated as critical for remote code execution flaws. In reality, only three of those are for Windows systems!This is the lightest load I can recall Microsoft handing us. It almost feels like this surely can’t be right, but hey – you didn’t want to work hard today anyhow, did you?CriticalMS17-002 resolves a remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office. Microsoft Word 2016 32-bit and 64-bit editions and Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016 are listed as the only affected software versions. The RCE bug is a result of Office software failing to properly handle objects in memory. If an attacker successfully exploited the flaw, and the user had admin rights, the attacker could take control of the box.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft releases only 4 security bulletins, 2 critical, on first 2017 Patch Tuesday

For the first Patch Tuesday of 2017, Microsoft is easing us into it by releasing only four security bulletins, half are of which are rated as critical for remote code execution flaws. In reality, only three of those are for Windows systems!This is the lightest load I can recall Microsoft handing us. It almost feels like this surely can’t be right, but hey – you didn’t want to work hard today anyhow, did you?CriticalMS17-002 resolves a remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office. Microsoft Word 2016 32-bit and 64-bit editions and Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016 are listed as the only affected software versions. The RCE bug is a result of Office software failing to properly handle objects in memory. If an attacker successfully exploited the flaw, and the user had admin rights, the attacker could take control of the box.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech luminaries team up on $27M AI ethics fund

Artificial intelligence technology is becoming an increasingly large part of our daily lives. While those developments have led to cool new features, they've also presented a host of potential problems, like automation displacing human jobs, and algorithms providing biased results.Now, a team of philanthropists and tech luminaries have put together a fund that's aimed at bringing more humanity into the AI development process. It's called the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, and it will focus on advancing AI in the public interest.A fund such as this one is important as issues arise during AI development. The IEEE highlighted a host of potential issues with artificial intelligence systems in a recent report, and the fund seems aimed at funding solutions to several of those problems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT teams put conversations to work with ChatOps

Chat is an old tool that’s newly popular. From Slack and HipChat to Salesforce Chatter and Microsoft’s new Teams tool (and a myriad of others), these collaboration tools supplement rather than replace enterprise social networks like Yammer or Jive. Microsoft’s Office division director Richard Ellis likens it to the difference between Facebook and WhatsApp: “The chat-based workspace fills a gap where people can talk rapidly, share content and work as a team.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Iran Leaks Censorship via BGP Hijacks

Last week, we reported via Twitter that the Iranian state telecom TIC hijacked address space containing a number of pornographic websites.  The relevant BGP announcement was likely intended to stay within the borders of Iran, but had leaked out of the country in a manner reminiscent of Pakistan’s block of Youtube via BGP hijack in 2008.  Over the weekend, TIC performed BGP hijacks of additional IP address space hosting adult content as well as IP addresses associated with Apple’s iTunes service.

In addition, in 2015 on this blog we reported that a new DNS root server instance in Tehran was being leaked outside Iran, a situation that was quickly rectified at that time.  Despite the fact that the Tehran K-root is intended to only be accessible within Iran, as we will see below, it is currently being accessed by one of the largest US telecommunications companies.

Iranian BGP-based Censorship

Last week, Iranian state telecom announced a BGP hijack of address space (99.192.226.0/24) hosting numerous pornographic websites.  Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Road Test: Taking a self-driving BMW for a spin—at 60 mph in rush hour traffic

I’ve owned or driven five BMWs in my lifetime. The sixth one drove me.BMW kindly gave me the opportunity to pilot one of its prototype self-driving cars last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. And the experience wasn’t one of dawdling around a parking lot, cleverly avoiding a few traffic cones.Driving 60 mph, I commanded a powerful 5 Series, modified, but generally a production-level sedan. I allowed it to drive me for 11 miles along a congested, rush-hour interstate through the center of glittering sin city.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Disk-wiping malware Shamoon targets virtual desktop infrastructure

A cybersabotage program that wiped data from 30,000 computers at Saudi Arabia's national oil company in 2012 has returned and is able to target server-hosted virtual desktops.The malware, known as Shamoon or Disttrack, is part of a family of destructive programs known as disk wipers. Similar tools were used in 2014 against Sony Pictures Entertainment in the U.S. and in 2013 against several banks and broadcasting organizations in South Korea.Shamoon was first observed during the 2012 cyberattack against Saudi Aramco. It spreads to other computers on a local network by using stolen credentials and activates its disk-wiping functionality on a preconfigured date.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Disk-wiping malware Shamoon targets virtual desktop infrastructure

A cybersabotage program that wiped data from 30,000 computers at Saudi Arabia's national oil company in 2012 has returned and is able to target server-hosted virtual desktops.The malware, known as Shamoon or Disttrack, is part of a family of destructive programs known as disk wipers. Similar tools were used in 2014 against Sony Pictures Entertainment in the U.S. and in 2013 against several banks and broadcasting organizations in South Korea.Shamoon was first observed during the 2012 cyberattack against Saudi Aramco. It spreads to other computers on a local network by using stolen credentials and activates its disk-wiping functionality on a preconfigured date.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iPhone 8 Rumor Rollup: Stainless steel, India standing tough & really going wireless

Enough of the iPhone 10th anniversary celebrations (yes, I'm looking in the mirror here): It's time to channel our collective Apple watching energies into iPhone 8 (not to mention possible iPhone 7s and 7s Plus editions). As Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the company's press release about the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, "The best is yet to come."Heavy metal rumors The hot rumor this week is that Apple will re-embrace stainless steel, harkening back to its pre-aluminum body iPhone 4 and 4S models. Speculation is that the iPhone 8 will have a bezel-free, 5.8-inch OLED display.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Highest paying jobs in the U.S. — techies take backseat to medical pros

Sure, you perform surgery on computer systems every day and are often on call to handle emergency password procedures, but salary-wise my IT professional friends, you are no doctor.LinkedIn Tuesday published its list of the top 20 highest paying jobs (median base salary as reported to LinkedIn Salary) in the United States, and the medical/healthcare field dominates. Tops is Cardiologist, with a median base salary of $356K, followed by Radiologist ($355K), Anesthesiologist ($350K), Surgeon ($338K) and Medical Director ($230K). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Notes on the lawsuit against D-Link

Today, the FTC filed a lawsuit[*] against D-Link for security problems, such as backdoor passwords. I thought I’d write up some notes. The suit is not “product liability”, but “unfair and deceptive” business practices for promising “security”. In addition, they interpret “security” different from the cybersecurity community. This needs to be stressed because right now in our industry, there is a big discussion of product liability, insisting that everything attached to the Internet needs to be secured. People will therefore assume the FTC action is based on “liability”. Instead, all six counts are based upon the fact that D-Link offers its products for securing networks, and claims they are secure. Because they have backdoor passwords, clear-text passwords, command-injection bugs, and public private-keys, the FTC feels the claims of security to be untrue. —Errata Security

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