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Managing Digital Racket

I read this article, long by today’s standards of fleeting attention. TL;DR. Information bombardment addicted the author with negative effects on his life. And while he’s not done making changes in his life, he has broken the cycle.

I’ve had similar challenges to him, and continue to hone my approach to managing digital racket. I know I’ve written about this before, but the art is evolving for me. Chronicling progress, however minor, is cathartic.

I mute nearly all notifications. This cuts down tremendously on mental intrusions, improving my focus and reducing FOMO. While you’d think turning off notifications would increase FOMO, you realize over time that you aren’t actually missing anything substantial. Once you believe this, the anxiety borne of FOMO fades away.

The only notifications I currently receive are as follows.

1. Phone calls. I don’t get many, and most of them are directly related to my business.
2. Direct messages from my immediate family.
3. Direct messages from my three co-workers and a few close collaborators.

I have deleted most social media apps from my phone. I have a few for the sake of convenience when abroad, but rarely access them. With notifications turned off, the temptation is practically nil. Twitter is my greatest temptation, and therefore do not Continue reading

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KrebsOnSecurity moves to Project Shield for protection against DDoS attack censorship

Unless you are a bad guy intent upon nefarious schemes to exploit technology in order to make money, then you probably have a great amount of respect for security reporter Brian Krebs. The crimes, breaches and attacks he has exposed have been so stunning that it boggles the mind. If cyber thugs have a “most wanted” list, then Krebs is likely at, or very near, the top. Yet what kind of messed up world do we live in if criminals can exploit horribly insecure internet-of-things devices with such success that it can silence the voice of a journalist like Krebs?He most recently ticked off allies of vDOS; Krebs wrote about the DDoS-for-hire company and the two teenagers allegedly behind it were arrested. Although it’s nothing new for his site, KrebsOnSecurity, to come under attack, like it did after his vDOS exposé, nearly two weeks later, Krebs’ site was hit “with the largest DDoS the internet has ever seen. 665 Gbps” (gigabits per second). Some of the POST request attacks included the string “freeapplej4ck,” referring to one of the alleged teenage owners of vDOS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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KrebsOnSecurity moves to Project Shield for protection against DDoS attack censorship

Unless you are a bad guy intent upon nefarious schemes to exploit technology in order to make money, then you probably have a great amount of respect for security reporter Brian Krebs. The crimes, breaches and attacks he has exposed have been so stunning that it boggles the mind. If cyber thugs have a “most wanted” list, then Krebs is likely at, or very near, the top. Yet what kind of messed up world do we live in if criminals can exploit horribly insecure internet-of-things devices with such success that it can silence the voice of a journalist like Krebs?He most recently ticked off allies of vDOS; Krebs wrote about the DDoS-for-hire company and the two teenagers allegedly behind it were arrested. Although it’s nothing new for his site, KrebsOnSecurity, to come under attack, like it did after his vDOS exposé, nearly two weeks later, Krebs’ site was hit “with the largest DDoS the internet has ever seen. 665 Gbps” (gigabits per second). Some of the POST request attacks included the string “freeapplej4ck,” referring to one of the alleged teenage owners of vDOS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Test-driving arbitrary data publishing over BGP

BGP is a routing protocol known for its strength in scaling and resilience. It is also flexible and extensible.  With its Multi-Protocol extension BGP can support distribution of various data types. Still to extend BGP for every new route data type  requires introduction of new address family(AFI/SAFI) and making BGP aware of the new data … Continue reading Test-driving arbitrary data publishing over BGP

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How we brought HTTPS Everywhere to the cloud (part 1)

CloudFlare's mission is to make HTTPS accessible for all our customers. It provides security for their websites, improved ranking on search engines, better performance with HTTP/2, and access to browser features such as geolocation that are being deprecated for plaintext HTTP. With Universal SSL or similar features, a simple button click can now enable encryption for a website.

Unfortunately, as described in a previous blog post, this is only half of the problem. To make sure that a page is secure and can't be controlled or eavesdropped by third-parties, browsers must ensure that not only the page itself but also all its dependencies are loaded via secure channels. Page elements that don't fulfill this requirement are called mixed content and can either result in the entire page being reported as insecure or even completely blocked, thus breaking the page for the end user.

What can we do about it?

When we conceived the Automatic HTTPS Rewrites project, we aimed to automatically reduce the amount of mixed content on customers' web pages without breaking their websites and without any delay noticeable by end users while receiving a page that is being rewritten on the fly.

A naive way Continue reading

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Companies say IoT matters but don’t agree how to secure it

A majority of enterprises say the internet of things is strategic to their business, but most still take a piecemeal approach to IoT security.Those results from a global IDC survey conducted in July and August reveal both the promise and the growing pains of IoT, a set of technologies that may help many industries but can’t simply be plugged in. The 27-country survey had more than 4,500 respondents, all from organizations with 100 or more employees.For 56 percent of enterprises, IoT is part of their strategic plans for the next two or three years, IDC analyst Carrie MacGillivray said on a webcast about the results. But the state of adoption varies widely among industries. Manufacturing companies are investing the most in the technology, with retail and financial services – especially insurance – also on the cutting edge.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Yahoo Data Breach Was Likely Perpetrated at One Point of Failure

'They stole the grand piano while the family was home.’

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A robot fish is helping the Navy improve underwater movement

Oscar Curet is an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University. For the past couple of years, he's studied the movement of the Knifefish, an animal native to the Amazon River, that uses a long ribbon fin to propel itself through the water and navigate its complex environment.  "As a engineer, we try to solve problems, and nature has solved some of the problems that we are facing, and one of them is mobility," Curet said. Curet, along with other researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU), has created a robot fish to identify the differences between engineering systems and what occurs in nature. The prototype is composed of 3D-printed materials, 16 motors, and a number of sensors. The team also recently received a grant from the U.S. Navy to equip their prototype with a Volumetric Particle Image Velocity System, or PIV. The system, which uses four cameras synchronized with a laser light to capture currents in three dimensions, will help researchers measure how fluid dynamics interact with the flexible propulsors the team has developed to make underwater vehicles more maneuverable. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Cisco, IBM may be interested in buying Imperva

Security vendor Imperva is shopping itself around and may be attractive to the likes of Cisco and IBM, according to Bloomberg.The Motley Fool reports that Imperva’s stock rose 20% today after Bloomberg’s report, which the Fool notes could actually drive buyers away because it would mean a more costly deal.Bloomberg named a number of other possible buyers including Forecpoint (owned by Raytheon and Vista Equity Partners), Akamai and Fortinet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Cisco, IBM may be interested in buying Imperva

Security vendor Imperva is shopping itself around and may be attractive to the likes of Cisco and IBM, according to Bloomberg.The Motley Fool reports that Imperva’s stock rose 20% today after Bloomberg’s report, which the Fool notes could actually drive buyers away because it would mean a more costly deal.Bloomberg named a number of other possible buyers including Forecpoint (owned by Raytheon and Vista Equity Partners), Akamai and Fortinet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Best Deals of the Week, September 19th – September 23rd – Deal Alert

Best Deals of the Week, September 19th - September 23rd - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of September 19th. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted!1 Free Amazon Echo Dot When You Buy 5Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play & control music (either on its own, or through a connected speaker/receiver), control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms, and more. If you’re looking to buy them as gifts, or for different homes or rooms, Amazon will throw in a free one ($50 value) when you buy 5, or two free ones when you buy 10 (a $100 value). To take advantage of this limited time offer, select 6 or 12 in the quantity dropdown and add to your Shopping Cart. Enter promo code DOT6PACK or DOT12PACK at checkout where you will see the discount applied. The new Amazon Echo Dot comes in black, and now also white.  See the new Amazon Echo Dot now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Worth Reading: Organizational Doxing and Disinformation

In the past few years, the devastating effects of hackers breaking into an organization’s network, stealing confidential data, and publishing everything have been made clear. It happened to the Democratic National Committee, to Sony, to the National Security Agency, to the cyber-arms weapons manufacturer Hacking Team, to the online adultery site Ashley Madison, and to the Panamanian tax-evasion law firm Mossack Fonseca. —Schneier on Security

The post Worth Reading: Organizational Doxing and Disinformation appeared first on 'net work.

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Global Forum sharpens focus on smart cities

Eindhoven, Netherlands -- The 25th Global Forum, an annual policy and strategy conference sometimes called “the Davos of ICT,” was held this week in Eindhoven, a smart city and technology hub with a rich industrial past.Eindhoven was the original home and de facto company town of Philips Electronics, one of the world’s leading technology giants. Then, under pressure from Asian and global competitors, Philips began a long process of exiting its historic lines of business.Eindhoven suffered an economic and psychological blow when in 1997 the company moved its headquarters to Amsterdam.The resulting economic and social disruption challenged Eindhoven to reinvent itself. The community focused on research and innovation (R&I), and built upon its Philips legacy to become the industrial design center of its country and the European region.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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The next target for phishing and fraud: ChatOps

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.Enterprise chat applications have surged in popularity, driven in large part by Slack, which now claims to serve more than three million users daily.  What’s more, the popularity of these apps has given rise to a new phenomenon known as ChatOps, which is what happens when these new messaging systems are used to automate operational tasks. The ChatOps term was coined by GitHub to describe a collaboration model that connects people, tools, processes and automation into a transparent workflow.  According to Sean Regan, Atlassian’s Head of Product Marketing for HipChat, this flow connects the work needed, the work happening and the work done in a consistent location staffed by people, bots and related tools.  Its transparent nature hastens the feedback loop, facilitates information sharing, and enhances team collaboration, but also ushers in a new set of challenges for securityand risk professionals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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The next target for phishing and fraud: ChatOps

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.Enterprise chat applications have surged in popularity, driven in large part by Slack, which now claims to serve more than three million users daily.  What’s more, the popularity of these apps has given rise to a new phenomenon known as ChatOps, which is what happens when these new messaging systems are used to automate operational tasks. The ChatOps term was coined by GitHub to describe a collaboration model that connects people, tools, processes and automation into a transparent workflow.  According to Sean Regan, Atlassian’s Head of Product Marketing for HipChat, this flow connects the work needed, the work happening and the work done in a consistent location staffed by people, bots and related tools.  Its transparent nature hastens the feedback loop, facilitates information sharing, and enhances team collaboration, but also ushers in a new set of challenges for securityand risk professionals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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The next target for phishing and fraud: ChatOps

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Enterprise chat applications have surged in popularity, driven in large part by Slack, which now claims to serve more than three million users daily.  What’s more, the popularity of these apps has given rise to a new phenomenon known as ChatOps, which is what happens when these new messaging systems are used to automate operational tasks. 

The ChatOps term was coined by GitHub to describe a collaboration model that connects people, tools, processes and automation into a transparent workflow.  According to Sean Regan, Atlassian’s Head of Product Marketing for HipChat, this flow connects the work needed, the work happening and the work done in a consistent location staffed by people, bots and related tools.  Its transparent nature hastens the feedback loop, facilitates information sharing, and enhances team collaboration, but also ushers in a new set of challenges for securityand risk professionals.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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If you’re not planning for IoT, you’re already behind

Roughly half of the audience informally polled at last month’s CIO 100 event said they had attended an IoT event in the last 12 months. "So what were the other half [of you] doing on the most hyped word on the internet today?" asked Vernon Turner, senior vice president of enterprise systems & fellow for the internet of things at IDC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

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Dollar Shave Club grooming AWS cloud services for smoother growth

If you asked a CIO to sketch the ideal modern IT architecture on a few cocktail napkins, it might resemble the system fashioned by of the Dollar Shave Club (DSC), the men's grooming ecommerce company that ascended from relative obscurity to prominence thanks to sound branding and this memorable YouTube clip.Running in a public cloud, the startup uses 22 custom applications to run sales and marketing campaigns and customer service, as well as a recommendation engine. The custom-cloud combination embodies the type of IT environment CIOs say they would build if they had a green field devoid of legacy architecture and technical debt.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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Court ruling puts future of H-1B lottery in doubt

The U.S. government's attempt to stop a lawsuit challenging the legality of the H-1B lottery was rejected Thursday by a federal court judge.The government tried to get this case dismissed on legal technicalities but failed. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon, in Oregon, denied the government's dismissal motion in a 24-page ruling.This case may now be decided quickly. The plaintiffs are seeking a summary judgment with oral arguments schedule in December. If the summary judgment is granted, the lottery could end -- the plaintiffs hope -- as early as next year.The case was brought by Tenrec Inc., a web development firm, and Walker Macy LLC, a landscape architecture, urban design and planning firm. Both firms filed petitions to hire a person who needed an H-1B visa, but lost the lottery.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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NY regulation aims to raise bank security standards

Next week, New York State will begin a 45-day public comment period on its new financial industry cybersecurity regulation -- and, so far, security experts have a favorable view of the proposal.Under the new regulations, banks and insurance companies doing business in New York State will need to establish a cybersecurity program, appoint a Chief Information Security Officer and monitor the cybersecurity policies of their business partners.According to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, this is the first such regulation in the country. "This regulation helps guarantee the financial services industry upholds its obligation to protect consumers and ensure that its systems are sufficiently constructed to prevent cyber-attacks to the fullest extent possible," he said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here