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Category Archives for "Networking"

Cable and telecom are rivals again with new IoT networks

Comcast and the biggest U.S. carriers are taking their long-running rivalry to the internet of things.The country's largest cable company and telecommunications giants, Verizon and AT&T, have been fighting each other for years in home broadband, business internet service and wireless access. Now they're set to compete over LPWANs, the low-power, wide-area networks that could connect many of the IoT devices of the future.On Wednesday, Comcast said it would launch trials of one LPWAN technology, LoRa, with an eye to deploying networks across the markets it covers in the next 18 to 30 months.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Announcing New Features To Help Hosting Providers Run Their Own Reliable DNS Infrastructure

Over the last six years, we’ve built the tooling, infrastructure and expertise to run a DNS network that handles our scale - we’ve answered a few million DNS queries in the few seconds since you started reading this.

DNS is the backbone of the internet. Every email, website visit, and API call ultimately begins with a DNS lookup. Internet is built on DNS, so every hosting company, registrar, TLD operator, and cloud provider must be able to run reliable DNS.

Last year CloudFlare launched Virtual DNS, providing DDoS mitigation and a strong caching layer of 100 global data centers to those running DNS infrastructure.

Today we’re expanding that offering with two new features for an extra layer of reliability: Serve Stale and DNS Rate Limiting.

Serve Stale

Virtual DNS sits in front of your DNS infrastructure. When DNS resolvers lookup answers on your authoritative DNS, the query first goes to CloudFlare Virtual DNS. We either serve the answer from cache if we have the answer in cache, or we reach out to your nameservers to get the answer to respond to the DNS resolver.

Even if your DNS servers are down, Virtual DNS can now answer on your behalf Continue reading

Spotify ads slipped malware onto PCs and Macs

Spotify's ads crossed from nuisance over to outright nasty this week, after the music service’s advertising started serving up malware to users on Wednesday. The malware was able to automatically launch browser tabs on Windows and Mac PCs, according to complaints that surfaced online.As is typical for this kind of malware, the ads directed users’ browsers to other malware-containing sites in the hopes that someone would be duped into downloading more malicious software. The “malvertising” attack didn’t last long as Spotify was able to quickly correct the problem.“We’ve identified an issue where a small number of users were experiencing a problem with questionable website pop-ups in their default browsers as a result of an isolated issue with an ad on our Free tier,” Spotify said on several threads in its support forums. “We have now identified the source of the problem and have shut it down. We will continue to monitor the situation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Amazon Echo Dot Launches Oct 20, Get Free Ones When You Buy 5 or 10 – Deal Alert

The all new Amazon Echo Dot launch date is right around the corner: October 20th. Echo 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

The State of Cybersecurity Professional Careers

I’ve written about and researched the cybersecurity skills shortage for many years.  For example, ESG research indicates that 46% of organizations claim to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills this year – an 18% increase from 2015 (note: I am an ESG employee).Of course, I’m not the only one looking into the cybersecurity skills shortage.  For example: According to Peninsula Press (a project of the Stanford University Journalism Program), more than 209,000 U.S.-based cybersecurity jobs remained unfilled, and postings are up 74 percent over the past five years. Analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the demand for cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow 53 percent by 2018. So many researchers agree then that we don’t have enough skilled prospects to fill all of the open cybersecurity jobs.  Okay but that puts a heck of a lot of burden on the existing cybersecurity workforce.  Are they up to the task?  Do they have the right training?  Are they managing their careers appropriately?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The state of cybersecurity professional careers

I’ve written about and researched the cybersecurity skills shortage for many years. For example, ESG research indicates that 46 percent of organizations claim to have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills this year—an 18 percent increase from 2015.Of course, I’m not the only one looking into the cybersecurity skills shortage. For example: According to Peninsula Press (a project of the Stanford University Journalism Program), more than 209,000 U.S.-based cybersecurity jobs remained unfilled, and postings are up 74 percent over the past five years. Analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the demand for cybersecurity professionals is expected to grow 53 percent by 2018. So, many researchers agree, then, that we don’t have enough skilled prospects to fill all of the open cybersecurity jobs. OK, but that puts a heck of a lot of burden on the existing cybersecurity workforce. Are they up to the task? Do they have the right training? Are they managing their careers appropriately?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VMware vForum Live is Coming to Toronto on 11/9 & Houston on 11/17!

Attention IT professionals – want to discover the benefits of network virtualization, mobility, and cloud? You can at VMware vForum Live! Join our experts in-person for an interactive, all-day event that will take you through technical deep dives of VMware solutions. Sign up today for vForum Live in Toronto on Nov 9th or sign up for vForum Live in Houston on Nov 17th now!

vForum Live is your chance to collaborate with peers, interact with VMware experts and receive actionable advice on how you can simplify your IT and deliver an effective cloud strategy. From keynote speeches presented by the industry’s heaviest hitters to specific VMware solution breakout sessions, you’ll get to hear the latest tips, tricks and insights. Plus, partake in our hands-on SociaLabs in the afternoon to get direct experience working with various solutions under the guidance of a VMware expert.

Here’s a list of VMware technical leaders and industry experts who will be presenting:

  • Chris Wolf, VMware CTO of the Americas – “Delivering Tomorrow’s Agile, Secure and Open Solutions, Today”
  • Kevin Mitnick, internationally-known Global White Hat Hacker – “Art of Deception: How Hackers and Con Artists Manipulate You and What You Can Do About It”
  • Continue reading