TCP Protocol: Flow Control

In the last two posts here and here, we have discussed how TCP stack initiates a TCP 3-way handshake and create the appropriate Transmission Control Block for the data to flow reliably. We knew that the main function of the 3-way handshaking is to exchange the sequence numbers, MSS, receive window and other parameters between …

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IDG Contributor Network: What other Windows 10 updates can we expect this year?

Well, the short answer to this question is nothing. After the impressive and (mostly) stable Anniversary Update in 2016, your Windows 10 system should be sitting at version 1607.To answer the important question of what's next, let's review the different update approaches to Windows 10 that exist out there.The mainstream consumer release of Windows 10 that most of us have updated with the Anniversary Update is called the Current Branch (CB). Understand that the Current Branch for Business (CBB) lags behind the CB by several months. This is an excellent idea, since most businesses want there to be extra time while any issues with the CB are ironed out with bug fixes. That's right—Microsoft experiments a bit with us home users.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Control your traffic at the edge with Cloudflare

Today, we're introducing two new Cloudflare Traffic products to give customers control over how Cloudflare’s edge network handles their traffic, allowing them to shape and direct it for their specific needs.

More than 10 trillion requests flow through Cloudflare every month. More than 4 million customers and 10% of internet requests benefit from our global network. Cloudflare's virtual backbone gives every packet improved performance, security, and reliability.

That's the macro picture.

What's more interesting is keeping each individual customer globally available. While every customer benefits from the network effect of Cloudflare, each customer is (appropriately) focused on their application uptime, security and performance.

Traffic Control

Cloudflare’s new Traffic Control allows a customer to rate limit, shape or block traffic based on the number of requests per second per IP, cookie, or authentication token. Traffic can be controlled on a per-URI (with wildcards for greater flexibility) basis giving pinpoint control over a website, application, or API.

Customers seek reliability and availability in the face of popularity or unexpected traffic such as slow brute force attacks on a WordPress site, Denial of Service against dynamic pages, or the stampede of requests that comes with success. We are the leader at stopping significant Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: The future of security: A combination of cyber and physical defense

Our increasingly connected world gives hackers even more ways to exploit technology for malicious purposes. We’re now entering a period when cyber attacks could cause major physical damage. To protect people from these combined cyber and physical threats, information security experts and law enforcement, which traditionally handles physical security, will have to share strategies.+ Also on Network World: The IoT is uranium +After all, the boundaries between cyber and physical attacks are already blurring. In March, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed seven Iranians hacked the control systems of a small dam in New York state in 2013. The dam was offline for repair, preventing the hackers from controlling the flow of water. However, the incident demonstrated that hackers could take over infrastructure that was controlled by computers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The future of security: A combination of cyber and physical defense

Our increasingly connected world gives hackers even more ways to exploit technology for malicious purposes. We’re now entering a period when cyber attacks could cause major physical damage. To protect people from these combined cyber and physical threats, information security experts and law enforcement, which traditionally handles physical security, will have to share strategies.+ Also on Network World: The IoT is uranium +After all, the boundaries between cyber and physical attacks are already blurring. In March, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed seven Iranians hacked the control systems of a small dam in New York state in 2013. The dam was offline for repair, preventing the hackers from controlling the flow of water. However, the incident demonstrated that hackers could take over infrastructure that was controlled by computers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NFV, Skills & Mutable vs. Immutable Infrastructure

This blog article was inspired by some infuriating reads and blogs doing the rounds doing significant damage to business thinking.

I’ve heard so many conversations that confuse Software Defined Networking with Software Driven Networking, automation mixed up with abstraction and MANO (Management and Orchestration) mixed up with configuration management tools that are used for building mutable infrastructure like Puppet, Chef, Ansible and Salt. Is it possible to cross pollinate all of these technologies? Sure, but do not expect people to happy about it. Nerds will love it, process people will hate it and failures will be dominant. Don’t even go there with failing fast. That statement is out of scope as an excuse.

Mutable Infrastructure

Mutable in this sense means to mutate and change. Configuration management tools can create virtual machines, populate them with the packages required to deliver services and place domain specific configuration in order to make them live and in production.

Mutable infrastructure as we know it today is "treat your VMs like cattle, not pets" and this is achieved with well known tools.

Immutable Infrastructure

Think about containers here and unikernels. The idea is we build applications with as few dependencies as possible. Ultimately building applications Continue reading

Circle: Parental controls through a Disney-branded router add-on

As a parent of three children who have been exposed to technology since they were born (we called our second child “iBaby 2.0”), the issue of filtering and parental controls has been on my mind for several years. I’m not particularly advocating that every parent filter content or use “nanny software” to become a babysitter for Internet content. On the other hand, I’ve seen a LOT of examples where kids have been exposed to things on the Internet that they probably shouldn’t be exposed to. Call me wishy-washy, but I’m going to play this one right down the middle – my approach is a combination of talking to my kids about the dangers of the Internet, mixed in with parental controls and filters. It also helps that I can always say to them, "I work in the tech industry, I know all of the different things you can do and how to try to get around them."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARIN IPv4 Depletion: The Aftermath

Why employees are still a security risk

In the latest episode of Security Sessions, CSO Editor-in-Chief Joan Goodchild speaks with Michael Bruemmer, vice president at Experian Data Breach Resolution, about a recent survey that said companies are unprepared to stop employee-caused data breaches.

Review: Office 365’s Delve, Sway, and Planner fall flat

Microsoft really, really wants to own all of your office work, so it keeps finding new tools it hopes you will add to your Office 365 portfolio. (All require an Office 365 account to use.) The latest are Delve for file discovery, Sway for modern-style presentations, and Planner for task management. But are they any good? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Doctors: E-health records raise costs, don’t help patient outcomes

Three out of four U.S. physicians believe that electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increase practice costs -- outweighing any efficiency savings -- and seven out of 10 think they reduce productivity, according to a new survey.Deloitte's "2016 Survey of US Physicians" released this week found little had changed since its last report two years ago, when doctors surveyed at the time generally held negative opinions of EHRs.The latest survey found nearly all physicians would like to see improvements in EHRs, with 62% calling for them to be more interoperable and 57% looking for improved workflow and increased productivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Doctors: E-health records raise costs, don’t help patient outcomes

Three out of four U.S. physicians believe that electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increase practice costs -- outweighing any efficiency savings -- and seven out of 10 think they reduce productivity, according to a new survey.Deloitte's "2016 Survey of US Physicians" released this week found little had changed since its last report two years ago, when doctors surveyed at the time generally held negative opinions of EHRs.The latest survey found nearly all physicians would like to see improvements in EHRs, with 62% calling for them to be more interoperable and 57% looking for improved workflow and increased productivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security myths that can make you laugh… or cry

Not so true anymoreImage by ThinkstockIt is sort of like those commercials that stated it must be true because I read it on the internet. There are long held beliefs that have gone unchallenged and accepted. Then there are those who put their head in the sand with such statements as “I don’t need to protect my network, there is nothing worth stealing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security myths that can make you laugh… or cry

Not so true anymoreImage by ThinkstockIt is sort of like those commercials that stated it must be true because I read it on the internet. There are long held beliefs that have gone unchallenged and accepted. Then there are those who put their head in the sand with such statements as “I don’t need to protect my network, there is nothing worth stealing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Support family and friends with Windows 10’s new Quick Assist app

Among the new features that Microsoft rolled out with last month's Anniversary Update to Windows 10 is an app called Quick Assist -- a remote-access tool that is especially designed to work with Windows 10 systems. As you likely know, remote-access applications allow two computers to connect over the internet so that a person at one of them can remotely control the other. In this way, the person controlling the computer remotely can diagnose or fix a problem with it -- for example, by running an anti-malware program or uninstalling a troublesome hardware driver.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The Alarming Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Replacing FabricPath with VXLAN, EVPN or ACI?

One of my friends plans to replace existing FabricPath data center infrastructure, and asked whether it would make sense to stay with FabricPath (using the new Nexus 5600 switches) or migrate to ACI.

I proposed a third option: go with simple VXLAN encapsulation on Nexus 9000 switches. Here’s why:

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FBI reports more attempts to hack voter registration system

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has found more attempts to hack the voter registration systems of states, ahead of national elections.The agency had reportedly found evidence in August that foreign hackers had breached state election databases in Illinois and Arizona, but it appears that there have been other attempts as well, besides frequent scanning activities, which the FBI describes as preludes for possible hacking attempts."There have been a variety of scanning activities, which is a preamble for potential intrusion activities, as well as some attempted intrusions at voter registration databases beyond those we knew about in July and August," FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here