4 tools for managing firewall rules

Firewall devices are only as good as the hundreds, or even thousands, rules that govern them. Misconfigurations, unused rules and conflicting rules can cause firewalls to fail in their crucial missions. Firewall security management products can help security managers monitor compliance, orchestrate device policies, optimize rules and manage firewall changes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

4 tools for managing firewall rules

Firewall devices are only as good as the hundreds, or even thousands, rules that govern them. Misconfigurations, unused rules and conflicting rules can cause firewalls to fail in their crucial missions. Firewall security management products can help security managers monitor compliance, orchestrate device policies, optimize rules and manage firewall changes. According to the IT Central Station user community, the most important criteria to consider when choosing firewall security management software are visibility for network devices, scalability, and ensured security and compliance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

27% off Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55mm and EF 75-300mm Zoom Lenses – Deal Alert

The 18.0 megapixel Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera Kit is currently discounted by 27% on Amazon from $749.99 down to $549.  The complete bundle includes EF-S 18-55mm and EF 75-300mm Zoom Lenses.  It also has built-in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, providing easy sharing to compatible smart devices, select social media sites and the Canon Connect Station CS100 device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iOS 10 on the iPad Pro: The 8 features you need to know

The iPad Pro is a productivity powerhouse—or at least, that’s what Apple wants it to be. The 12.9-inch Pro was released last November, and the 9.7-inch model debuted in March, so we weren’t expecting to see any new hardware at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. But we were hoping Apple would add some iPad-only features in iOS 10 that would fix a few problems and make the Pros even more awesome, or at least show off some new partner apps that take advantage of all that screen real estate.Alas, the iPad was a footnote in iOS 10’s parade of features. The device gets most of the good stuff, like the revamped Messages app, a new lock screen with rich notifications, and smarter Photos, but the iPad-only tweaks are just that: minor changes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Researchers add software bugs to reduce the number of… software bugs

Researchers are adding bugs to experimental software code in order to ultimately wind up with programs that have fewer vulnerabilities.The idea is to insert a known quantity of vulnerabilities into code, then see how many of them are discovered by bug-finding tools.By analyzing the reasons bugs escape detection, developers can create more effective bug-finders, according to researchers at New York University in collaboration with others from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and Northeastern University.They created large-scale automated vulnerability addition (LAVA), which is a low-cost technique that adds the vulnerabilities. “The only way to evaluate a bug finder is to control the number of bugs in a program, which is exactly what we do with LAVA,” says Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, a computer science and engineering professor at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Researchers add software bugs to reduce the number of… software bugs

Researchers are adding bugs to experimental software code in order to ultimately wind up with programs that have fewer vulnerabilities.The idea is to insert a known quantity of vulnerabilities into code, then see how many of them are discovered by bug-finding tools.By analyzing the reasons bugs escape detection, developers can create more effective bug-finders, according to researchers at New York University in collaboration with others from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and Northeastern University.They created large-scale automated vulnerability addition (LAVA), which is a low-cost technique that adds the vulnerabilities. “The only way to evaluate a bug finder is to control the number of bugs in a program, which is exactly what we do with LAVA,” says Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, a computer science and engineering professor at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to remove your Windows 10 password

Windows 10 wants you to enter your password all the time. You can remove your password, or reduce how often you have to enter one, but there are security risks to doing so.

Worth Reading: Converged systems hype

Converged systems are a hot commodity in the IT sector these days. But it looks to us like the hype over various kinds of integrated systems that weld servers and storage together into preconfigured stacks including hyperconverged stacks that literally merge the compute and storage layers on the same servers – is just a bit bigger than the appetite for such iron in the datacenters of the world. -The Next Platform

The post Worth Reading: Converged systems hype appeared first on 'net work.

IDG Contributor Network: Cajun redux? Avaya’s focus on data networking misses the mark

While channel surfing recently I landed on a reality TV show where people bid on abandoned homes without knowing what’s inside. Occasionally, something of true value is found—maybe even something that might make the new owners wealthy. One might say that something like this happened when Avaya acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) in 2009.Comparatively, Avaya inherited rooms upon rooms where old Aunt Norty had stashed the detritus of her life. There were, however, many treasures. One find, known today as the company’s SDN Fx™ Architecture, might be compared to a Picasso found stashed away in the attic. That’s the good news.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Cajun redux? Avaya’s focus on data networking misses the mark

While channel surfing recently I landed on a reality TV show where people bid on abandoned homes without knowing what’s inside. Occasionally, something of true value is found—maybe even something that might make the new owners wealthy. One might say that something like this happened when Avaya acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) in 2009.Comparatively, Avaya inherited rooms upon rooms where old Aunt Norty had stashed the detritus of her life. There were, however, many treasures. One find, known today as the company’s SDN Fx™ Architecture, might be compared to a Picasso found stashed away in the attic. That’s the good news.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Check this out: Walmart Pay for iOS & Android can now be used in all of retailer’s US stores

The following email subject lines appeared in my inbox on Wednesday just a couple of hours apart:* Walmart Pay Now Available in all Walmart Stores Nationwide (from Walmart PR)* Map of Walmart store closings (from a market research firm making a larger point about rapid changes in retail and consumer packaged goods markets) My first thought, upon noticing the juxtaposition, was well, having 154 fewer stores in the US this year probably made it easier for Walmart to roll out its mobile payment app nationwide.MORE: 7 reasons mobile payments still aren't mainstreamTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Check this out: Walmart Pay for iOS & Android can now be used in all of retailer’s US stores

The following email subject lines appeared in my inbox on Wednesday just a couple of hours apart:* Walmart Pay Now Available in all Walmart Stores Nationwide (from Walmart PR)* Map of Walmart store closings (from a market research firm making a larger point about rapid changes in retail and consumer packaged goods markets) My first thought, upon noticing the juxtaposition, was well, having 154 fewer stores in the US this year probably made it easier for Walmart to roll out its mobile payment app nationwide.MORE: 7 reasons mobile payments still aren't mainstreamTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Here’s how secret voice commands could hijack your smartphone

Kitten videos are harmless, right? Except when they take over your phone. Researchers have found something new to worry about on the internet. It turns out that a muffled voice hidden in an innocuous YouTube video could issue commands to a nearby smartphone without you even knowing it. The researchers describe the threat in a research paper to be presented next month at the USENIX Security Symposium in Austin, Texas. They also demonstrate it in this video. Voice recognition has taken off quickly on phones, thanks to services like Google Now and Apple's Siri, but voice software can also make it easier to hack devices, warned Micah Sherr, a Georgetown University professor and one of the paper’s authors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Here’s how secret voice commands could hijack your smartphone

Kitten videos are harmless, right? Except when they take over your phone. Researchers have found something new to worry about on the internet. It turns out that a muffled voice hidden in an innocuous YouTube video could issue commands to a nearby smartphone without you even knowing it. The researchers describe the threat in a research paper to be presented next month at the USENIX Security Symposium in Austin, Texas. They also demonstrate it in this video. Voice recognition has taken off quickly on phones, thanks to services like Google Now and Apple's Siri, but voice software can also make it easier to hack devices, warned Micah Sherr, a Georgetown University professor and one of the paper’s authors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Featured Article: Peek under the Hood of Telco-Grade OpenStack

Critical challenges for OpenStack in telecom debunked

Car hacking: Thieves armed with laptops are stealing cars

Thieves armed with laptops are hacking into electronic ignitions of late-model cars to steal the vehicles. Police and insurers sounded the warning to raise awareness about the latest car-theft trend.The Houston Police Department pointed at surveillance footage that shows two suspects, one of whom used a laptop, before stealing a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. The first suspect opened the Jeep’s hood to reportedly cut the alarm. The footage below took place about 10 minutes later when a second suspect jimmied the door open, climbed inside and then did something with a laptop before stealing the Jeep. “If you are going to hot-wire a car, you don’t bring along a laptop,” Houston Police Department Officer James Woods told the Wall Street Journal. “We don’t know what he is exactly doing with the laptop, but my guess is he is tapping into the car’s computer and marrying it with a key he may already have with him so he can start the car.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Car hacking: Thieves armed with laptops are stealing cars

Thieves armed with laptops are hacking into electronic ignitions of late-model cars to steal the vehicles. Police and insurers sounded the warning to raise awareness about the latest car-theft trend.The Houston Police Department pointed at surveillance footage that shows two suspects, one of whom used a laptop, before stealing a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. The first suspect opened the Jeep’s hood to reportedly cut the alarm. The footage below took place about 10 minutes later when a second suspect jimmied the door open, climbed inside and then did something with a laptop before stealing the Jeep. “If you are going to hot-wire a car, you don’t bring along a laptop,” Houston Police Department Officer James Woods told the Wall Street Journal. “We don’t know what he is exactly doing with the laptop, but my guess is he is tapping into the car’s computer and marrying it with a key he may already have with him so he can start the car.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Mac backdoor program steals keychain contents

Researchers have identified a new Mac backdoor program that's designed to steal credentials stored in the OS-encrypted keychain and give attackers control over the system. Dubbed OSX/Keydnap by researchers from antivirus vendor ESET, this is the second backdoor program targeting Macs found by antivirus firms in the past few days. It's not clear how Keydnap is distributed, but it arrives on computers in the form of a zip archive. Inside there's an executable file with an apparently benign extension such as .txt or .jpg that actually has a space character at the end. The file also has an icon indicating an image or text file.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Mac backdoor program steals keychain contents

Researchers have identified a new Mac backdoor program that's designed to steal credentials stored in the OS-encrypted keychain and give attackers control over the system. Dubbed OSX/Keydnap by researchers from antivirus vendor ESET, this is the second backdoor program targeting Macs found by antivirus firms in the past few days. It's not clear how Keydnap is distributed, but it arrives on computers in the form of a zip archive. Inside there's an executable file with an apparently benign extension such as .txt or .jpg that actually has a space character at the end. The file also has an icon indicating an image or text file.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner leaves to head a financial trading company

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner is leaving after 11 years in the role. He won't be replaced.Employees learned of the move Thursday in an email message from CEO Satya Nadella, in which he outlined his plans for reorganizing the company's senior leadership team.Nadella highlighted the importance of having "one feedback loop" across the company to reinforce customer value and satisfaction. To achieve this, he said, he will more deeply integrate the sales, marketing and services group with the rest of the company, under a single senior leadership team.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here