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How to improve network monitoring

Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not promote a product or service and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.

I’m an aerospace engineer by degree and an IT executive by practice. Early in my career, I worked on missile hardware and simulators with some of the smartest minds at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. An adage from those days still drives me today: “Better is the evil of good enough.”

In rocket science, an astronaut’s life is literally in the balance with every engineering decision. Being perfect is mission critical. But along the way, NASA engineers realized while perfection is important, it was not to be universally adopted, for several key reasons: It is very expensive, it draws out timelines, and it can result in extreme over-engineering.

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Proposed US law would require tech companies to help defeat encryption

A proposal from two senior U.S. senators would force tech companies to give technical assistance to law enforcement agencies trying to break into smartphones and other encrypted devices.The draft bill, released Friday by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, would allow judges to order tech companies to comply with requests from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to help them break into devices. Burr, a North Carolina Republican, is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Feinstein, from California, is the panel's senior Democrat."All persons receiving an authorized judicial order for information or data must provide, in a timely manner, responsive, intelligible information or data, or appropriate technical assistance," the draft bill says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to choose a software defined WAN (SD-WAN)

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.

Only 1% of companies use software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions today, but Gartner says the promise of cost savings and performance improvements will drive that number to more than 30% by 2019.  Why aren’t more businesses deploying now given the sizeable list of vendor tools available?  It could be a lack of understanding about the varying approaches to bringing software-defined networking to the branch.

Before exploring those differences, let’s review why SD-WAN is so promising for branch environments. Compared to traditional WANs, SD-WANs reduce the complexity of network hardware at branch offices and centralize and simplify management. SD-WANs also allow businesses to augment or replace MPLS networks by using less expensive Internet links in a logical overlay and intelligently routing traffic over multiple paths directly to the Internet, rather than through a central data center. This improves application performance and makes more efficient use of bandwidth.

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The Design Mindset (4)—Interaction Surfaces

Before talking the final point in the network design mindset, ,act, I wanted to answer an excellent question from the comments from the last post in this series: what is surface?

The concept of interaction surfaces is difficult to grasp primarily because it covers such a wide array of ideas. Let me try to clarify by giving a specific example. Assume you have a single function that—

  • Accepts two numbers as input
  • Adds them
  • Multiplies the resulting sum by 100
  • Returns the result

This single function can be considered a subsystem in some larger system. Now assume you break this single function into two functions, one of which does the addition, and the other of which does the multiplication. You’ve created two simpler functions (each one only does one thing), but you’ve created an interaction surface between the two functions—you’ve created two interacting subsystems within the system where there only used to be one. This is a really simple example, I know, but consider a few more that might help.

  • The routing information carried in OSPF is split up into external routes being carried in BGP, and internal rotues being carried in OSPF. You’ve gone from one system with more Continue reading

Karamba brings cybersecurity to the automotive market for connected cars  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  If you happen to be driving around California roads this summer, don't be surprised if a car with no driver pulls up next to you at an intersection. Google expects to be road-testing its prototype of a driverless car soon. If all goes well with this and other tests, BI Intelligence believes there could be 10 million cars with self-driving features on our roads by 2020.Fully autonomous cars – those that don't need any interaction at all from a driver, like Google's – still seem futuristic to most of us, but there are plenty of semi-autonomous cars sharing our roads today. This latter category includes all sorts of features to increase safety and convenience, everything from lane-keeping assist systems designed to keep a car in an open lane, to adaptive cruise control that matches the car's speed to that of the vehicle ahead,To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Karamba brings cybersecurity to the automotive market for connected cars  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  If you happen to be driving around California roads this summer, don't be surprised if a car with no driver pulls up next to you at an intersection. Google expects to be road-testing its prototype of a driverless car soon. If all goes well with this and other tests, BI Intelligence believes there could be 10 million cars with self-driving features on our roads by 2020.Fully autonomous cars – those that don't need any interaction at all from a driver, like Google's – still seem futuristic to most of us, but there are plenty of semi-autonomous cars sharing our roads today. This latter category includes all sorts of features to increase safety and convenience, everything from lane-keeping assist systems designed to keep a car in an open lane, to adaptive cruise control that matches the car's speed to that of the vehicle ahead,To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 best cloud SLA practices

Getting and enforcing a service level agreement is paramount when employing cloud services – that was the chief conclusion reached in a report out this week by the federal watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.“Purchasing IT services through a provider enables agencies to avoid paying for all the assets such as hardware, software and networks that would typically be needed to provide such services.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+This approach offers federal agencies a means to buy the services faster and possibly cheaper than through the traditional methods they have used. To take advantage of these potential benefits, agencies have reported that they plan to spend more than $2 billion on cloud computing services in fiscal year 2016,” the GAO stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 best cloud SLA practices

Getting and enforcing a service level agreement is paramount when employing cloud services – that was the chief conclusion reached in a report out this week by the federal watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.“Purchasing IT services through a provider enables agencies to avoid paying for all the assets such as hardware, software and networks that would typically be needed to provide such services.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+This approach offers federal agencies a means to buy the services faster and possibly cheaper than through the traditional methods they have used. To take advantage of these potential benefits, agencies have reported that they plan to spend more than $2 billion on cloud computing services in fiscal year 2016,” the GAO stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 best cloud SLA practices

Getting and enforcing a service level agreement is paramount when employing cloud services – that was the chief conclusion reached in a report out this week by the federal watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office.“Purchasing IT services through a provider enables agencies to avoid paying for all the assets such as hardware, software and networks that would typically be needed to provide such services.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+This approach offers federal agencies a means to buy the services faster and possibly cheaper than through the traditional methods they have used. To take advantage of these potential benefits, agencies have reported that they plan to spend more than $2 billion on cloud computing services in fiscal year 2016,” the GAO stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Windows 10 build loaded with changes

Microsoft promised a lot of nifty new features for Windows 10 at the Build conference, and one week later it has delivered a new build—number 14316—to the Fast Ring of its Windows Insiders who get the first crack at new builds for testing.At the Build show, Microsoft announced an “Anniversary update” slated for June, which was when a big update codenamed Redstone was thought to arrive. It now looks like the two are one in the same.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Business email scams have led to $2.3 billion losses via rogue wire transfers

Over the past two and a half years, cybercriminals have managed to steal over $2.3 billion from thousands of companies worldwide by using little more than carefully crafted scam emails.Known as business email compromise (BEC), CEO fraud or whaling, this type of attack involves criminals impersonating an organization's chief executive officer, or some other high-ranking manager, and instructing employees via email to initiate rogue wire transfers.According to an alert issued earlier this week by the FBI, between October 2013 and February 2016, 17,642 organizations from the U.S. and 79 other countries have fallen victim to BEC attacks. The combined losses amount to over $2.3 billion, the agency said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Business email scams have led to $2.3 billion losses via rogue wire transfers

Over the past two and a half years, cybercriminals have managed to steal over $2.3 billion from thousands of companies worldwide by using little more than carefully crafted scam emails.Known as business email compromise (BEC), CEO fraud or whaling, this type of attack involves criminals impersonating an organization's chief executive officer, or some other high-ranking manager, and instructing employees via email to initiate rogue wire transfers.According to an alert issued earlier this week by the FBI, between October 2013 and February 2016, 17,642 organizations from the U.S. and 79 other countries have fallen victim to BEC attacks. The combined losses amount to over $2.3 billion, the agency said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

47% off TomTom VIA 1505M 5-Inch Portable GPS – Deal Alert

The TomTom VIA 1505M 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator receives an average of 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon (read reviews). With a list price of $169.95, this substantial 47% discount knocks the price down to just $89.99.Clean, clear and intuitive maps are displayed on the VIA's bright 5" inch touchscreen. Pre-installed points of interest and Advanced Lane Guidance help you find what you need quickly, and guide you there without confusion. This device comes with free map upgrades for the life of the unit, so you stay up to date with the inevitable changes. An integrated mount attaches to your windshield or dashboard and quickly folds away for increased portability.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CloudFlare Crypto Meetup: April 21, 2016

CloudFlare Crypto Meetup Teaser.

Now back in HD: the CloudFlare Cryptography Meetup series. A while back, CloudFlare hosted a pair of Meetups focused on encryption and cryptographic technology. Now that CloudFlare HQ has moved into our beautiful new home at 101 Townsend in San Francisco, we’ve decided to bring the crypto back.

In this series, we’ve invited experts from academia and industry to talk about the cryptographic protocols they are working on and to share experiences around deploying cryptographic applications in the real world. This is the place to geek out on crypto!

These talks are intended to explore interesting new crypto topics in an accessible way. It aims to be informative and thought provoking, and practical examples are encouraged.

We’ll start the evening at 6:00p.m. with time for networking, followed up with short talks by leading experts. Pizza and beer are provided!

Whether you're a cryptography hobbyist, an industry expert or just interested in the subject, come visit CloudFlare’s world headquarters at 6:00pm on April 21st.

RSVP here on Meetup.com.

Speakers

The confirmed speakers for April 21st are Brian Warner, Zakir Durumeric and Amine Kamel.

Brian Warner

magic-wormhole

"magic-wormhole" is a simple tool to move files from Continue reading

That moment when you realize you’re exchanging emails with a robot

Next time you schedule a meeting and an assistant named Amy or Andrew Ingram sets up the logistics, here's a pro tip: You may be chatting with a robot. And if it's one of x.ai's bots, you might never know the difference. That was my experience when I exchanged emails with "Andrew" to set up an interview with x.ai's CEO. After I emailed x.ai's press contact, she referred me to Andrew to hammer out the details. Andrew proposed a time, thanked me when I accepted and sent out a calendar invitation. Had I not been clued in ahead of time, I never would have realized Andrew wasn't human. Therein lies x.ai's value proposition.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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