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Category Archives for "Networking"

IDG Contributor Network: User-controlled, private clouds could help with security, think scientists

One of the problems with smartphone apps is that one has no control over where often sensitive permissions and personal content is stored. While we’re allowed a certain amount of input when it comes to downloading the app and installing it: agree to the permissions or else, we have no control over where or how all the data is stored. We know that it’s probably in the cloud somewhere, but it could be anywhere, even on the phone itself. And each app developer has its own idea about how to handle the stuff. That is a problem for security—not the app developers’ but ours. And it doesn’t stop at phones. Anyone know where the password for an IoT oven is located, and how securely? The answer is no and maybe not very.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Emergency Java update fixes two-year-old flaw after researchers bypass old patch

Oracle has released an emergency Java security update to fix a critical vulnerability that could allow attackers to compromise computers when they visit specially crafted websites.The company has assigned CVE-2016-0636 as the identifier for the vulnerability, which suggests that it is a new flaw discovered this year, but that's not really the case.Polish security firm Security Explorations confirmed via email that the new Java update actually fixes a broken patch for a vulnerability that was originally reported to Oracle by the company in 2013.Earlier this month Security Explorations announced that a patch released by Oracle in October 2013 for a critical vulnerability tracked as CVE-2013-5838 was ineffective and could be trivially bypassed by changing only four characters in the original exploit. This meant that the vulnerability was still exploitable in the latest versions of Java.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: HexaTier secures all those databases in the cloud

Israeli-founded HexaTier, the nattily-named vendor that offers security and compliance solutions for cloud-hosted databases and Database as a Service (DBaaS) platforms, is launching the latest version of its products and focusing squarely at what it perceives are the key enterprises blockers for DBaaS adoption. The Israel connection is interesting, the number of IT security companies to originate from Israel is truly staggering. It is a reflection of the huge amount of investment that the Israeli military makes into cyber security - many of those hyper-smart graduates of the Israel Defence Force's 8200 cyber-security unit go on to form commercial companies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cybersecurity as a Business Issue

It’s become a cliché in the industry to say that cybersecurity has become a board room-level issue but what evidence do we have to support this claim?  Well, here are a few tidbits from some recent ESG research that certainly lend credibility to the business-driven cybersecurity thesis (note: I am an ESG employee): When asked to identify business initiatives that are driving IT spending, 43% of respondents said, “increasing cybersecurity.”  This was the top business initiative selected followed by “reducing costs” (38%), “improving data analytics for real-time business intelligence” (32%), and “ensuring regulatory compliance” (27%). On a similar vein, survey respondents were asked to identify the most important IT “meta-trend” to their organization.  Forty-two percent of respondents selected, “increasing cybersecurity.”  The next most popular response, “using data analytics for real-time business intelligence,” came in at 17%. 69% of organizations are increasing their spending on cybersecurity in 2016.  These budget increases are being approved by business managers who are now willing to spend more money to improve cybersecurity at their organizations.  As if the ESG data wasn’t enough, we also know that cyber-insurance policies grew by about 35% last year.  So aside from increasing Continue reading

IDC: SD-WAN market to hit $6B by 2020

The confluence of applications being hosted in the cloud and end users accessing them via mobile devices is accelerating advancements in wide area networking technologies.A new report issued today by research firm IDC predicts those factors will drive what was a relatively nascent software defined WAN (SD-WAN) industry, worth a mere $225 million last year, to grow at a more than 90% compound annual growth rate for the next five years to become a $6 billion industry by 2020.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: SD-WAN: What it is and why you’ll use it one day +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to make Android a real part of your business

Over the past five years, iPhones and iPads have become the corporate mobile standards, thanks to their wealth of business apps, Exchange compatibility, corporate manageability, and strong security. Android devices, on the other hand, have largely been relegated to "OK for email" status.But there's no longer a reason to keep Android at arm's length. It can now be as integral to your mobile portfolio as Apple's iOS devices are. Sure, Apple devices still lead in business-class apps, manageability, and security, but not by enough to exclude Android from full access at most companies.[ Check out InfoWorld's comparisons of office apps for the iPad and office apps for Android devices. | Read our guide to Exchange-based tools in Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android: mobile Outlook vs. desktop Outlook vs. native apps. | See the  top tips on getting more from iOS for email, contacts, and calendars. ] With that in mind, InfoWorld has put together this guide on how to deploy Android, both for company-issued devices and BYOD scenarios; most companies likely have a mix of both approaches.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Stealthy USB Trojan hides in portable applications, targets air-gapped systems

A Trojan program is being distributed through USB drives and seems to be designed for stealing information from so-called air-gapped computers that are not connected to the Internet.The new Trojan has been dubbed USB Thief by security researchers from antivirus firm ESET and has several characteristics that set it apart from the traditional malware programs that spread using USB storage devices and the Windows Autorun feature.First of all, USB Thief infects USB drives that contain portable installations of popular applications like Firefox, NotePad++ or TrueCrypt. It's copied to such installations as a plug-in or DLL (dynamic link library) and is then executed along with those applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network World turns 30 today (please, no gifts)

The very first issue of Network World – 48 pages of glorious magazine print – was published on March 24, 1986. To mark the occasion we have assembled a number of reminiscences, including a collection of images from that debut edition, which you can see here.NETWORK WORLD TURNS 30: The networked world |9 ways technology will change within the next 10 years | The most momentous tech events of the past 30 years | 30 years of gadgets, computers and video games from my fabulous life | Network World celebrates 30 years From having combed that first issue for those images, I can report that back then we were all concerned about network reliability, carrier shenanigans, hackers stealing proprietary information, email privacy and employees goofing off when they should be working. Nice to know we don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The most momentous tech events of the past 30 years

The spectacular and the burn-outThe tech industry mirrors what goes on in regular society – people and companies rise in power one year only to fade away the next. That kind of change is the one constant in the high-tech industry. We have seen some spectacular successes and some incredible flame-outs. In 30 years the tech industry has seen many such transformations from companies such as IBM and Cisco to Nortel (remember them?) to technologies like SNA and Token Ring to Ethernet. Here we try to focus on the most important happenings since our own inception in 1986. Enjoy the ride.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Thumbing through issue No. 1 of Network World

Where it all began, 30 years agoNetwork world is turning 30. Don’t be fooled by the “Volume 3, Number 3” printed under the masthead, this was indeed the front page of the very first edition of Network World, dated March 24, 1986. Pre-Internet, of course, it was print-only. The featured front-page story – “Users force LU 6.2 issue” – was written by John Dix, then a senior editor, today our editor-in-chief. We’ve plucked a few other highlights from that issue, including ads, so enjoy the walk down Memory Lane.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The networked world

What would happen if you switched the enterprise to Airplane Mode?The simple answer: Nothing. Literally. Virtually every corporate process would grind to a halt, which is a simple testament to how reliant the modern organization is on the complex, interwoven, interdependent systems that pervade every fiber of business and society today.From the key enabler of business agility and transformation to tactical new answers in cloud, mobile computing and analytics, intelligent connectivity has never been a more essential part of business, government and the consumer experience.“All of these new trends we talk about -- Internet of things, mobility, cloud computing, mesh computing -- are network-centric compute paradigms," says Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst with ZK Research.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 ways technology will change within the next 10 years

Ten years ago, there were no smartphones. It was the coffeeshop era of Wi-Fi, which meant that the Internet was just beginning to follow us out the door and into the world. Amazon first released EC2, to some confusion. Nowadays, of course, Wi-Fi and mobile data are almost ubiquitous, smartphones have hit market saturation in the most developed nations, and EC2 is a cornerstone of modern business IT. The pace of technological progress continues to accelerate, it seems, as entire new product categories change the way we live and do business, and there’s no end in sight. Here’s our look ahead to 10 years in the future, and how the tech world may change.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here