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Category Archives for "Networking"

Facebook tests a new way to show video – and make money from it

Facebook is preparing a new way to show videos on the social network and opening the door to a new source of advertising revenue at the same time.The new feature, called Suggested Videos, will roll out first on iOS in the coming weeks and probably will come to other platforms like Android and the Web in the next few months.It works like this: When users click on a video in their News Feed, a new area pops up with related videos from Facebook partners that users can also watch. Some of those videos will be advertisements, and when a user watches one of them, Facebook will share the advertising dollars with the other partners supplying the video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VPN users, beware: You may not be as safe as you think you are

It’s become common practice to use virtual private networks for extra privacy and security in this era of mass surveillance, but a study published this week suggests such networks may not be as safe as they’re commonly made out to be.In fact, because of a vulnerability known as IPv6 leakage, many of them can expose user information to prying eyes, according to a paper from researchers at Sapienza University of Rome and Queen Mary University of London.Entitled “A Glance through the VPN Looking Glass: IPv6 Leakage and DNS Hijacking in Commercial VPN clients,” the report describes a study conducted late last year that examined 14 popular commercial VPN providers around the world.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC tells TracFone it must allow phone unlocking

TracFone, a major provider of prepaid mobile phone service, must keep its promise to let customers unlock their devices and transfer service to competing carriers, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said.TracFone must transition to unlockable phones in a settlement announced by the FCC Wednesday. In addition to the TracFone brand, the company provides pay-as-you-go mobile service through the brands Straight Talk, Net10 Wireless, SafeLink Wireless, Telcel America, Simple Mobile and Page Plus Cellular.TracFone, with about 25.7 million U.S. mobile customers, violated FCC rules by failing to live up to promises that it would unlock phones for customers enrolled in the agency’s Lifeline program, a subsidized mobile program for low-income people, the agency said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Breakthrough could make it easier to lay fiber at long distances

One of the big problems with fiber has always been that the more power you add to a signal—to get the signal to travel further—the more distortion you get. That distortion degrades the quality of the data. It's a problem because ideally you want fiber to travel long distances. It's cheaper to run one long cable than multiple pieces with added repeaters, as is the current process now.Deciphering data at 12,000 km Scientists reckon they've got a solution, though. Researchers at the University of California San Diego say they've been able to send data 12,000 kilometers along fiber without repeaters and still decipher the information at the end.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Breakthrough could make it easier to lay fiber at long distances

One of the big problems with fiber has always been that the more power you add to a signal—to get the signal to travel further—the more distortion you get. That distortion degrades the quality of the data. It's a problem because ideally you want fiber to travel long distances. It's cheaper to run one long cable than multiple pieces with added repeaters, as is the current process now.Deciphering data at 12,000 km Scientists reckon they've got a solution, though. Researchers at the University of California San Diego say they've been able to send data 12,000 kilometers along fiber without repeaters and still decipher the information at the end.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Welcome UK2 Group!

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Today we are thrilled to welcome UK2 Group as a CloudFlare partner. Customers of UK2 Group (including its brands UK2.net, Midphase, and Westhost) are now able to access CloudFlare’s web performance and security solutions with a single click. Backed by CloudFlare, UK2 Group’s customers can now protect their websites against security threats, ensure only clean traffic gets served, and speed up site performance no matter where visitors are located. Customers in need of advanced features, and even more performance and security, can sign up for CloudFlare Plus—a plan only offered through our reseller partners.

UK2 Group is one of the innovators of the hosting industry and operates globally. While its name points to its roots (located just down the road from the CloudFlare office in London), it also has an extensive presence in the US. We’re excited to partner with UK2 Group to provide the best web performance and security to its numerous customers.

Click here to learn more.

Federal wiretaps down slightly, encryption impact decreases

For the first time in a number of years the use of authorized federal wiretaps decreased 13% in 2014 over 2013.According to the 2014 Wiretap Report, released today by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of a total of 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized, with 1,279 authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges. Compared to the applications approved during 2013, the number approved by federal judges decreased 13% in 2014 and the number approved by state judges increased 8%. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, the report stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Federal wiretaps down slightly, encryption impact decreases

For the first time in a number of years the use of authorized federal wiretaps decreased 13% in 2014 over 2013.According to the 2014 Wiretap Report, released today by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of a total of 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized, with 1,279 authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges. Compared to the applications approved during 2013, the number approved by federal judges decreased 13% in 2014 and the number approved by state judges increased 8%. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, the report stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hacktivist group possibly compromised hundreds of websites

A hacker group known as Team GhostShell is publishing snippets of sensitive data allegedly stolen from the databases of hundreds of compromised websites.The group, which previously targeted government organizations, law enforcement agencies and companies from various industries in 2012, announced in March 2013 that it was halting its activities.In a surprise return Monday the group started posting on Twitter the names of websites it claims to have hacked as part of a new campaign, along with links to samples of data extracted from their databases.So far the group has published the names of over 450 websites, but claims that it has hacked many more. The alleged victims range from companies to education institutions and government organizations from different countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco Reverses CCIE Scheduling Policy Changes

As we reported last April, Cisco changed the CCIE Lab Exam retake policy to an exponential backoff, meaning that the more attempts you took at the lab the more time you had to wait between attempts.

In a sudden change of heart, today Cisco announced that they are reversing their policy change until at least December 31st 2015. Per Cisco:

“For a limited time, we will waive the current lab retake policy so that all lab candidates will be able to retest for their lab exam with only a 30-day wait period.” “If you register for any CCIE lab exam between now and December 31, 2015, you will have the option of retaking the exam with only a 30-day wait regardless of the number of attempts you may have already made.”

Frequently Asked Questions about the policy changes:

Q: Does this mean that between now and December 31, I can take the lab every 30 days?
A: Yes.

Q: Is the original policy back in place after December 31?
A: What happens after December 31 is dependent on the results of our research from now until that date.

Q: What does this mean if my current Continue reading

Microsoft Acquisition Rumors & Drones Vs. People

Tech media speculates on Microsoft acquiring AMD and Docker. And here's why drones and people don't always mix.

Author information

Drew Conry-Murray

I'm a tech journalist, editor, and content director with 17 years' experience covering the IT industry. I'm author of the book "The Symantec Guide To Home Internet Security" and co-author of the post-apocalyptic novel "Wasteland Blues," available at Amazon.

The post Microsoft Acquisition Rumors & Drones Vs. People appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Drew Conry-Murray.

CCIE SPv4 Advanced Technologies Class Continues Today

INE’s CCIE Service Provider v4 Advanced Technologies Class continues today at 08:00 PDT (15:00 UTC) with Inter-AS MPLS L3VPN. All Access Pass subscribers can attend at http://live.INE.com. Recordings of some of the previous class sessions up to this point are now available via AAP library here.

Additionally, INE’s CCIE SPv4 Workbook is now available in beta format here.

Hope to see you in class!

Setting Go variables from the outside

CloudFlare's DNS server, RRDNS, is written in Go and the DNS team used to generate a file called version.go in our Makefile. version.go looked something like this:

// THIS FILE IS AUTOGENERATED BY THE MAKEFILE. DO NOT EDIT.

// +build    make

package version

var (  
    Version   = "2015.6.2-6-gfd7e2d1-dev"
    BuildTime = "2015-06-16-0431 UTC"
)

and was used to embed version information in RRDNS. It was built inside the Makefile using sed and git describe from a template file. It worked, but was pretty ugly.

Today we noticed that another Go team at CloudFlare, the Data team, had a much smarter way to bake version numbers into binaries using the -X linker option.

The -X Go linker option, which you can set with -ldflags, sets the value of a string variable in the Go program being linked. You use it like this: -X main.version 1.0.0.

A simple example: let's say you have this source file saved as hello.go.

package main

import "fmt"

var who = "World"

func main() {  
    fmt.Printf("Hello, %s.n", who)
}

Then you can use go run (or other build commands like go build or go install Continue reading

One third of enterprise iOS devices vulnerable to app, data hijacking attacks

Apple released patches for several exploits that could allow maliciously crafted applications to destroy apps that already exist on devices, access their data or hijack their traffic, but a large number of iOS devices are still vulnerable.The vulnerabilities allow for so-called Masque attacks because they involve the impersonation of existing apps or their components. Three of them were patched in iOS version 8.1.3 that was released in January and two newer ones were patched in iOS 8.4, released Tuesday.In order to attack iOS devices with these flaws, hackers would have to trick their owners into installing rogue apps through the enterprise provisioning system. Companies use this mechanism to deploy in-house developed apps that are not published on the official App Store.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Austrian court dismisses class action suit against Facebook

An Austrian court has dismissed a class action suit concerning Facebook’s privacy policy, saying it has no jurisdiction over the case.The decision is a blow to Europe-v-Facebook, the privacy campaign group whose front-man, Max Schrems, filed the suit, and to the 25,000 Facebook users who had assigned their claims against the company to the case.Schrems, an Austrian national, filed suit against Facebook in the Vienna Commercial Court, which referred the case to the Vienna Regional Court.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here