IDG Contributor Network: Information security in an insecure world

If I could give only one piece advice for CTOs and IT teams, it would be this: Data security is not just an IT task—it comes down to people and processes. As a startup CTO, you’re often going to lead the charge when it comes to information security for your firm.  According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, U.S. companies and government agencies suffered a record 1,093 data breaches in 2016—a 40 percent increase over 2015. We’ve all seen the headlines and the high-profile victims, but attackers don’t discriminate when it comes to security breaches. Any company can become a victim, leading to losses of your data, your customers’ data, financial information, proprietary product information, and, ultimately, a loss of goodwill in the market. As more processes move online and into the cloud, companies increasingly feel this burden of staying secure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Information security in an insecure world

If I could give only one piece advice for CTOs and IT teams, it would be this: Data security is not just an IT task—it comes down to people and processes. As a startup CTO, you’re often going to lead the charge when it comes to information security for your firm.  According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, U.S. companies and government agencies suffered a record 1,093 data breaches in 2016—a 40 percent increase over 2015. We’ve all seen the headlines and the high-profile victims, but attackers don’t discriminate when it comes to security breaches. Any company can become a victim, leading to losses of your data, your customers’ data, financial information, proprietary product information, and, ultimately, a loss of goodwill in the market. As more processes move online and into the cloud, companies increasingly feel this burden of staying secure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Securing the smart home

Editor’s Note: First in a series of articles on the best ways to deploy and secure smart home technologyLast fall, we saw the rise of the weaponized smart device as the Mirai botnet compromised webcams and other Internet-connected things. Then in February, VIZIO agreed to pay a $2.2 million fine to the FTC for collecting the viewing histories of 11 million smart TV users without their knowledge or consent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

10 hidden features in the new Windows 10 Creators Update

Microsoft’s big Windows 10 refresh, the Creators Update, is slated for release on April 11, bringing new features, enhancements and applications. The ones that have been getting the most attention revolve around the user interface (tweaks to the Start Menu), new capabilities for Cortana, and 3D design (the Paint 3D app).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

New products of the week 4.3.17

New products of the weekImage by MicroStrategyOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.JumpStartImage by cloudjumperTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

WikiLeaks’ Assange gets relief from left victory in Ecuador

The win in Ecuador’s presidential elections of leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno will likely have provided relief to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who had been threatened with eviction from the country’s embassy in London by the opposition candidate.The election in the South American country had aroused interest in part because the conservative opposition candidate, Guillermo Lasso, had said that if elected he would evict Assange within 30 days of assuming  power, because it was costing the country too much to keep him at the embassy.The embassy is being constantly monitored by U.K. police ever since Assange slipped into it in 2012 and was granted asylum by the Ecuador government. Police say they will arrest Assange if he comes out of the embassy to meet an extradition request from Sweden in connection with an investigation into a sexual assault. Assange supporters are concerned that he may be moved from Sweden to the U.S. to face charges in connection with several leaks of confidential U.S. government information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

WikiLeaks’ Assange gets relief from left victory in Ecuador

The win in Ecuador’s presidential elections of leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno will likely have provided relief to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who had been threatened with eviction from the country’s embassy in London by the opposition candidate.The election in the South American country had aroused interest in part because the conservative opposition candidate, Guillermo Lasso, had said that if elected he would evict Assange within 30 days of assuming  power, because it was costing the country too much to keep him at the embassy.The embassy is being constantly monitored by U.K. police ever since Assange slipped into it in 2012 and was granted asylum by the Ecuador government. Police say they will arrest Assange if he comes out of the embassy to meet an extradition request from Sweden in connection with an investigation into a sexual assault. Assange supporters are concerned that he may be moved from Sweden to the U.S. to face charges in connection with several leaks of confidential U.S. government information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Linux Migration: Corporate Collaboration, Part 3

In discussing support for corporate communication and collaboration systems as part of my Linux migration, I’ve so far covered e-mail in part 1 and calendaring in part 2. In this post, I’m going to discuss the last few remaining aspects of corporate collaboration: instant messaging/chat, meetings and teleconferences, and document sharing.

Teleconferences and meetings

The topic of teleconferences and meetings is closely related to calendaring—it’s often necessary to access your calendar or others’ calendars when coordinating meetings or teleconferences—so I encourage you to read part 2 to get a better feel for the challenges around calendaring/scheduling. All the same challenges from that post apply here. GNOME Calendar, although it offers basic Exchange Web Services (EWS) support, does not support meeting invitations, looking up attendees, free/busy information, etc. This makes it completely unusable for setting up meetings. Evolution provides the backend support that GNOME Calendar uses but may be better suited as a frontend; I haven’t tested this functionality so I don’t know. This EWS provider for Lightning does support free/busy information, inviting attendees, etc., so it may be a good option (I’m still testing it).

The second aspect of teleconferences/meetings is the actual conduct of the meeting itself. Hosting Continue reading

iPhone 8 Rumor Rollup: Button in the rear, true tone in front, inside Jony Ive’s head

Yeah, yeah, Samsung introduced the edge-to-edge and physical-home-buttonless Galaxy S8 Android smartphone this week. Now back to iPhone 8 (or iPhone X) rumors and design concepts...BUTTON ON THE BACK A site called iDrop News (we have "obtained exclusive information from a source with intimate knowledge of Apple’s manufacturing facility") got iPhone 8 buzzers buzzing by posting concept designs of the next flagship Apple smartphone ("the iPhone Edition") with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, beneath the Apple logo. The idea seems to be that the bezel-less front won't allow for the fingerprint scanner there.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Government domain seizure notice on Kodi TV was April Fools’ prank

On Friday March 31 and part of April 1, visitors to kodi.tv saw a US government domain seizure notice as grabbed by the Wayback Machine. It featured logos of the Department of Justice, National Intellectual Property Rights and Homeland Security Investigations above the following message: This domain name has been seized by ICE - Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C 981 and 2323.Willful copyright infringement is a federal crime that carries penalties for first time offenders of up to five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine forfeiture and restitution (17 U.S.C 506, 18 U.S.C 2319). Intentionally and knowingly trafficking in counterfeit goods is a federal crime that carries penalties for first time offenders of up to ten years in federal prison, a $2,000,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution (18 U.S.C 2320)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Government domain seizure notice on Kodi TV was April Fools’ prank

On Friday March 31 and part of April 1, visitors to kodi.tv saw a US government domain seizure notice as grabbed by the Wayback Machine. It featured logos of the Department of Justice, National Intellectual Property Rights and Homeland Security Investigations above the following message: This domain name has been seized by ICE - Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C 981 and 2323.Willful copyright infringement is a federal crime that carries penalties for first time offenders of up to five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine forfeiture and restitution (17 U.S.C 506, 18 U.S.C 2319). Intentionally and knowingly trafficking in counterfeit goods is a federal crime that carries penalties for first time offenders of up to ten years in federal prison, a $2,000,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution (18 U.S.C 2320)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Automate When You Can, Program When You Must

I’ve had a general thought I’ve wanted to write about for quite some time now and after just seeing Matt Oswalt’s latest post Learn Programming or Perish(?), the thought finally makes it to paper so to speak in this post. The thought I want to expand on is something I say quite a bit as I talk about network automation. It is automate when you can, program when you must.

After reading Matt’s post, I’ll re-phrase to automate when you can, script when you must specifically targeting network engineers (note: even though this is what I mean, the word script makes it a bit clearer). This is a twist on the network industry’s old saying of switch when you can, route when you must.

Automate When You Can

Automate when you can is saying use some form of tooling when you can to do network automation. Why re-invent the wheel when you don’t have to? I’m a little biased these days, but this means using some form of extensible tooling, preferably open source, that does automation. Some of my favorites right now are Red Hat’s Ansible and Extreme’s StackStorm. However, this could just as well be other open Continue reading

Automate When You Can, Program When You Must

I’ve had a general thought I’ve wanted to write about for quite some time now and after just seeing Matt Oswalt’s latest post Learn Programming or Perish(?), the thought finally makes it to paper so to speak in this post. The thought I want to expand on is something I say quite a bit as I talk about network automation. It is automate when you can, program when you must.

After reading Matt’s post, I’ll re-phrase to automate when you can, script when you must specifically targeting network engineers (note: even though this is what I mean, the word script makes it a bit clearer). This is a twist on the network industry’s old saying of switch when you can, route when you must.

Automate When You Can

Automate when you can is saying use some form of tooling when you can to do network automation. Why re-invent the wheel when you don’t have to? I’m a little biased these days, but this means using some form of extensible tooling, preferably open source, that does automation. Some of my favorites right now are Red Hat’s Ansible and Extreme’s StackStorm. However, this could just as well be other open Continue reading

News at Last: It’s Extreme

We have news at last: Extreme Networks is acquiring Brocade’s Data Center Networking business. This includes the SLX, VDX and MLXe routing and switching product lines, Network Visibility and Analytics products, and most importantly, my team: StackStorm.

Extreme Networks has been around a long time - they were founded in 1996, the same year as Foundry, which was acquired by Brocade in 2008, and became my business unit. They’ve had ups and downs over the years, but business is going well right now. Their share price is up, and they have been on an acquisition spree recently, acquiring Zebra Wireless, and 3 weeks ago announcing their intention to acquire Avaya Networking.

This gives them all the pieces to provide end-to-end IP networking solutions, and gives them scale to compete.

The deal is expected to close 60 days after Broadcom completes its acquisition of Brocade, which is scheduled to happen by July 30. Until then we will continue to operate as separate businesses. We don’t know exactly what it will mean for my team, but given that network automation was explicitly mentioned in investor call, we should find a good home.

The legal nature of the company means that it Continue reading

News at Last: It’s Extreme

We have news at last: Extreme Networks is acquiring Brocade’s Data Center Networking business. This includes the SLX, VDX and MLXe routing and switching product lines, Network Visibility and Analytics products, and most importantly, my team: StackStorm.

Extreme Networks has been around a long time – they were founded in 1996, the same year as Foundry, which was acquired by Brocade in 2008, and became my business unit. They’ve had ups and downs over the years, but business is going well right now. Their share price is up, and they have been on an acquisition spree recently, acquiring Zebra Wireless, and 3 weeks ago announcing their intention to acquire Avaya Networking.

This gives them all the pieces to provide end-to-end IP networking solutions, and gives them scale to compete.

The deal is expected to close 60 days after Broadcom completes its acquisition of Brocade, which is scheduled to happen by July 30. Until then we will continue to operate as separate businesses. We don’t know exactly what it will mean for my team, but given that network automation was explicitly mentioned in investor call, we should find a good home.

The legal nature of the company means that it Continue reading

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