You can now make smart gadgets and IoT devices that use Bluetooth 5

In a few months, Bluetooth 5 will finally arrive in smartphones and tablets. But you can already test the technology on developer boards being shipped by hardware makers.Bluetooth 5 is a major step ahead for the venerable technology, which was introduced in 1999 to hook up devices wirelessly. It is two times faster than predecessor Bluetooth 4.2, has four times longer range, and boasts cool new connectivity features.It can transfer data at speeds of up to 2Mbps (bits per second) and has a realistic range of 120 meters. The range could be even longer in a clear line of sight, the standards setting organization Bluetooth Special Interest Group said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Why managing trust is critical for digital transformation

Digital disruption has demolished more than 50% of the Fortune 500 since 2000 Technology is creating new online-only companies—i.e., Kickstarter for funding, Sofi for lending and Venmo for payments. The digital disruption and, more important, its pace continues to disrupt long-established business models. Incumbents, not wanting to become another cautionary tale of digital disruption, are making radical changes to their businesses to focus on online and mobile channels.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Why managing trust is critical for digital transformation

Digital disruption has demolished more than 50% of the Fortune 500 since 2000 Technology is creating new online-only companies—i.e., Kickstarter for funding, Sofi for lending and Venmo for payments. The digital disruption and, more important, its pace continues to disrupt long-established business models. Incumbents, not wanting to become another cautionary tale of digital disruption, are making radical changes to their businesses to focus on online and mobile channels.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Whitebox networking – coming soon to an edge near you?


What is whitebox networking and why is it important?

whitebox-switch_500px-wide

A brief history of the origins of whitebox

One of the many interesting conversations to come out of my recent trip to Network Field Day 14 (NFD14) hosted by Gestalt IT was a discussion on the future of whitebox. As someone who co-founded a firm that consults on whitebox and open networking, it was a topic that really captivated me and generated a flurry of ideas on the subject. This will be the first in a series of posts about my experiences and thoughts on NFD14.

Whitebox is a critical movement in the network industry that is reshaping the landscape of what equipment and software we use to build networks. At the dawn of the age of IT in the late 80s and early 90’s, we used computing hardware and software that was proprietary – a great example would be an IBM mainframe.

Then we evolved into the world of x86 and along came a number of operating systems that we could choose from to customize the delivery of applications and services. Hardware became a commodity and software became independent of the hardware manufacturer.

ONIE – The beginning of independent network Continue reading

Whitebox networking – coming soon to an edge near you?


What is whitebox networking and why is it important?

whitebox-switch_500px-wide

A brief history of the origins of whitebox

One of the many interesting conversations to come out of my recent trip to Network Field Day 14 (NFD14) hosted by Gestalt IT was a discussion on the future of whitebox. As someone who co-founded a firm that consults on whitebox and open networking, it was a topic that really captivated me and generated a flurry of ideas on the subject. This will be the first in a series of posts about my experiences and thoughts on NFD14.

Whitebox is a critical movement in the network industry that is reshaping the landscape of what equipment and software we use to build networks. At the dawn of the age of IT in the late 80s and early 90’s, we used computing hardware and software that was proprietary – a great example would be an IBM mainframe.

Then we evolved into the world of x86 and along came a number of operating systems that we could choose from to customize the delivery of applications and services. Hardware became a commodity and software became independent of the hardware manufacturer.

ONIE – The beginning of independent network Continue reading

Mitigating DDoS

Your first line of defense to any DDoS, at least on the network side, should be to disperse the traffic across as many resources as you can. Basic math implies that if you have fifteen entry points, and each entry point is capable of supporting 10g of traffic, then you should be able to simply absorb a 100g DDoS attack while still leaving 50g of overhead for real traffic (assuming perfect efficiency, of course—YMMV). Dispersing a DDoS in this way may impact performance—but taking bandwidth and resources down is almost always the wrong way to react to a DDoS attack.

But what if you cannot, for some reason, disperse the attack? Maybe you only have two edge connections, or if the size of the DDoS is larger than your total edge bandwidth combined? It is typically difficult to mitigate a DDoS attack, but there is an escalating chain of actions you can take that often prove useful. Let’s deal with local mitigation techniques first, and then consider some fancier methods.

  • TCP SYN filtering: A lot of DDoS attacks rely on exhausting TCP open resources. If all inbound TCP sessions can be terminated in a proxy (such as a load balancer), Continue reading

RSA Conference 2017: Security analytics and operations

So far, I’ve written two blogs about my expectations for the upcoming RSA Security Conference next week. The first blog was about my outlook for endpoint security, while the second focused on network security. I am also in the middle of a big research project on security analytics and operations right now and believe that many independent technologies will be integrated into a comprehensive architecture that ESG calls SOAPA (i.e. security operations and analytics platform architecture).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

RSA Conference 2017: Security analytics and operations

So far, I’ve written two blogs about my expectations for the upcoming RSA Security Conference next week. The first blog was about my outlook for endpoint security, while the second focused on network security. I am also in the middle of a big research project on security analytics and operations right now and believe that many independent technologies will be integrated into a comprehensive architecture that ESG calls SOAPA (i.e. security operations and analytics platform architecture).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security Analytics and Operations at RSA

So far, I’ve written two blogs about my expectations for the upcoming RSA Security Conference next week.  The first blog was about my outlook for endpoint security while the second focused on network security. I am also in the middle of a big research project on security analytics and operations right now and believe that many independent technologies will be integrated into a comprehensive architecture that ESG calls SOAPA (i.e. security operations and analytics platform architecture).  Here’s another blog where I define the SOAPA architecture and all the consolidating piece parts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hacker takes out dark web hosting service using well-known exploit

A hacker is proving that sites on the dark web, shrouded in anonymity, can easily be compromised.    On Friday, the unnamed hacker began dumping a sizable database stolen from Freedom Hosting II onto the internet, potentially exposing its users. The hosting service, Freedom Hosting II, was known for operating thousands of sites that were accessible through the Tor browser; the "dark web" is essentially the encrypted network comprising Tor servers and browsers. But on Friday, the service appeared to be down. Its main landing page was replaced with a message saying that it had been hacked. Allegedly, Freedom Hosting II had been hosting child pornography sites, though its anonymous operator claimed to have a zero-tolerance policy toward such content, according to the hacker behind the breach.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hacker takes out dark web hosting service using well-known exploit

A hacker is proving that sites on the dark web, shrouded in anonymity, can easily be compromised.    On Friday, the unnamed hacker began dumping a sizable database stolen from Freedom Hosting II onto the internet, potentially exposing its users. The hosting service, Freedom Hosting II, was known for operating thousands of sites that were accessible through the Tor browser; the "dark web" is essentially the encrypted network comprising Tor servers and browsers. But on Friday, the service appeared to be down. Its main landing page was replaced with a message saying that it had been hacked. Allegedly, Freedom Hosting II had been hosting child pornography sites, though its anonymous operator claimed to have a zero-tolerance policy toward such content, according to the hacker behind the breach.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s keeping enterprises from using G Suite?

While Google has spent the past year trying to woo enterprises to its G Suite productivity apps, it’s still the underdog compared to Microsoft Office, at least among large businesses. So what’s keeping it from broader appeal?One of the biggest hurdles for Google achieving broader enterprise adoption is just the fact that the company’s products aren't identical to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft Office apps, Gartner Senior Research Analyst Joe Mariano said."Enterprises have been ingrained in the Microsoft stack for essentially the beginning of time, it feels like," Mariano said. "[Enterprises] have problems shifting away from that, because they have a lot of investments, either in customizations or how they're using the tools."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Windows Cloud build just leaked, and this is what we learned

Microsoft's mysterious Windows Cloud is supposedly a stripped-down version of Microsoft’s operating system that runs only Windows Store apps. Microsoft's not commenting, but an early build that leaked over the weekend appears to be authentic and gives further tantalizing hints of what the company may have in mind. Windows Cloud intrigues Microsoft watchers because of its uncanny resemblance to Windows RT, Microsoft’s failed ARM-based platform. It, too, could only run Windows Store apps, plus desktop versions of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. There are numerous reasons why RT never succeeded, but the gist is there weren’t enough apps and nobody wanted to run a hobbled PC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

One-third of iPhones are the Plus model

It's no secret that the tablet market is in something of a freefall. It is being squeezed on the top end by high-end laptops that have detachable touch screens and on the bottom by large phones. Plus, the chief advocate for tablets was Steve Jobs, who is no longer with us, and no one has stepped forward to champion the tablet. NPD Group reports that tablet sales have dropped 15 percent from 2015 to 2016. It would have been worse if not for Amazon practically giving away the low-cost Amazon Fire Tablet. There is also some success to be had with the iPad Pro and Microsoft Surface Pro 4. + Also on Network World: iPhone 8 likely to feature 'wraparound' display design + But the real damage is being done by large phones, sometimes called phablets (a portmanteau for "phone-tablet"). In the fourth quarter of 2016, Apple sold just 13 million iPads, a 19 percent drop from the same period in 2015. However, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says the iPhone Plus, with its 6.23-in. diagonal screen, made up 35 percent of the iPhone installed base as of the end of last year, up from 25 percent in Continue reading

TV maker Vizio pays $2.2M to settle complaint that it spied on users

Popular smart TV maker Vizio will pay US $2.2 million to settle complaints that it violated customers' privacy by continuously monitoring their viewing habits without their knowledge. Beginning in February 2014, the California TV maker tracked what TV shows customers were watching on 11 million TV sets sold in the U.S., the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General said in a complaint, released Monday. Vizio smart TVs captured "second-by-second" information about video displayed, including video from consumer cable service, broadband, set-top boxes, DVDs, over-the-air broadcasts, and streaming devices, according to the complaint.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

TV maker Vizio pays $2.2M to settle complaint that it spied on users

Popular smart TV maker Vizio will pay US $2.2 million to settle complaints that it violated customers' privacy by continuously monitoring their viewing habits without their knowledge.Beginning in February 2014, the California TV maker tracked what TV shows customers were watching on 11 million TV sets sold in the U.S., the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General said in a complaint, released Monday.Vizio smart TVs captured "second-by-second" information about video displayed, including video from consumer cable service, broadband, set-top boxes, DVDs, over-the-air broadcasts, and streaming devices, according to the complaint.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to catch a 400lb drone traveling at full speed

Catching a full-sized military drone traveling at full speed without destroying it midflight is no easy task. But DARPA this week said a research project it has been working – known as SideArm -- is doing just that and more. DARPA said that SideArm developer Aurora Flight Sciences has successfully tested a full-scale system that repeatedly captured a 400-pound Lockheed Martin Fury unmanned aircraft accelerated to flight speed via an external catapult. A Fury can hit over 130MPH.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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