Dispersing a DDoS: Initial thoughts on DDoS protection

Distributed Denial of Service is a big deal—huge pools of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as security cameras, are compromised by botnets and being used for large scale DDoS attacks. What are the tools in hand to fend these attacks off? The first misconception is that you can actually fend off a DDoS attack. There is no magical tool you can deploy that will allow you to go to sleep every night thinking, “tonight my network will not be impacted by a DDoS attack.” There are tools and services that deploy various mechanisms that will do the engineering and work for you, but there is no solution for DDoS attacks.

One such reaction tool is spreading the attack. In the network below, the network under attack has six entry points.

Assume the attacker has IoT devices scattered throughout AS65002 which they are using to launch an attack. Due to policies within AS65002, the DDoS attack streams are being forwarded into AS65001, and thence to A and B. It would be easy to shut these two links down, forcing the traffic to disperse across five entries rather than two (B, C, D, E, and F). By splitting the Continue reading

Containers? What are containers?

Surveys of IT users are a dime a dozen, but every once in a while one pops with a surprising statistic. Like this one: A poll of more than 300 IT works by UBM found that 8% didn’t event know what an application container is.Containers have been the buzzword du jour for the past couple of years in cloud and application development circles. But surveys like this independent are a reminder that new technology is slow to catch on.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Oracle outlines plans to take on Amazon in the cloud +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cuba Up, Vietnam Down: Recent Subsea Cable Developments

Recent submarine cable-related developments have impacted internet connectivity in locales as diverse as Vietnam, Cuba, India, the Marshall Islands and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.  In this blog post, we report on positive developments in Cuba and Russia and a few notable cable failures in other parts of the world.

Vietnam

The internet of Vietnam got off to a shaky start in 2017 when, on 8 January, the America-Asia Gateway (AAG) submarine cable experienced yet another of its many failures.  In September of last year, Tuoi Tre News reported that AAG had suffered its 10th failure in three years, prompting VietnamNet to ask the question: Why does the AAG underwater cable have to be repaired so often?  Over the years, we have frequently analyzed these cable breaks.  (For example, see this, this or this.)

Internet performance in Ho Chi Minh City suffers greatly during these unfortunate episodes.  For Saigontourist Cable Television (SCTV), the recent break meant a brief disruption in connectivity and the loss of NTT transit as illustrated below.

saigon_tourist
Following this year’s loss of AAG, the TGN-Intra Asia (IA) cable also suffered a failure, compounding the problems for Vietnamese internet connectivity.  Tuoi Continue reading

IBM Security to buy risk-visualization firm Agile 3 Solutions

IBM Security plans to buy San Francisco-based Agile 3 Solutions, which makes software for visualizing data risk for analysis by senior executives.The deal is expected to close within weeks, but the financial terms were not released. It will include the purchase of Ravy Technologies, an Agile 3 subcontractor based in India.Agile 3’s software identifies risks to business programs and assets, and enables actions to head off possible exploits that could affect business processes. It provides a dashboard for measuring compliance with regulations and legislation.NEWSLETTERS: Get the latest tech news sent directly to your in-box IBM Security customers will be able to buy Agile 3 technology as a service through IBM Data Security Services or as features rolled into IBM Guardian, the company’s data-protection software. The company says the addition of the software will help identify and protect critical data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM Security to buy risk-visualization firm Agile 3 Solutions

IBM Security plans to buy San Francisco-based Agile 3 Solutions, which makes software for visualizing data risk for analysis by senior executives.The deal is expected to close within weeks, but the financial terms were not released. It will include the purchase of Ravy Technologies, an Agile 3 subcontractor based in India.Agile 3’s software identifies risks to business programs and assets, and enables actions to head off possible exploits that could affect business processes. It provides a dashboard for measuring compliance with regulations and legislation.NEWSLETTERS: Get the latest tech news sent directly to your in-box IBM Security customers will be able to buy Agile 3 technology as a service through IBM Data Security Services or as features rolled into IBM Guardian, the company’s data-protection software. The company says the addition of the software will help identify and protect critical data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Year’s resolution: Donate to 1 free software project every month

Free and open source software is an absolutely critical part of our world—and the future of technology and computing. One problem that consistently plagues many free software projects, though, is the challenge of funding ongoing development (and support and documentation). With that in mind, I have finally settled on a New Year’s resolution for 2017: to donate to one free software project (or group) every month—or the whole year. After all, these projects are saving me a boatload of money because I don’t need to buy expensive, proprietary packages to accomplish the same things.+ Also on Network World: Free Software Foundation shakes up its list of priority projects + I’m not setting some crazy goal here—not requiring that I donate beyond my means. Heck, some months I may be able to donate only a few bucks. But every little bit helps, right? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Top 25 worst-of-the-worst, most common passwords used in 2016

For the sixth year in a year, SplashData has released its list of worst passwords.According to SplashData, the list is based on over five million leaked passwords, which are used by users in North America and Western Europe, that were posted for sale online.I thought it might be interesting to compare SplashData’s newest list with the top 25 most common password list released last week by rival firm Keeper Security. According to the two companies, these were the top 25 worst passwords people used in 2016:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Top 25 worst-of-the-worst, most common passwords used in 2016

For the sixth year in a year, SplashData has released its list of worst passwords.According to SplashData, the list is based on over five million leaked passwords, which are used by users in North America and Western Europe, that were posted for sale online.I thought it might be interesting to compare SplashData’s newest list with the top 25 most common password list released last week by rival firm Keeper Security. According to the two companies, these were the top 25 worst passwords people used in 2016:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Master-Master Replication and Scaling of an Application between Each of the IoT Devices and the Cloud

In this article, I want to share with you how I solved a very interesting problem of synchronizing data between IoT devices and a cloud application.

I’ll start by outlining the general idea and the goals of my project. Then I’ll describe my implementation in greater detail. This is going to be a more technically advanced part, where I’ll be talking about the Contiki OS, databases, protocols and the like. In the end, I’ll summarize the technologies I used to implement the whole system.

Project overview

So, let’s talk about the general idea first.

Here’s a scheme illustrating the final state of the whole system:

I have a user who can connect to IoT devices via a cloud service or directly (that is over Wi-Fi).

Also, I have an application server somewhere in the cloud and the cloud itself somewhere on the Internet. This cloud can be anything — for example, an AWS or Azure instance or it could be a dedicated server, it could be anything :)

The application server is connected to IoT devices over some protocol. I need this connection to exchange data between the application server and the IoT devices.

The IoT devices are connected to each other in Continue reading

Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf, and Kapacitor

The InfluxData TICK (Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf, Kapacitor) provides a full set of integrated metrics tools, including an agent to export metrics (Telegraf), a time series database to collect and store the metrics (InfluxDB), a dashboard to display metrics (Chronograf), and a data processing engine (Kapacitor). Each of the tools is open sourced and can be used together or separately.
This article will show how industry standard sFlow agents embedded within the data center infrastructure can provide Telegraf metrics to InfluxDB. The solution uses sFlow-RT as a proxy to convert sFlow metrics into their Telegraf equivalent form so that they are immediately visible through the default Chronograf dashboards (Using a proxy to feed metrics into Ganglia described a similar approach for sending metrics to Ganglia).

The following telegraf.js script instructs sFlow-RT to periodically export host metrics to InfluxDB:
var influxdb = "http://10.0.0.56:8086/write?db=telegraf";

function sendToInfluxDB(msg) {
  if(!msg || !msg.length) return;
  
  var req = {
    url:influxdb,
    operation:'POST',
    headers:{"Content-Type":"text/plain"},
    body:msg.join('\n')
  };
  req.error = function(e) {
    logWarning('InfluxDB POST failed, error=' + e);
  }
  try { httpAsync(req); }
  catch(e) {
    logWarning('bad request ' + req.url + ' ' + e);
  }
}

var metric_names = [
   Continue reading

IDG Contributor Network: Public vs. private cloud: Why the public cloud is a real threat to security

The debate on public versus private cloud is a fierce one with advocates on both sides. Security experts, however, consistently fall in the pro-private camp. As a compliance and security expert, I have to agree.First, let’s be clear on the definitions.The public cloud is available to the public—in a free or pay-per-use capacity—and is accessible via the web. Some examples include Google Apps, Office 365, file sharing applications such as Box or Dropbox, and so on. The private cloud, on the other hand, is the same service, but it sits behind your firewall and limits access to your internal departments, employees, customers, etc. in your organization. The private cloud is either run by your IT department or your data center. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Public vs. private cloud: Why the public cloud is a real threat to security

The debate on public versus private cloud is a fierce one with advocates on both sides. Security experts, however, consistently fall in the pro-private camp. As a compliance and security expert, I have to agree.First, let’s be clear on the definitions.The public cloud is available to the public—in a free or pay-per-use capacity—and is accessible via the web. Some examples include Google Apps, Office 365, file sharing applications such as Box or Dropbox, and so on. The private cloud, on the other hand, is the same service, but it sits behind your firewall and limits access to your internal departments, employees, customers, etc. in your organization. The private cloud is either run by your IT department or your data center. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Constructing your CCDE Practical Exam Strategy

This blog is the second of a two-part series focused on preparing candidates for success in achieving the CCDE. Mastering the tools available to you can be a “force multiplier” on exam day. There are three primary tools available to you during the practical exam: on-screen highlighting, built-in notepad, and a physical dry-erase board. I will discuss each of these in detail. All candidates have access to each tool for all four scenarios. —Cisco Learning Network

The post Worth Reading: Constructing your CCDE Practical Exam Strategy appeared first on 'net work.

Beyond the Net Funding Programmes – Call for Applications

We are happy to announce that Applications for Beyond the Net Medium and Large grants are open until Thursday, 23 March 2017.

Beyond the Net seeks to improve the quality of people’s lives in all parts of the world by providing them meaningful access to an open, trusted and global Internet.

Do you have a project that can promote the development of your community, but you don’t have the economic resources to implement it? 

Beyond the Net provides funding up to $30,000 USD for one or two years’ projects.

Projects must focus in one or more of the following categories:

Ilda Simao

Avaya, in no-brainer, pulls $1 billion IPO in wake of bankruptcy filing

Avaya Holdings has withdrawn the $1 billion IPO offering it filed more than 5 years ago in the wake of last week's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by principal U.S. subsidiary Avaya, Inc. Avaya was taken private in 2007 after being acquired by two private equity firms for $8.2 billion. Enterprise networking and collaboration vendor Avaya said last week that its Chapter 11 filing is part of its transition from a hardware to software and services company. The company, which is looking to shed its $6 billion debt load, last week reported decreased revenue and an operating loss for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Data center managers, it’s time to commit to those New Year’s resolutions

Whether it’s a new exercise program, volunteering for charitable causes or deciding to go gluten-free, studies have shown that nearly half of people who fully commit to New Year’s resolutions were over 10 times more likely to succeed at realizing real change as compared to 4 percent who do not.The concept of New Year’s resolutions dates back to the Babylonians, who at the start of each year made promises to their gods to return borrowed objects and pay their debts. Romans, too, would begin each year by making promises to Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, for whom the month of January is named.+ Also on Network World: More proof the cloud is winning big + But wait, dear data center manager. You say you don’t have time to do gut-crunchers every morning and balk at the prospect of giving up bread and pasta? To be perfectly clear, I understand but do not condone your lack of commitment. Change is difficult. And besides, some who follow cultural trends claim that dad bods are slowly coming into fashion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Data center managers, it’s time to commit to those New Year’s resolutions

Whether it’s a new exercise program, volunteering for charitable causes or deciding to go gluten-free, studies have shown that nearly half of people who fully commit to New Year’s resolutions were over 10 times more likely to succeed at realizing real change as compared to 4 percent who do not.The concept of New Year’s resolutions dates back to the Babylonians, who at the start of each year made promises to their gods to return borrowed objects and pay their debts. Romans, too, would begin each year by making promises to Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, for whom the month of January is named.+ Also on Network World: More proof the cloud is winning big + But wait, dear data center manager. You say you don’t have time to do gut-crunchers every morning and balk at the prospect of giving up bread and pasta? To be perfectly clear, I understand but do not condone your lack of commitment. Change is difficult. And besides, some who follow cultural trends claim that dad bods are slowly coming into fashion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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