Linux-y things I am thankful for

Thanksgiving is in a few days, and talking about “things I am thankful for” is pretty traditional this time of year. So, here we go. Here’s my list of Linux-y (and free software-y) things I am thankful for in 2016. (At least the ones I could remember when I sat down to write this list.)1. I am thankful for the developers of cmus, tmux, midnight commander and all of the other projects that help make using the shell in Linux such a productive and enjoyable experience. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BroadSoft: The most important UC vendor you probably haven’t heard of

Most businesses aren’t aware of who BroadSoft is, but if they use a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) provider, they are likely using BroadSoft’s services. The company provides the building blocks for service providers to build cloud-based communications services such as voice, video, web conferencing and now team messaging and contextual services. Customers of BroadSoft are a veritable “who’s who” in the telecom world, including Verizon, Comcast, Vonage and Orange. Service providers have sold over 15 million BroadSoft seats, so the company may be the most important vendor that most businesses have never heard of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The false-false-balance problem

Until recently, journalism in America prided itself on objectivity -- to report the truth, without taking sides. That's because big debates are always complexed and nuanced, and that both sides are equally reasonable. Therefore, when writing an article, reporters attempt to achieve balance by quoting people/experts/proponents on both sides of an issue.

But what about those times when one side is clearly unreasonable? You'd never try to achieve balance by citing those who believe in aliens and big-foot, for example.Thus, journalists have come up with the theory of false-balance to justify being partisan and one-sided on certain issues.

Typical examples where journalists cite false-balance is reporting on anti-vaxxers, climate-change denialists, and Creationists. More recently, false-balance has become an issue in the 2016 Trump election.

But this concept of false-balance is wrong. It's not that anti-vaxxers, denialists, Creationists, and white supremacists are reasonable. Instead, the issue is that the left-wing has reframed the debate. They've simplified it into something black-and-white, removing nuance, in a way that shows their opponents as being unreasonable. The media then adopts the reframed debate.


Let's talk anti-vaxxers. One of the policy debates is whether the government has the power to force vaccinations on people (or on Continue reading

BrandPost: What CIOs need to know about SD-WAN

There has been much talk about Software Defined Networking (SDN) and how SDx benefits virtual environments and data centres. However an area that is often overlooked is how abstraction can apply to application performance and value across the wide area network (WAN). The WAN has always been about connecting users to applications and moving data more effectively over long distances. This includes connectivity for collaboration among enterprise users, clients, suppliers, and partners, as well as the movement of data over distance for disaster recovery and business continuity. While these requirements still exist, the adoption of virtualisation and the cloud across traditional WAN architectures, such as MPLS, has introduced performance bottlenecks, thereby impairing user productivity when connecting to data centre and cloud applications from branch and remote office locations. As cloud initiatives gain momentum and traction, CIOs are increasingly reevaluating their corporate WAN requirements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Best small to midsized cities to land a cybersecurity job

Looking for a change of scenery in 2017? Image by ThinkstockWhile cybersecurity positions are plentiful in most major cities, thousands of cyber positions at all levels are waiting to be filled in less populated and often more scenic locales – and most offer a lower cost of living.Although larger corporations usually post the most job openings, “you’re most likely to find that you’re working at a smaller company” in these smaller cities, says Tim Herbert, senior vice president of research and market intelligence at CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association. But the tradeoff will be broader responsibilities and more experience, he adds. “In smaller companies you take on more responsibilities with less specialization than in a large enterprise where roles are very well-defined.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

3 ingredients of a successful attack

The field of computer security has been around since the 1960s, and since then, practitioners have developed "a good understanding of the threat and how to manage it," say the authors of Security in Computing, 5th edition.But over the years the field has also developed a language of its own, which can present a challenge to newcomers.In the preface to the updated edition of this classic text, the authors make plain their intent to demystify the language of computer security. One good place to start: understanding the three things a malicious attacker needs to be successful.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

ACM Prize in Computing is the new name of honor for young innovators

The Association for Computing Machinery has changed the name of its annual award recognizing computing professionals for early-to-mid-career innovations from the ACM-Infosys Foundation Award to the ACM Prize in Computing, and boosted the value of the prize by $75K.Good call on the name change, which the ACM figures will raise awareness of the award and be more recognizable. Though not to be confused: the group's more famous AM Turing Award, given annually for major contributions of lasting importance to computing, is known informally as the "Nobel Prize of Computing". (See also: "Crypto dream team of Diffiie & Hellman wins 2016 'Nobel Prize of Computing'")To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Scoring the DNS Root Servers

The process of rolling the DNS Root’s Key Signing Key of the DNS has now started. During this process, there will be a period where the root zone servers’ response to a DNS query for the DNSKEY resource record of the root zone will grow from the current value of 864 octets to 1,425 octets. Does this present a problem? Let’s look at the DNS Root Server system and score it on how well it can cope with large responses. —APNIC

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The One Car

Imagine, for a moment, that you could only have one car. To do everything. No, I don’t mean, “I have access to a moving van through a mover, so I only need a minivan,” I mean one car. Folks who run grocery stores would need to use the same car to stock the shelves as their employees use to shuffle kids to school and back. The only thing about this car is this—it has the ability to add knobs pretty easily. If you need a new feature to meet your needs, you can go to the vendor and ask them to add it—there is an entire process, and it’s likely that the feature will be added at some point.

How does this change the world in which we live? Would it improve efficiency, or decrease it? Would it decrease operational costs (opex) or increase it? And, perhaps, another interesting question: what would this one car look like?

I’m guessing it would look a lot like routers and switches today. A handful of models, with lots of knobs, a complex CLI, and an in depth set of troubleshooting tools to match.

culture-eats-technologyOf course, we actually have many different routers in the Continue reading

Virtual reality Black Friday 2016 deals spill from HTC, Microsoft

With virtual reality systems like HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR being the latest cool gaming gear around, it's not surprising that consumers haven't been offered a ton of Black Friday 2016 bargains. But some deals have started to trickle out.HTC itself has announced Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, offering $100 off Vive hardware platforms, which usually start at $800. HTC Vive provides an immersive full-room VR experience, as you don goggles and hold a couple of controllers to navigate your way undersea, through space or through other worlds.MORE: 50+ Black Friday 2016 tech dealsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Diving Into Buhtrap Banking Trojan Activity

Cyphort recently published an article about the Buhtrap banking trojan [https://www.cyphort.com/banking-malware-buhtrap-caught-action/], targeting users of Russian and Ukrainian banks as reported in March of 2016 by Group-IB [http://www.group-ib.com/brochures/gib-buhtrap-report.pdf]. Cyphort’s insightful article analyzes the compromise chain from the website eurolab[.]ua, directing users via an apparently injected HTML script src attribute to rozhlas[.]site which served exploit code for […]

Diving Into Buhtrap Banking Trojan Activity

Cyphort recently published an article about the Buhtrap banking trojan [https://www.cyphort.com/banking-malware-buhtrap-caught-action/], targeting users of Russian and Ukrainian banks as reported in March of 2016 by Group-IB [http://www.group-ib.com/brochures/gib-buhtrap-report.pdf]. Cyphort’s insightful article analyzes the compromise chain from the website eurolab[.]ua, directing users via an apparently injected HTML […]

FireEye’s iSIGHT threat intelligence exposes security blind spots

What separates a great Major League Baseball hitter like David Ortiz from some run-of-the mill player? Great eyesight and intelligence. Ortiz sees more than others and takes all of the rich information he sees to make an intelligent, actionable decision to swing a baseball or not. While lots of players claim to do this, only a few have the right combination of the two to separate themselves from the field. The same thing can be said for IT security. It takes visibility across the entire attack spectrum, plus analytics and real-world insight, to provide actionable threat intelligence. Many vendors claim to have threat intelligence, but they operate by looking for anomalies in the network to flag something that might be a breach. This can be valuable, but it addresses only part of the security continuum. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FireEye’s iSIGHT threat intelligence exposes security blind spots

What separates a great Major League Baseball hitter like David Ortiz from some run-of-the mill player? Great eyesight and intelligence. Ortiz sees more than others and takes all of the rich information he sees to make an intelligent, actionable decision to swing a baseball or not. While lots of players claim to do this, only a few have the right combination of the two to separate themselves from the field. The same thing can be said for IT security. It takes visibility across the entire attack spectrum, plus analytics and real-world insight, to provide actionable threat intelligence. Many vendors claim to have threat intelligence, but they operate by looking for anomalies in the network to flag something that might be a breach. This can be valuable, but it addresses only part of the security continuum. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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