Hardcore fans mourn the death of Nexus by denouncing the Pixel

It seems Google would like people to think the Pixel is the first phone it has ever produced with its “Made by Google” ad campaign. The most devoted fans of the Android platform have never seen it that way. To them, the Nexus phones were about “pure Android,” but now they’re suddenly finding their phones have been demoted.Google has said there will be no new Nexus phones, and what's more, the Pixel and Pixel XL will get exclusive features that aren’t coming to the current Nexus line, and Nexus owners are understandably upset. How upset? Well, we cannot reprint some of what’s been said, if that gives you an idea.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo shows that breach impacts can go far beyond remediation expenses

Companies that focus on the immediate breach remediation costs may be missing the big picture, and could be under-investing in security as a result.Several studies have come out recently trying to get a handle on the total costs of a data breach, with a large variation in costs - from less than $1 million on average, to $6 million - based on the data sets and types of included costs.But the actual numbers could be several times higher.Take the Yahoo breach, for example, which could lead to a $1 billion drop in the company's value.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Yahoo shows that breach impacts can go far beyond remediation expenses

Companies that focus on the immediate breach remediation costs may be missing the big picture, and could be under-investing in security as a result.Several studies have come out recently trying to get a handle on the total costs of a data breach, with a large variation in costs - from less than $1 million on average, to $6 million - based on the data sets and types of included costs.But the actual numbers could be several times higher.Take the Yahoo breach, for example, which could lead to a $1 billion drop in the company's value.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Future of collaboration software all about integration — not consolidation

Enterprise software makers have tried to blend social tools and consumer technology for at least a decade. It's been a slow process, but by 2020 the biggest names in business software will likely be well-known consumer brands, instead of the stalwarts that dominated the market for decades, according to Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud storage service Box. Outsiders are redefining the future of workplace collaboration, and some of these companies, including Facebook, are focused on specific tools or technologies instead of platforms that try to serve every business need. The one-vendor-for-all-things-enterprise approach has no place in today's business landscape, Levie says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Beyond logging: Using SIEM to combat security, compliance issues

As connectivity grows, so do threats to the IT infrastructures under your care—and, by extension, your organization’s ability to profit and serve its customers. Security strategies that worked fine in the not-so-distant past have grown woefully inadequate as the technology terrain shifts. You’ve probably heard the acronym SIEM being thrown around a lot these days and for good reasons. As security experts, we know that perimeter defenses simply aren’t enough anymore, and we need a holistic view of our IT infrastructures.  + Also on Network World: SIEM market dynamics in play +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Beyond logging: Using SIEM to combat security, compliance issues

As connectivity grows, so do threats to the IT infrastructures under your care—and, by extension, your organization’s ability to profit and serve its customers. Security strategies that worked fine in the not-so-distant past have grown woefully inadequate as the technology terrain shifts. You’ve probably heard the acronym SIEM being thrown around a lot these days and for good reasons. As security experts, we know that perimeter defenses simply aren’t enough anymore, and we need a holistic view of our IT infrastructures.  + Also on Network World: SIEM market dynamics in play +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung hikes recall incentives to retain Note7 customers

In a bid to retain customers, Samsung Electronics is giving larger financial incentives to people who choose to exchange the ill-fated Galaxy Note7 for another smartphone from the company, rather than seek a refund.In the U.S., the company is giving customers a US$25 bill credit through carriers and retailers to customers who return a Note7 for a refund or for any other branded smartphone. But if they choose to exchange the Note7 for any Samsung smartphone, they will get a whopping $100 bill credit from select retailers and carriers. The company did not immediately provide further details on the program.The company had earlier announced a $25 incentive for customers exchanging their Note7 for another Samsung product.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network Automation RFP Requirements

After finishing the network automation part of a recent SDN workshop I told the attendees “Vote with your wallet. If your current vendor doesn’t support the network automation functionality you need, move on.

Not surprisingly, the next question was “And what shall we ask for?” Here’s a short list of ideas, please add yours in comments.

Read more ...

IBM’s Cleversafe storage platform is becoming a cloud service

If dispersing data among storage nodes can make it more secure and less prone to loss, wouldn’t spreading it across far-flung cloud data centers make it even more so?If so, IBM has the right idea with its Cloud Object Storage service, which uses SecureSlice object storage technology that it acquired by buying Cleversafe last year.The storage-as-a-service offering becomes generally available on Thursday. It lets enterprises use both on-premises gear and the IBM Cloud to store unstructured data objects, which can include things like videos, photos and genomic sequencing data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft snags Stephen Hawking as keynote speaker

Famed physicist and author Stephen Hawking will deliver a keynote address and a at Microsoft's Future Decoded conference on Nov. 1-2 in London. The conference will focus on doing digital business, exploiting the power of algorithms and data. Hawking will deliver the closing speech on the first day of the event and speak about artificial intelligence and how it might impact people. Hawking, who has a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), uses a computer-based communication provided by Intel to speak, and actually does use both Microsoft Windows and Skype, according to his web page.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Authenticated access to Kubernetes pods

When running a micro-services style application in a public cloud, one of the problems to solve is how to provide access to debug information. At Laserlike, we run our application stack on GKE. Most of the stack consists of golang Pods that run an HTTP listener that serves /debug and /metrics handlers.

For metrics scrapping we use prometheus; and grafana for visualization. Our grafana server is nodePort service behind a GCE Load Balancer which uses oauth2 based authentication for access. This still leaves a gap in terms of access to the pod debug information such as /debug/vars or /debug/pprof.

In order to address this gap, we created a simple HTTP proxy for kubernetes services and endpoints. We deploy this proxy behind a oauth2 authenticator which is then exposed via an external load balancer.

The service proxy uses the kubernetes client library in order to consume annotations on the service objects. For example, the following annotation, instructs the service proxy to expose the debug port of the endpoints of the specified service:

metadata:
  annotations:
    k8s-svc-proxy.local/endpoint-port: "8080"

The landing page on the proxy then displays a set of endpoints:

screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-6-06-37-pm

 

Authenticated access to Kubernetes pods

When running a micro-services style application in a public cloud, one of the problems to solve is how to provide access to debug information. At Laserlike, we run our application stack on GKE. Most of the stack consists of golang Pods that run an HTTP listener that serves /debug and /metrics handlers.

For metrics scrapping we use prometheus; and grafana for visualization. Our grafana server is nodePort service behind a GCE Load Balancer which uses oauth2 based authentication for access. This still leaves a gap in terms of access to the pod debug information such as /debug/vars or /debug/pprof.

In order to address this gap, we created a simple HTTP proxy for kubernetes services and endpoints. We deploy this proxy behind a oauth2 authenticator which is then exposed via an external load balancer.

The service proxy uses the kubernetes client library in order to consume annotations on the service objects. For example, the following annotation, instructs the service proxy to expose the debug port of the endpoints of the specified service:

metadata:
  annotations:
    k8s-svc-proxy.local/endpoint-port: "8080"

The landing page on the proxy then displays a set of endpoints:

screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-6-06-37-pm

 


Cisco fashions tactical ransomware defense

Cisco has taken a look at its security capabilities and those of its partners and come up with a playbook to address ransomware.Ransomware Defense can incorporate a range of Cisco products and address different levels of concern customers might have about ransomware, says Dan Hubbard, the CTO for Cisco’s security business.More on Network World: Cisco Talos: Spam at levels not seen since 2010To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here