The OPM breach report: A long time coming

If you want to have even a chance of defeating cyber attacks, you have to be quick.So, in hindsight, there is no mystery why the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was a loser to attackers who exfiltrated personal data – including in many cases detailed security clearance information and fingerprint data – of more than 22 million current and former federal employees.Hackers, said to be from China, were inside the OPM system starting in 2012, but were not detected until March 20, 2014. A second hacker, or group, gained access to OPM through a third-party contractor in May 2014, but was not discovered until nearly a year later.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The OPM breach report: A long time coming

If you want to have even a chance of defeating cyber attacks, you have to be quick.So, in hindsight, there is no mystery why the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was a loser to attackers who exfiltrated personal data – including in many cases detailed security clearance information and fingerprint data – of more than 22 million current and former federal employees.Hackers, said to be from China, were inside the OPM system starting in 2012, but were not detected until March 20, 2014. A second hacker, or group, gained access to OPM through a third-party contractor in May 2014, but was not discovered until nearly a year later.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

White House releases money for small-satellite broadband, smart cities

The U.S. government will invest tens of millions of dollars in smart-city technologies and in small-satellite broadband as part of a US$300 million package focused on innovation.The package of new investments, announced Thursday, will include $65 million in government funding and $100 million in private funding for smart cities technologies. Two new government grant programs will focus on easing traffic congestion and on creating new on-demand mobility services, including smartphone-enabled car sharing, demand-responsive buses, and bike-sharing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

WiFi data – The new gold mine!

The number one role of network data is to improve the operational performance of the network and ultimately drive business objectives. Data analytics provide insights on network functionality and user habits that network managers have never had before. With these insights, enterprises can make decisions network infrastructure, uncover answers for hard-to-solve problems and use IT resources more effectively.

President Obama targets nasty space weather response with Executive Order

President Barack Obama today issued an Executive Order that defines what the nation’s response should be to a catastrophic space weather event that takes out large portions of the electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare, and transportation.+More on Network World: NASA: Top 10 space junk missions+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: How to make the most of your blended workforce

More and more American companies are realizing the benefits of having a blended workforce, where freelancers and full-time staff work together on corporate projects. In fact, 40 percent of top-performing American companies hire freelancers.So many of these companies are putting these freelancers to work on teams with full-time employees that teamwork is one of the main qualities employers look for when engaging freelancers.+ Also on Network World: Is outdated legislation holding back the gig economy? +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: The Wild West of Performance Measurement

Data-driven decision making relies on contextual understanding of how data is gathered and the type of analysis used to arrive at an outcome. The popularity of data-driven decision-making has increased the number of companies using statistics to support a preference or vendor selection. The Internet Performance Management (IPM) market hasn’t been spared, but, unlike other markets where institutions have codified a standard for qualification and quantification, such as the FDA’s nutrition labels, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or the Coffee Quality Institute, the IPM market is still in the Wild West stage. —Circle ID

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IDG Contributor Network: The big picture of digital transformation (an introduction)

One of the very first questions I typically ask executives who are newly committed to start “digitally transforming” their business is to actually define “digital transformation.” While definitions vary, what really strikes me is that almost always, they tend to have a gross underappreciation of what this transformation entails. + Also on Network World: IT talent biggest roadblock to digital transformation + Executives typically align around one or possibly two of the following, but they fail to grasp that it takes all of them eventually changing (albeit these can be managed in phases or as multiple tracks of work):To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Docker Announces Expansion To China Through Commercial Partnership with Alibaba Cloud

The containerization movement fueled by Docker has extended across all geographic boundaries since the very beginning. Some of Docker’s earliest success stories were from Chinese based, web-scale companies running Docker in production before Docker had released its 1.0 version. Additionally, through the grass roots efforts of the development community, we have thriving Docker Meetups in 20 of China’s largest cities. This is a testament to the innovative spirit within the Chinese developer community because the ability to deliver great community content from Docker Hub has been highly constrained. That is why a partnership with China’s largest public cloud provider is so significant. Docker, in concert with Alibaba Cloud, is going to deliver a China-based instance of Docker Hub to ensure optimal access and performance to the thousands of Dockerized images that will serve as the foundation of a new generation of distributed applications in China.  

In addition to formally providing Dockerized content on Docker Hub to China, Docker is commercially partnering with Alibaba to address the substantial demand for running enterprise applications in containers.  A June 2016 Alibaba Cloud survey indicates that more than 80% respondents are already using or plan to use containers. Together Alibaba Cloud and Continue reading

11% off 1byone Halloween Fog Machine, 1200W High Output – Deal Alert

Step your Halloween game up with this powerful but lightweight 1200W fog machine that pumps out 3,500 cubic feet of creepy fog per minute. That's enough thick fog to easily fill a garage, a pathway, or a porch, but the output density is adjustable with multiple settings. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 600 people (read reviews). Its typical list price of $92.99 has been reduced 11% to $82.99 (see it on Amazon). If you just don't need that much fog, 1byone has a 400W model that is a #1 best seller and currently discounted 13% to just $34.99 (see it on Amazon). For either model, you'll also want to pick up this fog juice. Frequently bought with the fog machine (but not required) is this remote timer that lets you automate on/off and duration of fogginess.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

elementary OS 0.4: Review and interview with the founder

Last month the elementary team released elementary OS “Loki” 0.4.Needless to say, I wasted no time downloading and installing that bad boy on one of my machines. Even though I tend to use openSUSE on most of my desktops and laptops, I’ve had a soft spot for elementary since its very first release. It’s always been a high-quality, polished system—and the team behind it clearly care a great deal about the user experience. + Also on Network World: Highly social Linux nerds worth following +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches critical authentication flaw in conferencing servers

Cisco Systems has patched a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to gain access to Cisco Meeting and Acano servers that are used in enterprise environments for video and audio conferencing.The flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to masquerade as a legitimate user because the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) service incorrectly processes a deprecated authentication scheme, Cisco said in an advisory.The flaw affects Cisco Meeting Server versions prior to 2.0.6 with XMPP enabled, as well as versions of the Acano Server prior to 1.8.18 and prior to 1.9.6. If upgrading to the latest releases is not immediately possible, administrators are advised to disable XMPP on their servers and keep using the other available protocols.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches critical authentication flaw in conferencing servers

Cisco Systems has patched a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to gain access to Cisco Meeting and Acano servers that are used in enterprise environments for video and audio conferencing.The flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to masquerade as a legitimate user because the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) service incorrectly processes a deprecated authentication scheme, Cisco said in an advisory.The flaw affects Cisco Meeting Server versions prior to 2.0.6 with XMPP enabled, as well as versions of the Acano Server prior to 1.8.18 and prior to 1.9.6. If upgrading to the latest releases is not immediately possible, administrators are advised to disable XMPP on their servers and keep using the other available protocols.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco patches critical authentication flaw in conferencing servers

Cisco Systems has patched a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to gain access to Cisco Meeting and Acano servers that are used in enterprise environments for video and audio conferencing.The flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to masquerade as a legitimate user because the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) service incorrectly processes a deprecated authentication scheme, Cisco said in an advisory.The flaw affects Cisco Meeting Server versions prior to 2.0.6 with XMPP enabled, as well as versions of the Acano Server prior to 1.8.18 and prior to 1.9.6. If upgrading to the latest releases is not immediately possible, administrators are advised to disable XMPP on their servers and keep using the other available protocols.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Practical DMVPN Example

In this post, I will put together a variety of different technologies involved in a real-life DMVPN deployment.

This includes things such as the correct tunnel configuration, routing-configuration using BGP as the protocol of choice, as well as NAT toward an upstream provider and front-door VRF’s in order to implement a default-route on both the Hub and the Spokes and last, but not least a newer feature, namely Per-Tunnel QoS using NHRP.

So I hope you will find the information relevant to your DMVPN deployments.

First off, lets take a look at the topology I will be using for this example:
Topology

As can be seen, we have a hub router which is connected to two different ISP’s. One to a general purpose internet provider (the internet cloud in this topology) which is being used as transport for our DMVPN setup, as well as a router in the TeleCom network (AS 59701), providing a single route for demonstration purposes (8.8.8.8/32). We have been assigned the 70.0.0.0/24 network from TeleCom to use for internet access as well.

Then we have to Spoke sites, with a single router in each site (Spoke-01 and Spoke-02 respectively).
Each one Continue reading

Possible ‘glitch’ summons woman for jury duty 9 times in 12 years

A woman from Ohio tells a Cleveland TV station that she has been summoned for jury nine times in the past 12 years."Usually what I do is snap a picture (of the summons) and send it to my friend, like, again!" she says. From that TV station story: Administrative judge for the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court John Russo says that people are supposed to get called about every two years. According to him, jury selection is random, with 300 names picked electronically per week based on voter registration. But Russo says there could be a glitch with addresses that would put your name back in the pot too soon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Possible ‘glitch’ summons woman for jury duty 9 times in 12 years

A woman from Ohio tells a Cleveland TV station that she has been summoned for jury nine times in the past 12 years."Usually what I do is snap a picture (of the summons) and send it to my friend, like, again!" she says. From that TV station story: Administrative judge for the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court John Russo says that people are supposed to get called about every two years. According to him, jury selection is random, with 300 names picked electronically per week based on voter registration. But Russo says there could be a glitch with addresses that would put your name back in the pot too soon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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