‘Stupid simple’ attack can steal credentials from locked Windows and Mac computers

Hats off to security researcher Rob Fuller, aka mubix, for spending part of his Labor Day weekend figuring out how to use a spoofed USB Ethernet adapter to steal credentials from logged in but locked Windows and Mac computers. It works!!! Muhahahahah I can steal credentials from a locked computer. Muahahahhahahahah pic.twitter.com/9l3d0tvs8i— Rob Fuller (@mubix) September 4, 2016 Fuller did not use a zero-day; although the attack is “stupid simple” and “should not work,” it does work because most computers automatically install Play-and-Play USB devices. “Even if a system is locked out, the device still gets installed.” There may be restrictions on what devices can be installed when the box is a locked state, but he said, “Ethernet/LAN is definitely on the white list.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EMC is now Dell EMC

The largest acquisition in the technology industry’s history today became official and with it, EMC Corp. is no longer.EMC is now referred to as Dell EMC. It’s a subsidiary of Dell Technologies and includes the enterprise business units of the former EMC Corp. and Dell.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: What Dell-EMC means for VMware | Video recap of 3 big takeaways from VMWorld 2016 +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Smartphone infections double, hotspots are also a trouble area

Malware infection rates on smartphones have been rapidly escalating, says an endpoint security solutions provider.Over 1.06 percent of devices in April, were infected by some variant of malware. That’s an all-time high. Nokia’s twice-a-year report, released last week says it’s found that infections doubled in the first half of 2016, compared with the second half of 2015.The Nokia Threat Intelligence lab includes “ransomware, spy-phone applications, SMS Trojans, personal information theft and aggressive adware” in its malware definition.Android got pummeled. Three-fourths of all infections were discovered on the Android mobile OS. For comparison “Windows/PC Systems” attracted 22 percent and Apple’s iOS only 4 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google Safe Browsing gives more details to compromised website owners

Google is now providing more information to website owners whose online properties are temporarily blocked as unsafe by its Safe Browsing technology as a way to help them fix the identified problems faster.Google Safe Browsing is a technology used by Google's search engine, the Google Chrome browser, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Android to steer users away from websites that host malicious or deceptive content.On the back-end, Google uses robots to scan the web and build a list of websites that host malware, harmful downloads, or deceptive ads and pages. Software developers can then plug into an API to integrate this list into their own applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google Safe Browsing gives more details to compromised website owners

Google is now providing more information to website owners whose online properties are temporarily blocked as unsafe by its Safe Browsing technology as a way to help them fix the identified problems faster.Google Safe Browsing is a technology used by Google's search engine, the Google Chrome browser, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Android to steer users away from websites that host malicious or deceptive content.On the back-end, Google uses robots to scan the web and build a list of websites that host malware, harmful downloads, or deceptive ads and pages. Software developers can then plug into an API to integrate this list into their own applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Survey says! 3 surprising IT facts

I’m always interested in Spiceworks’ annual State of IT survey of hundreds of IT folks around the world. Last year I wrote about results indicating that PCs continue to top IT hardware investments. Well, the 2017 report isn’t out yet, but the company has release a few teaser findings, which still piqued my interest.1. The cloud is growing—duh First, and least surprising, the results indicate continued cloud computing momentum. According to Spiceworks, “38 percent of IT pros consider cloud very or extremely important in 2016 compared to 29 percent in 2015.” That kind of growth is only to be expected in the current environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Survey says! 3 surprising IT facts

I’m always interested in Spiceworks’ annual State of IT survey of hundreds of IT folks around the world. Last year I wrote about results indicating that PCs continue to top IT hardware investments. Well, the 2017 report isn’t out yet, but the company has release a few teaser findings, which still piqued my interest.1. The cloud is growing—duh First, and least surprising, the results indicate continued cloud computing momentum. According to Spiceworks, “38 percent of IT pros consider cloud very or extremely important in 2016 compared to 29 percent in 2015.” That kind of growth is only to be expected in the current environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Cambium Networks helps provide the network for the IoT

We here a lot about the Internet of Things (IoT) these days. Call it the IoT, the industrial internet, the internet of customers or some other variation on a theme, but it means essentially the same thing—devices and sensors in a dizzying variety of different locations being connected and able to exchange data. But many of the use cases we see for IoT are pretty lightweight in terms of their operating requirements. While a connected toaster, refrigerator or toothbrush might make for a great concepts video, it’s not exactly difficult from a connectivity perspective—just leverage the existing wireless network that already exist in a home and from there jump onto the public internet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Router Basics: The Lost Configuration

User-Centric Networks Will Drive New Architectures

On eve of iPhone 7, a third of iPhones are 3+ years old

A third of the iPhones now in use are three or more years old, an app analytics vendor said a day before Apple unveils the new iPhone 7. According to Boston-based Localytics, 32% of all iPhones used in August were models that debuted in 2013 or earlier, with that year's iPhone 5S the third-most popular device at 17%. Others, including 2012's iPhone 5 and 2011's iPhone 4S, accounted for single digit shares. Localytics measured share by tallying the models among more than 100 million iPhones that reported data to the app developers that use its analytics tools.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Google Bigtable scales with ease

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

New tech can help catch spearphishing attacks

A CEO said that his controller had just received an email, ostensibly from him, asking her to process an urgent outgoing payment.Everything about the letter looked legit."It has my display name, spelled correctly," said Kevin O'Brien, co-founder and CEO at Belmont, Mass.-based GreatHorn. "There are no attachments. There's nothing in the email that's misspelled. My signature line was copied from my real emails."The text of the email was totally something that a CEO might say."Hi Caitlin," the message said, addressing the company's controller, Caitlin McLaughlin. "Are you available to process an outgoing payment today? Let me know and I will send the payment details as soon as I receive it from the consultant shortly; I am traveling and this is urgent."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New tech can help catch spearphishing attacks

A CEO said that his controller had just received an email, ostensibly from him, asking her to process an urgent outgoing payment.Everything about the letter looked legit."It has my display name, spelled correctly," said Kevin O'Brien, co-founder and CEO at Belmont, Mass.-based GreatHorn. "There are no attachments. There's nothing in the email that's misspelled. My signature line was copied from my real emails."The text of the email was totally something that a CEO might say."Hi Caitlin," the message said, addressing the company's controller, Caitlin McLaughlin. "Are you available to process an outgoing payment today? Let me know and I will send the payment details as soon as I receive it from the consultant shortly; I am traveling and this is urgent."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 tips to get around resume filtering

You've got all the right skills. Your resume shows a clear progression of advancement through your career, with a long list of accolades and accomplishments. You work well with others, but can excel independently. You've solved problems and increased revenue for your last few employers. You interview well -- or at least you would if you could get an interview.So what's the problem? You might be at the mercy of an applicant tracking system (ATS) and resume-filtering module -- technology that scans incoming resumes for job-specific keywords and "grades" them on a scale of 0 to 100. If your resume isn't scoring high enough, you could be excluded before your application ever makes it before human eyes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Debunking the common misconceptions of freelancing

There are a lot of misconceptions about freelancing. Often, people assume the life of a freelancer is filled with boring work without the benefits that accompany traditional employment.Yet this picture doesn’t match reality. Most freelancers enjoy their work and value the autonomy of the freelance life. They see how freelancing offers both quality work and a quality of life not always found in traditional employment.+ Also on Network World: Hiring trends for 2016: Welcome to the gig economy +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Running BGP between Virtual Machine and ToR Switch

One of my readers left this question on the blog post resurfacing the idea of running BGP between servers and ToR switches:

When using BGP on a VM for mobility, what is the best way to establish a peer relationship with a new TOR switch after a live migration? The VM won't inherently know the peer address or the ASN.

As always, the correct answer is it depends.

iPhone 7: Our staff predictions — and printable Bingo cards!

Apple’s annual iPhone event is mere hours away, but the rumor mill has, true to form, been churning busily away for months. So there’s no shortage of information, spurious or otherwise, about the forthcoming announcements from San Francisco. And Apple has been a bit more predictable in recent years, hasn’t it? There’s going to be at least one uplifting video presentation with aspirational music playing in the background, CEO Tim Cook is going to use words like “magical” and “journey” a lot, and he’ll show us some cool new iPhones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

OPM hack was avoidable, says congressional report

The compromise last year of the personal information of millions of current and former federal employees was entirely preventable, if the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that was attacked had taken the right measures on knowing it was targeted, according to a report set to be released Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.“In our report, we are going to show that once we knew that this was happening, we didn’t make the right moves,” said Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the committee in an interview to CNN.Saying that he thinks that the attack came from overseas, Chaffetz, a Republican representative from Utah, did not name any country, saying it was classified information. After the hack there was speculation that it had been done by the Chinese.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

OPM hack was avoidable, says congressional report

The compromise last year of the personal information of millions of current and former federal employees was entirely preventable, if the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that was attacked had taken the right measures on knowing it was targeted, according to a report set to be released Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.“In our report, we are going to show that once we knew that this was happening, we didn’t make the right moves,” said Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the committee in an interview to CNN.Saying that he thinks that the attack came from overseas, Chaffetz, a Republican representative from Utah, did not name any country, saying it was classified information. After the hack there was speculation that it had been done by the Chinese.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here