The People Versus Security

PinkLock

It all comes back to people. People are the users of the system. They are the source of great imagination and great innovation. They are also the reason why security professionals pull their hair out day in and day out. Because computer systems don’t have the capability to bypass, invalidated, and otherwise screw up security quite like a living, breathing human being.

Climb Every Mountain

Security is designed to make us feel safe. Door locks keep out casual prowlers. Alarm systems alert us when our home or business is violated. That warm fuzzy feeling we get when we know the locks are engaged and we are truly secure is one of bliss.

But when security gets in our way, it’s annoying. Think of all the things in your life that would be easier if people just stopped trying to make you secure. Airport security is the first that comes to mind. Or the annoying habit of needing to show your ID when you make a credit card purchase. How about systems that scan your email for data loss prevention (DLP) purposes and kick back emails with sensitive data that you absolutely need to share?

Security only benefits us when it’s Continue reading

Is build back? The Fall of the General Purpose CPU

There's a meme out there that hardware is dead. Maybe not. Hardware is becoming more specialized as the general purpose CPU can't keep up. The tick-tock cycle created by Moore's law meant designers had a choice: build or buy. Make your own hardware to deep inspect 1gps of network traffic (for example) and release later or use an off-the-shelf CPU and release sooner.

Now in the anarchy of a Moore's lawless it looks like build is back. Jeff Dean is giving a talk at #scaledmlconf where he talks about this trend at Google.

CPU@jackclarkSF: Jeff Dean says Google can run its full Inception' v3 image model on a phone at about 6fps. And specialized ASICs are coming. 

And Mo Patel captured this slide from the talk:

Stealing payment card data and PINs from POS systems is dead easy

Many of the large payment card breaches that hit retail and hospitality businesses in recent years were the result of attackers infecting point-of-sale systems with memory-scraping malware. But there are easier ways to steal this sort of data, due to a lack of authentication and encryption between card readers and the POS payment applications.POS systems are specialized computers. They typically run Windows and have peripherals like keyboards, touch screens, barcode scanners and card readers with PIN pads. They also have specialized payment applications installed to handle transactions.One of the common methods used by attackers to steal payment card data from PoS systems is to infect them with malware, via stolen remote support credentials or other techniques. These malware programs are known as memory or RAM scrapers because they scan the system's memory for credit card data when it's processed by the payment application on the POS system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Stealing payment card data and PINs from POS systems is dead easy

Many of the large payment card breaches that hit retail and hospitality businesses in recent years were the result of attackers infecting point-of-sale systems with memory-scraping malware. But there are easier ways to steal this sort of data, due to a lack of authentication and encryption between card readers and the POS payment applications.POS systems are specialized computers. They typically run Windows and have peripherals like keyboards, touch screens, barcode scanners and card readers with PIN pads. They also have specialized payment applications installed to handle transactions.One of the common methods used by attackers to steal payment card data from PoS systems is to infect them with malware, via stolen remote support credentials or other techniques. These malware programs are known as memory or RAM scrapers because they scan the system's memory for credit card data when it's processed by the payment application on the POS system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How tech’s all-stars are playing the Olympics

From Aug. 5 to Aug. 21 the world will be watching Brazil as it hosts the Games of the XXXI Olympiad; and some of the biggest names in technology are helping put on the show.More than 10,500 athletes from 206 countries (including 555 U.S. Olympians) are expected to compete in 28 sports and 306 events at 37 venues over the course of the 16-day event.Technology companies aren’t just supplying technology; they’re also helping to sponsor the games. Atos, a European IT services company is a Worldwide Olympic Partner; Cisco is an official Olympics supporter and Microsoft and Symantec are official Olympic suppliers.+ MORE OLYMPICS: Rio Olympics pose security risks to travelers +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How tech’s all-stars are playing the Olympics

From Aug. 5 to Aug. 21 the world will be watching Brazil as it hosts the Games of the XXXI Olympiad; and some of the biggest names in technology are helping put on the show.More than 10,500 athletes from 206 countries (including 555 U.S. Olympians) are expected to compete in 28 sports and 306 events at 37 venues over the course of the 16-day event.Technology companies aren’t just supplying technology; they’re also helping to sponsor the games. Atos, a European IT services company is a Worldwide Olympic Partner; Cisco is an official Olympics supporter and Microsoft and Symantec are official Olympic suppliers.+ MORE OLYMPICS: Rio Olympics pose security risks to travelers +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: One second warning

Time, as measured according to the Earth’s rotation, is getting slower. If we want 86,400 seconds to measure precisely one rotation of the earth on its axis then over time each second will have to get shorter. Instead, we defined “one second” as a fixed unit of time based on atomic vibrations (9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation emitted by a caesium-133 atom in the transition between the two hyperfine levels of its ground state). But as the earth’s rotation slows, the fixed time period will mean that the time of day, the solar time, will drift. —potaroo

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Black Hat: Be wary of HTTP/2 on Web servers

Researchers at Black Hat describe finding four flaws – now fixed - in the way the major server vendors implemented HTTP/2, but warn that the year-old Web protocol remains fertile ground for hackers seeking weaknesses in the way it’s rolled out.+More on Network World: IRS warns on super summer scam scourge | Follow all the coverage from Black Hat +A team at security vendor Imperva says they found nothing vulnerable about the protocol itself, but that they created distributed denial-of-service attacks that took advantage of openings left by how servers support the protocol.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Black Hat: Be wary of HTTP/2 on Web servers

Researchers at Black Hat describe finding four flaws – now fixed - in the way the major server vendors implemented HTTP/2, but warn that the year-old Web protocol remains fertile ground for hackers seeking weaknesses in the way it’s rolled out.+More on Network World: IRS warns on super summer scam scourge | Follow all the coverage from Black Hat +A team at security vendor Imperva says they found nothing vulnerable about the protocol itself, but that they created distributed denial-of-service attacks that took advantage of openings left by how servers support the protocol.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAA authorizes private robotic space shot to the moon

The Federal Aviation Administration this week granted permission to a privately-held space firm to launch a robotic spacecraft to the moon. Moon Express expects to launch its MX-1 spacecraft on a two-week mission to the lunar surface in 2017.   The MX-1, which is about as large as a suitcase will include instruments and a camera to explore the moon’s surface. +More on Network World: NASA: Top 10 space junk missions+ “The MX-1E is a spacecraft/lander capable of transfer from Earth orbit to the Moon, making a soft landing on the lunar surface, and performing post-landing relocations through propulsive ‘hops,’” the FAA stated. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation holds controlling powers over space launches and their payloads.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAA authorizes private robotic space shot to the moon

The Federal Aviation Administration this week granted permission to a privately-held space firm to launch a robotic spacecraft to the moon. Moon Express expects to launch its MX-1 spacecraft on a two-week mission to the lunar surface in 2017.   The MX-1, which is about as large as a suitcase will include instruments and a camera to explore the moon’s surface. +More on Network World: NASA: Top 10 space junk missions+ “The MX-1E is a spacecraft/lander capable of transfer from Earth orbit to the Moon, making a soft landing on the lunar surface, and performing post-landing relocations through propulsive ‘hops,’” the FAA stated. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation holds controlling powers over space launches and their payloads.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The future of BPO services: Embrace automation or perish

The outsourcing of business processes—save call centers and payroll processing—began in earnest in the mid-1990s. Business process outsourcing (BPO) walked pretty nicely in the footsteps of the IT services industry, garnering attention as a potential growth engine for both pure-play BPO providers and IT providers offering BPO services.

But despite early predictions, this service segment did not grow as fast as expected and in recent years has slowed. What happened to this shiny new toy?

+ Also on Network World: Top 5 factors driving domestic IT outsourcing growth +

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: The future of BPO services: Embrace automation or perish

The outsourcing of business processes—save call centers and payroll processing—began in earnest in the mid-1990s. Business process outsourcing (BPO) walked pretty nicely in the footsteps of the IT services industry, garnering attention as a potential growth engine for both pure-play BPO providers and IT providers offering BPO services.But despite early predictions, this service segment did not grow as fast as expected and in recent years has slowed. What happened to this shiny new toy?+ Also on Network World: Top 5 factors driving domestic IT outsourcing growth +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Toshiba raises SSD storage capacity to 7.68TB

Toshiba's been lagging in the race to raise storage capacity in solid-state drives, but has taken a step forward with its new 7.68TB ZD6000 SSD. The new drive is the highest-capacity SSD announced by Toshiba to date, up from its prior high of 4TB. But it's still way behind Samsung, which started shipping a 15.36TB SSD earlier this year. The ZD6000 is exactly half the size of Samsung's highest capacity drive, but Toshiba could exceed 8TB soon. It's a matter of cramming more chips in a drive, and Toshiba has the manufacturing technology to make that possible.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Toshiba raises SSD storage capacity to 7.68TB

Toshiba's been lagging in the race to raise storage capacity in solid-state drives, but has taken a step forward with its new 7.68TB ZD6000 SSD. The new drive is the highest-capacity SSD announced by Toshiba to date, up from its prior high of 4TB. But it's still way behind Samsung, which started shipping a 15.36TB SSD earlier this year. The ZD6000 is exactly half the size of Samsung's highest capacity drive, but Toshiba could exceed 8TB soon. It's a matter of cramming more chips in a drive, and Toshiba has the manufacturing technology to make that possible.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Black Hat: Kaspersky is seeking white hats

Kaspersky Lab is using Black Hat’s hacker-rich environment as the launch pad for its first bug-bounty program that seeks talent to hack the company’s anti-malware software.It’s dipping its toe into the program by staking an initial $50,000 kitty for a six-month effort to find flaws in its two most popular products, Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Endpoint Security.+More on Network World: Hot products at Black Hat 2016 | Follow all the stories from Black Hat +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Black Hat: Kaspersky is seeking white hats

Kaspersky Lab is using Black Hat’s hacker-rich environment as the launch pad for its first bug-bounty program that seeks talent to hack the company’s anti-malware software.It’s dipping its toe into the program by staking an initial $50,000 kitty for a six-month effort to find flaws in its two most popular products, Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Endpoint Security.+More on Network World: Hot products at Black Hat 2016 | Follow all the stories from Black Hat +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Another huge bitcoin heist: Bitcoin worth $72 million stolen from Bitfinex

The Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex suspended trading on Tuesday after discovering a security breach. A hacker or hackers pulled off a massive heist of nearly 120,000 bitcoins. At the time of the theft, 119,756 bitcoins would have been worth about $72 million. After the breach announcement, the price of bitcoin crashed; current exchange rates place the value at around $65 million.“Some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen,” Zane Tackett, Bitfinex’s director of community and product development, said on Reddit. “The bitcoin was stolen from users’ segregated wallets,” he told Reuters.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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