New Locky ransomware version can operate in offline mode

The creators of the widespread Locky ransomware have added a fallback mechanism in the latest version of their program for situations where the malware can't reach their command-and-control servers.Security researchers from antivirus vendor Avira have found a new Locky variant that starts encrypting files even when it cannot request a unique encryption key from the attacker's servers because the computer is offline or a firewall blocks the communication.Calling home to a server is important for ransomware programs that use public key cryptography. In fact, if they're unable to report back to a server after they infect a new computer, most such programs don't start encrypting files.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New Locky ransomware version can operate in offline mode

The creators of the widespread Locky ransomware have added a fallback mechanism in the latest version of their program for situations where the malware can't reach their command-and-control servers. Security researchers from antivirus vendor Avira have found a new Locky variant that starts encrypting files even when it cannot request a unique encryption key from the attacker's servers because the computer is offline or a firewall blocks the communication. Calling home to a server is important for ransomware programs that use public key cryptography. In fact, if they're unable to report back to a server after they infect a new computer, most such programs don't start encrypting files.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A smaller version of Raspberry Pi 3 is coming soon

A smaller version of the popular Raspberry Pi 3 will go on sale in a few months.Raspberry Pi is developing a new version of its Compute Module, a single-board computer that plugs into specific on-board memory slots. The new Pi will be more like a mini-computer inside a computer, and it won't come with a power supply.The Compute Module will have similar circuitry to that of Raspberry Pi 3, a wildly successful computer that can be a PC replacement. But it will be smaller, with the memory, CPU, and storage embedded tightly on a board. The differences between the Compute Module and the Raspberry Pi 3 will be subtle. While the Compute Module will have a 64-bit ARM processor like the Pi 3, it won't have Wi-Fi, Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi, said in an interview with IDG News Service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What’s hot at Cisco Live

Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live.CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading

What’s hot at Cisco Live

Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live.CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading

What’s hot at Cisco Live!

Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live!CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live! as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading

What’s hot at Cisco Live!

Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live!CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live! as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading

What’s hot at Cisco Live!

Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live!CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live! as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading

Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility gets some long-deserved recognition

Cisco is known as many things: the market leader in networking, collaboration, security and other markets. The company is also widely regarded as a thought leader in both the enterprise and service provider segments. Investors consider Cisco to be strong, stable stock. Much of your opinion of Cisco depends on the lens through which you look at the company. Cisco should also be known as being a great citizen of the world because of all the good work its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team does. Using the company’s massive resources to make the planet a better place was always a passion of former CEO John Chambers and that’s carried over to current CEO, Chuck Robbins. Its Networking Academy has educated millions of people across the globe, including many in underdeveloped nations, giving people an opportunity to get jobs and be successful.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC hails ‘monumental’ vote opening new spectrum for 5G and IoT

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to open nearly 11 gigahertz of high-band spectrum to new wireless uses, hailing it as a "monumental step" that will greatly increase network capacity for 5G and the Internet of Things.The FCC on Thursday adopted new rules for spectrum above 24 GHz, in a vote that Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler described as one of the most important decisions commissioners will make this year."This is a big day for our nation," he said. "This is a big day for our agency."The commission's vote makes the U.S. the first nation to open up spectrum for the coming 5G services, and the decision may serve as a blueprint for other countries. The spectrum allows for data transfer rates of up to 10 Gbps, but signals can travel only short distances, meaning small cell deployments will be needed to deliver most wireless services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to prepare for a data breach  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  Michael Bruemmer's team is busy these days, and that's both good news and bad news for companies like yours. Bruemmer heads up the Data Breach Resolution group at Experian. This team provides the call center, notification and identity theft protection services to clients following a data breach.Over a span of 12 years, this arm of Experian has serviced nearly 17,000 breaches. In 2015, the group serviced 3,550 different incidents, from small breaches that affected just a few hundred people, to the headline-making breaches that affected tens of millions. The fact that Experian has been involved in responding to so many breaches is the bad news I alluded to.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to prepare for a data breach  

This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices.  Click here to subscribe.  Michael Bruemmer's team is busy these days, and that's both good news and bad news for companies like yours. Bruemmer heads up the Data Breach Resolution group at Experian. This team provides the call center, notification and identity theft protection services to clients following a data breach.Over a span of 12 years, this arm of Experian has serviced nearly 17,000 breaches. In 2015, the group serviced 3,550 different incidents, from small breaches that affected just a few hundred people, to the headline-making breaches that affected tens of millions. The fact that Experian has been involved in responding to so many breaches is the bad news I alluded to.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BRKEWN-2011 – Managing An Enterprise WLAN With Cisco Prime Infrastructure

Presenter: Paul Lysander, Technical Marketing Engineer, Cisco

“How many of you are not using PI 3.x?” –Paul; perhaps 10-20% put up their hands.

Morning after the customer Appreciation Event. Good turnout.

Where does PI fit in the network? 

• PI gets information from the network; it’s not the source of data
• Sources include: wireless LAN controller, CMX, ISE

Side note: PI 3.1 maintenance release 1 (MR1) is coming next week. When released, it will be the generally recommended release for customers to run.

Create Sites and Location Groups before adding devices to the inventory. These groups are used throughout PI. Eg: a Site can be used with a Virtual Domain to provide role-based access to devices in the environment (Admin1 can’t see Admin2’s devices; Admin1 only session Campus1 and SuperAdmin sees all). Device membership in a site can be done statically or by policy.

• Administration > Users > Virtual Domains (create and edit Virtual Domains)
• Administration > Users > Users, Roles & AAA (map users to a Domain)

Config Templates:

• Discovery: templates can be discovered by pulling in the config (or parts thereof) from an already configured WLC

New feature in 3.1: Plug and Play for Continue reading

HPE Webinar Q&A – Subscriber Data Management in the Era of NFV, IoT & Heterogeneous Networks

Thanks to all who submitted questions to the HPE Subscriber Data Management Webinar where we learned about the technology principles of next gen SDM.

Cybersecurity highlights from Cisco Live

Cisco is wrapping up its annual Cisco Live customer event. This year’s proceedings took over Las Vegas, occupying the Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand hotel. At least for this week, Cisco was bigger in Vegas than Wayne Newton, Steve Wynn and even Carrot Top. While digital transformation served as the main theme at Cisco Live, cybersecurity had a strong supporting role throughout the event. For example, of all of the technology and business initiatives at Cisco, CEO Chuck Robbins highlighted cybersecurity in his keynote presentation by bringing the GM of Cisco’s cybersecurity business unit, David Goeckeler, on stage to describe his division’s progress. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Two men fall off San Diego cliff playing Pokemon Go, just as I predicted

On Monday, my brother who lives in San Diego sent me an email with the subject line: “Third time this week.” What had happened for the third time was that someone fell off the oceanside cliff near his home, something that happens there with frightening regularity. I asked my brother why this keeps happening. “Gravity,” was his reply. Me: “Ha-ha. I mean are they just trying to get a better look? Or flying one of those stupid flying things? Or playing Pokemon Go? (Oh, sweet heaven, that would be such a *great* rumor to start today even if it's not true.)” Two days later it’s true, though not at the exact same cliff.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft wins appeal over US government access to emails held overseas

A U.S. appeals court has quashed a search warrant that would have required Microsoft to disclose contents of emails stored on a server in Ireland, in a case that has broad ramifications for privacy, diplomatic relations and the ability of American companies to sell web services abroad."We think Microsoft has the better of the argument," said Circuit Court Judge Sarah Carney, in an opinion written for a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.The panel based its judgment on the 30-year-old U.S. Stored Communications Act. The act, Carney wrote, "does not authorize courts to issue and enforce against U.S.‐based service providers warrants for the seizure of customer e‐mail content that is stored exclusively on foreign servers." The opinion was posted Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft wins appeal over US government access to emails held overseas

A U.S. appeals court has quashed a search warrant that would have required Microsoft to disclose contents of emails stored on a server in Ireland, in a case that has broad ramifications for privacy, diplomatic relations and the ability of American companies to sell web services abroad."We think Microsoft has the better of the argument," said Circuit Court Judge Sarah Carney, in an opinion written for a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.The panel based its judgment on the 30-year-old U.S. Stored Communications Act. The act, Carney wrote, "does not authorize courts to issue and enforce against U.S.‐based service providers warrants for the seizure of customer e‐mail content that is stored exclusively on foreign servers." The opinion was posted Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Thinking about bid data

Big Data is Big News, a Big Deal, and Big Business, but what is it, really? What does Big Data even mean? To those in the thick of it, Big Data is obvious and I’m stupid for even asking the question. But those in the thick of Big Data find most people stupid, don’t you? So just for a moment I’ll speak to those readers who are, like me, not in the thick of Big Data. What does it mean? That’s what I am going to explore this week in what I am guessing will be three long columns. —I, Cringely

The post Worth Reading: Thinking about bid data appeared first on 'net work.

Ranking High Performance Interconnects

With the increasing adoption of scale-out architectures and cloud computing, high performance interconnect (HPI) technologies have become a more critical part of IT systems. Today, HPI represents its own market segment at the upper echelons of the networking equipment market, supporting applications requiring extremely low latency and exceptionally high bandwidth.

As big data analytics, machine learning, and business optimization applications become more prevalent, HPI technologies are of increasing importance for enterprises as well. These most demanding enterprise applications, as well as high performance computing (HPC) applications, are generally addressed with scale-out clusters based on large numbers of ‘skinny’ nodes. The …

Ranking High Performance Interconnects was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.