Cisco fixes serious denial-of-service flaws in wireless LAN controllers, other products

Cisco Systems has released patches to fix serious denial-of-service flaws in its Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) software, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software and the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) library that's used in many products.The Cisco WLC software contains two denial-of-service vulnerabilities, one of which is rated critical and could be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker through specially crafted HTTP requests sent to the device. This can cause a buffer overflow condition that, in addition to a device reload, might also allow for execution of arbitrary code on the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco fixes serious denial-of-service flaws in wireless LAN controllers, other products

Cisco Systems has released patches to fix serious denial-of-service flaws in its Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) software, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software and the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) library that's used in many products.The Cisco WLC software contains two denial-of-service vulnerabilities, one of which is rated critical and could be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker through specially crafted HTTP requests sent to the device. This can cause a buffer overflow condition that, in addition to a device reload, might also allow for execution of arbitrary code on the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco fixes serious denial-of-service flaws in wireless LAN controllers, other products

Cisco Systems has released patches to fix serious denial-of-service flaws in its Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) software, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software and the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) library that's used in many products.The Cisco WLC software contains two denial-of-service vulnerabilities, one of which is rated critical and could be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker through specially crafted HTTP requests sent to the device. This can cause a buffer overflow condition that, in addition to a device reload, might also allow for execution of arbitrary code on the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Acer puts liquid cooling in its Switch Alpha 12 tablet

One wouldn't typically imagine liquid cooling in a tablet, but Acer has pulled it off with its latest Switch Alpha 12.The liquid-cooling feature is especially noteworthy, considering fans are disappearing from tablets and hybrids. But tablet has Intel's Skylake-based Core I processors, and it needed a cooling mechanism, and Acer didn't want fans in it.While announcing the tablet Thursday, Acer said it is the first fanless tablet with a Skylake Core I processor. The device doesn't use Intel's power-efficient Core M processors, which is offered in many Windows thin-and-lights and the new MacBook.The Acer device has a "closed-loop liquid system," which dissipates the heat as liquid floats through the system. The liquid cooling system takes up little space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Programming For Persistent Memory Takes Persistence

Some techies are capable of writing programs in assembler, but all will agree that they are very glad that they don’t need to. More know that they are fully capable of writing programs which manage their own heap memory, but are often enough pleased that the program model of some languages allow them to avoid it. Since like the beginning of time, computer scientists have been creating simplifying abstractions which allow programmers to avoid managing the hardware’s quirks, to write code more rapidly, and to even enhance its maintainability.

And so it is with a relatively new, and indeed both

Programming For Persistent Memory Takes Persistence was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

No, Apple didn’t make $40 million mining gold from discarded iPhones

Jason Koebler at Motherboard has done the worlds of reading, writing and recycling a massive favor by clarifying – debunking, in many cases – a run-amok story from earlier this week that created the erroneous impression that Apple was profiting handsomely from the mining of millions of dollars worth of gold from old iGadgets. Koebler’s piece begins: You may have seen a viral headline floating around over the last few days: Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold last year, which was extracted from iPhones. Almost none of what was reported is true.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Top drone startups find venture capital flying their way

With unmanned aerial vehicles (i.e., drones) here to stay, entrepreneurs are pouncing on the opportunity to safeguard people from having these flying machines drop in unexpectedly and venture capitalists are buying in. SkySafe, a San Diego startup formed last year by a team from MIT, UC San Diego, the Air Force Research Lab and more, says its goal is “to build safe, secure airspaces as a new wild west of drone development and innovation emerges.” The company this week announced it has raised seed funding, said to total $3 million, in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz. SkySafe’s possible customers would include prisons, stadiums and airports looking to keep their airspace safe by, if need be, downing intrusive drones after spotting them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feeling angry and betrayed, IT workers mount protest

In midtown Manhattan Wednesday, around 25 EmblemHealth IT employees and their supporters held a protest over the firm's decision to shift work to IT services firm Cognizant.On the sidewalks next to EmblemHealth's midtown offices, they yelled "Protect U.S. jobs," "Keep jobs in the U.S.A." and, to the people passing by: "It's our jobs now, your jobs next." They waved signs and slowly moved along.The IT employees gathered for the protest outside St. Michael's Church on 34th Street near 9th Avenue, across from EmblemHealth's office.INSIDER: Network jobs are hot: Salaries expected to rise in 2016 A small contingent of plainclothes security, dressed in suits, watched. There was never any tension or reason for security to become animated. There were a few moments of humor, particularly when everyone made way for a tiny, sunglasses-wearing poodle on a leash that walked by with its owner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to break into Android development

With hundreds of millions of Android devices in use today, there’s little wonder why the Android development job market continues to show strong demand.Job search website Monster.com, for example, consistently shows more than 1,000 Android developer job postings, with California continuing to be a top destination. Android developers are also in high demand in New York City and Boston, among other cities. And job search website Indeed.com reports $163,000 as the average salary for Android developers. It’s clear that motivated developers will find plenty of opportunities to work on Android apps at startups, agencies, and other organizations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 free Windows apps that can solve Wi-Fi woes

If you believed the vendors, you'd think Wi-Fi was simple: Turn on your computer or other device, hop on the Internet and you're set to go.But as we all know, life isn't quite that easy. Your home or office network can have dead spots where devices can't seem to connect, or where the connections get slow or flaky. Public hotspots can make you prey for hackers and snoopers. And when you are at a hotspot, you might need to share your connection with your other devices, including smartphones and tablets.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: How to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely While there is no way to immediately solve all the problems associated with wireless connectivity, there are applications that can make things better -- and many of them are free. I've rounded up nine free pieces of Windows software that can go a long way toward helping you solve your Wi-Fi issues at home, in your office or on the go.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

9 free Windows apps that can solve Wi-Fi woes

If you believed the vendors, you'd think Wi-Fi was simple: Turn on your computer or other device, hop on the Internet and you're set to go.But as we all know, life isn't quite that easy. Your home or office network can have dead spots where devices can't seem to connect, or where the connections get slow or flaky. Public hotspots can make you prey for hackers and snoopers. And when you are at a hotspot, you might need to share your connection with your other devices, including smartphones and tablets.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: How to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely While there is no way to immediately solve all the problems associated with wireless connectivity, there are applications that can make things better -- and many of them are free. I've rounded up nine free pieces of Windows software that can go a long way toward helping you solve your Wi-Fi issues at home, in your office or on the go.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

You’ve been hit with ransomware. Now what?

Imagine waking up to an urgent 5 a.m. call: Something has taken over your corporate network and encrypted all of your data, and supposedly the only way to get it all back is to pay a significant sum to an anonymous third party using Bitcoin. While that scene might sound like something out of Hollywood, it is actually very real – and it’s exactly what several variants of ransomware are doing to organizations around the globe.Two recent appearances of ransomware in the news demonstrate that it is a problem that is growing in both volume and significance, as larger and larger organizations, some critical to public and social services, are impacted by an outbreak:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

You’ve been hit with ransomware. Now what?

Imagine waking up to an urgent 5 a.m. call: Something has taken over your corporate network and encrypted all of your data, and supposedly the only way to get it all back is to pay a significant sum to an anonymous third party using Bitcoin. While that scene might sound like something out of Hollywood, it is actually very real – and it’s exactly what several variants of ransomware are doing to organizations around the globe.Two recent appearances of ransomware in the news demonstrate that it is a problem that is growing in both volume and significance, as larger and larger organizations, some critical to public and social services, are impacted by an outbreak:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT salaries increase across 12 tech job categories

Salaries increase across 12 tech job categoriesImage by ThinkstockMondo's 2016-2017 IT Salary Guide points to steady increases in tech salaries across 12 verticals. The study points out that as technology influences every industry, the demand for STEM workers is only going to increase, with a projected 1.5 million open positions in STEM by the year 2020. If you are already in the technology field, or are hoping to break into it, it couldn't be a better time. Mondo tracks the salaries of popular technology jobs to see how the annual compensation range increases year over year and this most recent report shows increases in nearly every tech job evaluated; and for jobs that didn't increase in this report, they at least didn't show a decline in average salary either. DevOps/SDNImage by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This tool can block ransomware on Mac OS X, for now

A security researcher has created a free security tool that can detect attempts by ransomware programs to encrypt files on users' Macs and then block them before they do a lot of damage.Called RansomWhere? the application is the creation of Patrick Wardle, director of research and development at security firm Synack. It's meant to detect and block the encryption of files by untrusted processes.The tool monitors users' home directories and detects when encrypted files are rapidly created inside them -- a telltale sign of ransomware activity.When such activity is detected, RansomWhere? determines the process responsible and suspends it. To limit false positives -- legitimate encryption programs being detected as ransomware -- the tool whitelists all applications signed by Apple and most of those that already exist on the computer when RansomWhere? is first installed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here