Encrypted messaging app Signal available for desktops

The much-lauded encryption app Signal has launched a beta program for a desktop version of the app, which will run through Google's Chrome browser.Signal Desktop is Chrome app that will sync messages transmitted between it and an Android device, wrote Moxie Marlinspike, a cryptography expert who had helped develop Signal, in a blog post on Wednesday.The app comes from Open Whisper Systems, which developed Signal's predecessors, Redphone and TextSecure, which were two Android applications that encrypt calls and messages. Both have been consolidated into Signal.Signal Desktop won't be able to sync messages with iPhone just yet, although there are plans for iOS compatibility, Marlinspike wrote. It also won't support voice initially.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Interface naming in Linux – Choose the name you want for your interfaces using udev

Have you tried the recent CentOS7.X flavor or the latest of the Redhat versions? If you have then you would have noticed the change in nomenclature of network interfaces. While the traditional approach was to use "eth" shortened from "Ethernet" as a precursor word followed by a sequence of numbers starting at 0 to name network interfaces in a system and now from the v197 scheme we have the udev rules choose names automatically for interfaces using naming schemes dependent on either the firmware/BIOS indexes for on board NICs or slot numbers for add-on nics or the mac of the nic or the physical/geo location.
Although this intuitively sounds complicated it makes life much more easier and reliable. The older scheme worked in a way that could make naming unpredictable. When a nic interface driver gets initialized udev allocates the next available number to that nic and if a host has more than one nic card (either on board or external-extended) there is a possibility of the driver load order to change thus changing the name for the NICs. A power user could add rules to udev scripts to fix a name for a particular mac address in order Continue reading

Why “Force Awakens” will suck

JJ Abram’s movie “Super 8” is an underrated masterpiece. It leads me to believe that he actually “gets it”. But then, everything else JJ has done convinces me he really doesn’t. He destroyed Star Trek, and I’m convinced he’ll do the same to Star Wars. I thought I’d list the things he almost certainly gets wrong in the “Star Wars: Force Awakens” movie.

The movie hangs on spoilers

The original Star Wars was known for the way that people repeatedly saw it in theatres. There were no spoilers. Sure, they blow up the Death Star, but knowing this ahead of time detracts not a whit from the movie. In Episode I, most of us know that Palpatine is the Emperor. Knowing this spoiler doesn’t detract from the movie, but adds to it. Sure, the original series had the “Luke I am your father” spoiler, but knowing that ahead of time detracts nothing from the movies.

But JJ loves the big reveal. It’s like Lost, where season after season we didn’t know what was going on. Worse yet, it’s like his second Star Trek movie, where we weren’t supposed to know it was really Khan. It Continue reading

Dropbox to add European data storage next year

Dropbox on Wednesday became the latest major cloud provider to announce new storage options in the European Union.Not only will the San Francisco-based company add two new European offices next year to its current roster of three, but it will also build new infrastructure for storing data within the EU.Customer requirements in the region have evolved, explained Thomas Hansen, the company's global vice president of sales and channel, in a post on the Dropbox for Business blog."This will not only build on the technical lead we have over competitors," Hansen wrote, but "will also give our customers more options about where their data is stored."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DDoS Blackhole

DDoS Blackhole has been released on GitHub, https://github.com/sflow-rt/ddos-blackhole. The application detects Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) flood attacks in real-time and can automatically install a null / blackhole route to drop the attack traffic and maintain Internet connectivity. See DDoS for additional background.

The screen capture above shows a simulated DNS amplification attack. The Top Targets chart is a real-time view of external traffic to on-site IP addresses. The red line indicates the threshold that has been set at 10,000 packets per second and it is clear that traffic to address 192.168.151.4 exceeds the threshold. The Top Protocols chart below shows that the increase in traffic is predominantly DNS. The Controls chart shows that a control was added the instant the traffic crossed the threshold.
The Controls tab shows a table of the currently active controls. In this case, the controller is running in Manual mode and is listed with a pending status as it awaits manual confirmation (which is why the attack traffic persists in the Charts page). Clicking on the entry brings up a form that can be used to apply the control.
The chart above from the DDoS article shows an actual attack Continue reading

Juniper’s Conscious Uncoupling Of Junos & The QFX5200

Juniper plans to disaggregate its Junos switch OS from the new QFX5200 switches. The QFX5200 line will be the first from Juniper that lets customers choose to run Junos or a third-party network OS. Junos will also run on non-Juniper hardware. Juniper hasn't yet announced third-party partners.

The post Juniper’s Conscious Uncoupling Of Junos & The QFX5200 appeared first on Packet Pushers.

Juniper’s Conscious Uncoupling Of Junos & The QFX5200

Juniper plans to disaggregate its Junos switch OS from the new QFX5200 switches. The QFX5200 line will be the first from Juniper that lets customers choose to run Junos or a third-party network OS. Junos will also run on non-Juniper hardware. Juniper hasn't yet announced third-party partners.

The post Juniper’s Conscious Uncoupling Of Junos & The QFX5200 appeared first on Packet Pushers.

China blamed for ‘massive’ hack of Australia’s weather bureau

Whoa, Five Eyes, you're slipping again with your almighty surveillance machine, as Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) was the victim of a "massive" cyberattack.Whodunit and how? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) first reported BoM being hacked, which was immediately blamed on China. Unsurprisingly, China denied the "groundless accusations." Oh what fun it must be at the global climate talks, as the nations' head honchos must play nice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Quantum dots could bridge gap between electronic and quantum computers

An intriguing type of quantum computing is one step closer to practicality with the announcement today that experts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Stanford University and the Technical University of Munich have managed to solve one of the technology’s major problems using common semiconductor materials.The idea behind quantum computing, in the broadest possible strokes, is to use the quantum state of a small particle to store information. The advantage is that each of these particles, called qubits, can store a large range of values, while the regular bits at the core of electronic computers can only represent zero or one. Consequently, the theory goes, certain kinds of computation could be performed at vastly superior speeds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Time for change

Its time for a change!

It was a tough decision, but i’ve decided that I need some new challenges in my professional life. To that effect, i’ve quit my old job and joined a different VAR/SP where I will be working in a skilled team of network engineers.

My duties will include maintaining and expanding a growing MPLS network, with all the services one can build on top of such a beast. Along with that, I will be attached to large enterprise customers, helping with design and implementation.

The new job is very supportive of my effort to go after the elusive CCDE certification, which was a big part of my decision as well, so expect more updates in that direction!

I’ve had some great years with awesome coworkers, but I have great confidence in the coming years as well!

Finally, a big thanks to my family and friends for supporting me through this decision process!

/Kim

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