F5 iRules – What is a Program?

When I’m not working (boring right now), reading Everyday Feminism (fascinating*) or spending time with the family (awesome) I’m writing. I’ve three book projects on the go, two of which are taking far too long and rapidly become a chore. The third is the third edition of my F5 iRules book (I’m not shilling – […]

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Are Walled Gardens the Future of the ‘net?

From the very beginning, the walled garden has been the opposite of what those who work on and around the ‘net have wanted. The IETF, and the protocols it has developed over the years, have always been about free and open access to anyone who wants to learn networking, coding, or even just what the latest baseball score for their favorite team. Of course, a number of tech giants (remember Compuserve?) fought to build walled gardens using the tools of the Internet. A user would dial into a modem pool, and access the world through a small portal that would provide a consistent and controlled interface for their entire experience, from email to news to chat to…

The same battle rages in recent times, as well. Phone makers, mobile providers, and even social media networks would desperately like to make your only interface into the global Internet a single O/S or app. From this one app, you’ll be able to talk to your friends, pay your bills, save all your data, and, in general, live your entire life. And for those times when you can’t get to what you want outside the app or social network, they will gladly Continue reading

Worth Reading: New Port Mapper DDoS Attack

In hopes of warding off significant attacks, Level 3 Communications is trying to spread the word among ISPs of a major new distributed denial of service (DDoS) threat. The threat was identified after Level 3’s security monitoring detected unusual activity that appeared to be bad actors testing out and then using a new DDoS threat vector, Portmapper. via lightreading

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Keep these cybersecurity holidays marked on your calendar

It’s no happy day for enterprises when cyber thugs celebrate their favorite ‘holidays’—special days when they attack with even more cunning and fervor. Learn these days and get ready to respond to related exploitations.  Software Support Retirement / End of Support Day. This is the date when support ends for any OS or software package. Unsupported software leaves enterprises open to attack. Because the vendor will no longer make general releases of security patches, each new hole attackers uncover will remain vulnerable. To prepare for this day and defend the enterprise against such attacks, investigate the availability of extended support offered by the vendor at a premium. Weigh that cost against an investment in deploying the latest software product or version that replaces the older product. Either of these avenues is going to cost you.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Internet company Web.com hit by credit card breach

Hackers breached the computer systems of Internet services provider Web.com Group and stole credit card information of 93,000 customers.According to a website set up by the company to share information about the incident, Web.com discovered the security breach on Aug. 13 as part of its ongoing security monitoring.Attackers compromised credit card information for around 93,000 accounts, as well as the names and addresses associated with them. No other customer information, like social security numbers was affected, the company said.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 26 crazy and scary things the TSA has found on travelers According to the company, the verification codes for the exposed credit cards were not leaked. However, there are websites on the Internet that don't require such codes for purchases.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco: Flash exploits are soaring

Cisco is reporting that successful exploits of Flash vulnerabilities are soaring, partly because they are rapidly being incorporated in kits that take advantage of the flaws as well as because enterprises aren’t patching fast enough, which leaves them open to attack.For the first five months of 2015, the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has reported 62 Adobe Flash Player vulnerabilities that resulted in code execution on user machines, Cisco says in its 2015 Midyear Security Report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Datanauts 007 – Decoupled Storage Architecture

While cruising in our Galaxy-class starship to another data center, we’ve hit a storage scaling issue. There’s no way to add any more performance to our antimatter storage array! The chief engineer suggests that we perform a saucer separation to decouple capacity from performance, which will allow us to scale the two requirements individually. Release the docking latches, and let’s hope this maneuver can save us! Satyam Vaghani of PernixData joins the Datanauts for this discussion of decoupled storage.

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Alibaba to open data center in Singapore, amid $1 billion cloud push

Alibaba Group's cloud business is targeting the Southeast Asian market with a new data center that will go online in Singapore this September. The Singapore facility is Alibaba's second data center built outside China. The company has been pushing aggressively into cloud computing, with an eye toward international markets, including the U.S. Last month, Alibaba announced a US$1 billion investment to speed up those efforts. Other data centers are being planned for Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Biggest Problem of SDN

A few weeks ago I decided to join the SDN group on LinkedIn and quickly discovered the biggest problem of SDN – many people, who try to authoritatively talk about it, have no idea what they’re talking about. Here’s a gem (coming from a “network architect”) I found in one of the discussions:

The SDN local controller can punt across to remote datacenters using not only IP, but even UDP over MPLS

Do I have to explain how misguided that statement is?

Read more ...

Notes on the Ashley-Madison dump

Ashley-Madison is a massive dating that claims 40 million users. The site is specifically for those who want to cheat on their spouse. Recently, it was hacked. Yesterday, the hackers published the dumped data.

It appears legit. I asked my twitter followers for those who had created accounts. I have verified multiple users of the site, one of which was a throw-away account used only on the site. Assuming my followers aren't lying, this means the dump is confirmed.

It's over 36-million accounts. That's not quite what they claim, but it's pretty close. However, glancing through the data, it appears that a lot of the accounts are bogus, obviously made up things for people who just want to look at the site without creating a "real" account.

It's heavily men. I count 28-million men to 5 million woman, according to the "gender" field in the database (with 2-million undetermined). However, glancing through the credit-card transactions, I find only male names.

It's full account information. This includes full name, email, and password hash as you'd expect. It also includes dating information, like height, weight, and so forth. It appears to contain addresses, as well as GPS coordinates. I suspect that Continue reading

Russian cyberspies targeted punk rock band Pussy Riot

A closely watched band of suspected Russian hackers have spied on domestic targets, including two members of the outspoken punk rock band Pussy Riot.Trend Micro said the group, which it refers to as Pawn Storm, has also targeted a software developer in Russia, politicians, artists and journalists in the country.“Pawn Storm’s targets have mostly been external political entities outside of Russia, but after our analysis we found that a great deal of targets can actually be found within the country’s borders,” wrote Feike Hacquebord, a Trend Micro threat researcher, in a blog post on Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intrinsic Benefits Of Certification

I’m gearing up for a new certification effort, but after eighteen years of progressive experience in IT, a piece of paper or some new initials in my email signature was an extrinsic motivator I didn’t need. Still I found something about the entire process inviting and realized that it was the intrinsic benefits of certification […]

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Hackers release full data dump from Ashley Madison, extramarital dating site

AshleyMadison.com's owner said Tuesday it is examining a large batch of data posted online by hackers who breached the website last month. A group calling itself Impact Team initially posted a sample of the data online on July 19, giving the site's owner, Avid Life Media, a month to shut down AshleyMadison.com and another site, Establishedmen.com. The group in part contested the moral position of Ashley Madison, which caters to people seeking extramarital affairs.  Avid Life Media, based in Toronto, said in a statement that it is "actively monitoring and investigating this situation to determine the validity of any information posted online."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft pushes emergency update for Internet Explorer vulnerability

Windows users are encouraged to update their computers as soon as possible, after Microsoft pushed out a patch for an issue in Internet Explorer that lets attackers remotely run malicious code with whatever privileges the current user has.  The "Critical" vulnerability affects Internet Explorer versions 7 through 11 on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and Vista. Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2012 R2 and the Windows Server Technical Preview are all effected, but Internet Explorer runs in a "Enhanced Security Configuration" that should mitigate the effects of this problem. The "out-of-band" patch was released outside Microsoft's typical Patch Tuesday release cycle and allows users and administrators to update their computers quickly. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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