9 ways to celebrate “Back to the Future” Day

Another made up geeky dayWednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 marks the day in which time-traveler Marty McFly arrives from the past (from the movie “Back to the Future Part II”. The Internet is freaking out about this upcoming “holiday”, and in the tradition of fake geeky holidays like “Star Wars Day” (May 4), Pi Day (March 14) and “Talk like a Pirate Day” (September 19), we now have a day to celebrate everything related to the time-travel movie, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Magento database tool Magmi has a zero-day vulnerability

An open-source tool for importing content into the Magento e-commerce platform, called Magmi, has a zero-day vulnerability, according to security vendor Trustwave. The directory traversal flaw is in some versions of Magmi, which is used to move large amounts of data into Magento's SQL database. Such a flaw can allow access to other files or directories in a file system. "Successful exploitation results in access to Magento site credentials and the encryption key for the database," wrote Assi Barak, lead security researcher with Trustwave's SpiderLabs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US, UK disrupt Dridex botnet, which targeted online banking

A cybercriminal network that caused at least US$10 million in losses has been disrupted by U.S. and U.K. law enforcement, with the U.S. seeking a Moldovan man's extradition, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.Andrey Ghinkul, 30, is accused of being the administrator of the Dridex botnet, also known as Cridex and Bugat.A nine-count indictment was unsealed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania,  DOJ said. Ghinkul was arrested on Aug. 28 in Cyprus.Dridex has been a real headache for a number of years. It collects online banking credentials from infected computers, which prosecutors said were then used to initiate large wire transfers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Phishing websites look more legit with SSL certs from major companies

The Web is full of deception, and it's sometimes still hard for people to figure out if the website they're viewing really is what it says it is.This type of cyberattack, known as phishing, is designed to elicit sensitive details from victims by creating websites that look nearly identical to services like PayPal or Bank of America.Despite improvements in quickly detecting and taking such sites offline, it's still a huge problem.A U.K.-based network monitoring company, Netcraft, says fraudsters are exploiting weaknesses in technology companies in order to make more convincing looking phishing sites.Many websites use SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) certificates to verify their domain name and encrypt communications with users.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Juniper Certifications now good for 3 years!

It is finally official, Juniper has extended their certification expiration from two years to three years. Originally Juniper certifications where active for 2 years, and then you had 1 year after that to renew.  If you did not re-certify prior to the 2–year anniversary, you went into an inactive status for a year with your […]

The post Juniper Certifications now good for 3 years! appeared first on Fryguy's Blog.

Get Digital Content with the SDN Workshop

Last week I ran two SDN workshops, and in both of them the participants were busy taking notes as I explained the intricacies of concepts like SDN, NFV and network automation, and tools like OpenFlow or BGP.

However, how often did you revisit notes taken at a presentation and kept wondering “what exactly was he trying to say?” … or felt like the training you attended was like drinking from a fire hose and you missed most of the good stuff?

You won’t have that problem during the Miami SDN/NFV/SDDC retreat.

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FBI, DoJ take out $10 Million “Bugat” banking botnet

The FBI and US Department of Justice today said they disrupted the activities and arrested the administrator of the botnet known as “Bugat,”  “Cridex” or “Dridex,” which authorities said pilfered over $10 million.More on Network World: Gartner: Risk, relentless data center demand, open source and other tech trends IT needs to knowThe FBI called Bugat a sophisticated malware package designed to steal banking and other credentials from infected computers and is generally distributed through phishing. The software typically can upload files from an infected computer and download executable files to the victim’s system. Collected information id sent to the criminal’s system. Bugat is specifically designed to defeat antivirus and other protective measures employed by victims.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why you want a bare metal hypervisor and how to choose

Once upon a time, there was nothing but native, or bare metal, hypervisors (a.k.a. virtual machine managers). In the 1980s, I cut my teeth on IBM System/370 mainframes running VM/CMS, but bare metal's history goes all the way back to the 1960s. With bare metal hypervisors, the hypervisor runs directly on the hardware. There is no intervening operating system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Cisco dedicates security project to ‘pissing off the bad guys’

Following its disruption of a major distributor of Angler ransomware, Cisco is offering up free security consulting for hosting providers that’s aimed at wiping out persistent attacks that abuse providers’ services and threaten the rest of the Internet.Cisco’s Talos security intelligence and research group has launched Project Aspis, which hosting providers can sign up for to work with Talos and in return receive help including systems forensics, reverse engineering, threat intelligence sharing and, in the right circumstances, dedicated research engineers to work with, according to Cisco’s security blog.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CCNA – Operation of IP Data Networks 1.2

The next topic for CCNA is:

1.2 Select the components required to meet a given network specification

I wish the blueprint would have been a bit clearer on what they mean with this topic but it’s reasonable to think that it’s about picking routers and switches depending on the networking requirements.

Picking a router or switch will depend on what kind of circuit is bought from the ISP, if the service is managed, the number of users on the network, the number of subnets needed and if there are requirements for NAT and/or firewalling among many decision points. Since this is the CCNA RS we will pretend that devices such as the Cisco ASA does not exist which can be used for small offices to do both firewalling and routing.

I’ll give different examples and we’ll look at which devices make sense and why to pick one device over another.

MPLS VPN circuit
10 users
One subnet (data)
No need to NAT
No need for firewall

The MPLS VPN circuit is a managed service, meaning that the ISP will have a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) at the customer. In other words, the ISP will put a router at the Continue reading

Which NoSQL database is right for you?

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Many organizations are turning to NoSQL for its ability to support Big Data’s volume, variety and velocity, but how do you know which one to chose?

A NoSQL database can be a good fit for many projects, but to keep down development and maintenance costs you need to evaluate each project’s requirements to make sure specialized criteria are addressed. Keep in mind that it is not just a question of being able to develop the application specified, it also means being able to easily manage and support applications with the potential for dramatic growth in scope and size in production for many years. One of my customers doubled the size of their business 12 times in less than 4 years.

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October 2015 Patch Tuesday: Microsoft releases 3 critical and 3 important patches

For October 2015 Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released only six security bulletins with three being rated as critical.3 rated CriticalThe three bulletins rated critical deal with remote code execution.MS15-106 is a cumulative fix for Internet Explorer, patching multiple memory corruption, scripting engine memory corruption, elevation of privilege, and information disclosure vulnerabilities as well as a security feature bypass involving VBScript and Jscript ASLR, and a scripting engine information disclosure bug. The most severe flaws could allow for remote code execution if an attacker tricks a user into visiting a maliciously crafted site. If successfully exploited, an attacker could gain the same user rights as the current user.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

After Dell-EMC deal, will VMware’s Pat Gelsinger need a new laptop?

Here’s to hoping that Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, didn’t get off on the wrong foot with his new boss on Monday.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: The Bunch is back - How Dell and EMC could change the IT landscape | How will Dell justify its massive payout for EMC? +Some commenters were quick to point out that Gelsinger was using a Mac during the kick-off conference call to announce Monday’s mega-merger between Dell and EMC. When Michael Dell buys your company, does that mean you have to start using Dell laptops?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here