10 more fascinating things to do with a Raspberry Pi

The hits just keep on comingImage by Thinkstock/raspberrypi.orgThe Raspberry Pi, as we’ve seen before, is really all things to all people – the uses to which the tiny computer has been put to are myriad. Here’s the latest roundup of the unique, original and inventive ways people are using the Raspberry Pi. Enjoy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nine charged in press release breaches, stock trading scheme

Nine people face criminal charges in the U.S. for allegedly hacking three press release distributors and stealing yet-to-be-published announcements in a stock trading scheme that authorities say generated about US$30 million in illegal profits.Indictments unsealed Tuesday in the district courts for New Jersey and Eastern New York accused the defendants of stealing approximately 150,000 confidential press releases from the servers of Marketwired, PR Newswire Association and Business Wire. The defendants allegedly used the information from more than 800 stolen press releases to conduct stock trades, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why you should stop worrying about online privacy

WASHINGTON—You’re probably one of the 91 percent of American adults who think they’ve lost control over how their personal information is collected and used by companies (according to a Pew Research study in early 2015). But big data collection brings benefits that outweigh the potential downsides, contended Ben Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a recent panel discussion held by the Software and Information Industry Association at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.Consumer concern about online privacy is at all-time high due to e-commerce and mobile devices, which both collect wide swathes of consumer data, the Pew Research study says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Researchers exploit ZigBee security flaws that compromise security of smart homes

If you have an Internet of Things device, then it’s highly likely that you are using ZigBee whether you know it or not. There are other possibilities, including that your IoT devices use the Z-Wave protocol, which was beat up a couple ago by security researchers who used it to attack automated homes. ZigBee is a wireless standard used for connectivity to controls IoT devices. It’s used in “tens of millions of smart meters” and there are 1,088 items listed as ZigBee Certified products. It depends who you listen to, I suppose, as to whether you believe ZigBee is great or if ZigBee is a great threat to the Internet of Things due to critical wireless security flaws that can be exploited to compromise smart lights, door locks, motion sensors, smart switches, temperature sensors, HVAC systems and other “smart” home devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Infor seeks to strengthen cloud footing with $675M GT Nexus buy

Infor made a $675 million bid to bolster its cloud and supply-chain management capabilities Tuesday with the announcement that it will acquire global order-management platform provider GT Nexus.The deal, said to be the second largest in Infor’s history, is expected to close within 45 days.Because GT Nexus is a fully cloud-based supply-chain platform, it will help Infor to accelerate its shift from on-premises software to true multitenant cloud, said Paul Hamerman, a Forrester Research analyst. “It also aligns well with Infor’s focus on manufacturing industries.”GT Nexus’ global trade and logistics software is designed to let companies in industries like retail, fashion and manufacturing to collaborate with global suppliers and optimize shipments to customers, distribution centers and retailers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle pulls blog post critical of security vendors, customers

Oracle published, then quickly deleted, a blog post criticizing third-party security consultants and the enterprise customers who use them.Authored by Oracle chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson, the post sharply admonished enterprise customers for reverse engineering, or hiring consultants to reverse engineer, the company’s proprietary software, with the aim of finding as of yet unfixed security vulnerabilities.The missive, entitled “No, You Really Can’t,” was issued Monday on Davidson’s corporate blog, then pulled a few hours later. The Internet Archive captured a copy of the post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Using Cisco VIRL for ASA Emulation

In this post, I will demonstrate the power of Cisco VIRL when it comes to an emulation of the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance. In future posts, I will demonstrate other images that are available.  This post was created using the latest VIRL version and ASA image available at the time of this writing. That is VIRL 0.10.14.20 and the ASA 9.4.1-200 code. Be sure to check the specific codes available as you read this, since VIRL is consistently updated as are the images it runs.  To get started, I create a new blank topology in VIRL:  I then select and place the objects I need and connect them in the topology:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Japan’s Privacy Visor fools face-recognition cameras

If you’re worried about Big Brother monitoring you from security cameras, Japan has developed eyewear that can keep you anonymous.The Privacy Visor consists of a lightweight, wraparound, semitransparent plastic sheet fitted over eyewear frames. It’s bulky and not exactly stylish, but it could have customized designs.It’s meant to thwart face-recognition camera systems through a very simple trick. It reflects overhead light into the camera lens, causing the area around the eyes to appear much brighter than it normally does.That’s enough to trick standard face-recognition systems, such as the Viola-Jones object detection framework, according to the National Institute of Informatics (NII), which has been developing the visor for years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Clear Writing

For most of us most of the time, our dense writing indicates not the irreducible difficulty of a work of genius, but the sloppy thinking of a writer indifferent to his readers.
The Craft of Research, Kindle Location 2392

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Symantec finally sells Veritas for $8 billion to investment group

Symantec is selling its information management business, known as Veritas, to an investor group led by The Carlyle Group for US$8 billion as it looks to increase its focus on security.The sale is something Symantec has been working on for the better part of a year. The group buying Veritas also includes GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and other expected co-investors, Symantec said on Tuesday. Upon closing of the transaction, Symantec expects to receive about $6.3 billion in net cash.The plan is to return some of the proceeds to shareholders while also giving development of security products and services a cash injection. Like most areas of IT, security is going though a major change thanks to the growing popularity of cloud services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Working From Home On 4G

In April 2015, my partner and I decided it was time to move in to our own (first) place together. As a teleworker this brings it’s own set of issues, mainly in the name of connectivity and climate. BT traditionally have been able to offer generous enough requirements, but as enterprise technology has evolved to consume more bandwidth, BT have slowly fallen behind. FTTC or Fibre To The Cabinet (VDSL), also known as “Superfast Fibre Optic Broadband” offered by the likes of BT and Sky to name but a couple, serves my needs well providing I have access to a local street cabinet that has a spare port on a VDSL capable device.

For those also wondering about the state of “Superfast Fibre Optic Broadband”, it turns out after many court cases mainly with BT and Virgin in the UK, it’s fine to use ‘fibre optic’ in product names as long as fibre is used somewhere. Unbelievably misleading and it cheeses me right off.

So it turns out, after confirmation from BT that our to be purchased house can indeed receive FTTC, we purchased, completed and started renovation work. It was time to place the BT order!

The BT Order

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Brocade PyNOS Python Libraries

PyNOS v1.1 has been published. This is a python library that simplifies automating Brocade VDX systems. It is built on top of ncclient, and uses NETCONF to communicate with the VDX systems. Using the libraries is much simpler than writing your own NETCONF calls.

What can I do with it?

Use Python to script configuration or management tasks against VDX devices, e.g.:

  • Configure interfaces & VLANs
  • Find LLDP neighbors
  • Find out which port a MAC is connected to
  • Configure BGP
  • Configure SNMP

You can also use Python as an interactive shell to run commands against multiple systems.

Examples:

Connect to device and check firmware version & uptime:

>>> import pynos.device
>>> conn = ('172.22.90.100', '22')
>>> auth = ('admin', 'password')
>>> dev=pynos.device.Device(conn=conn, auth=auth)
>>> dev.connection
True
>>> dev.firmware_version
'6.0.1'
>>> dev.system.uptime
{'seconds': '1', 'hours': '13', 'minutes': '0', 'days': '1'}
>>>

Change switchport description:

>>> with pynos.device.Device(conn=conn, auth=auth) as dev:
...     dev.interface.description(
...     int_type='tengigabitethernet', name='225/0/38',
...     desc=’RTR1 Ethernet1’)

Who should use it?

Any Brocade VDX customers that want to automate network configuration – e.g. to integrate with their provisioning systems.

It’s helpful to have Continue reading

Retailer Fred’s found payment card malware on two servers

Retailer Fred’s said Monday it found malware that collected payment card details on two of its servers, but it doesn’t appear the data was removed from its systems.The malware was on the servers since March 23, operating through April 8 on one and through April 24 on the other, the company said in a statement. It has since been removed.The malware was designed to collect so-called track 2 data contained on the magnetic stripe of payment cards, which Fred’s said contained the card number, expiration date and verification code. No other customer information is at risk.“During this time period, track 2 data was at risk of disclosure; however, the third-party cyber-security firm did not find evidence that track 2 data was removed from the company’s system,” the retailer said. Law enforcement is also investigating.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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