Emergency Flash Player updates fix vulnerability used in widespread attacks

Adobe Systems was forced to rush the release of a Flash Player update after an exploit for a previously unknown vulnerability was leaked on the Internet and quickly adopted by cybercriminals.Users are advised to upgrade to the newly released Flash Player 18.0.0.203 for Windows and Mac, Flash Player 11.2.202.481 for Linux, or Flash Player 13.0.0.302, if they’re on the extended support channel.The Flash Player plug-in bundled with Google Chrome and Internet Explorer on Windows 8.x will be automatically updated.The company also released version 18.0.0.180 of the AIR runtime, AIR SDK and AIR SDK & Compiler, because these products also bundle Flash Player.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Some Ridiculous SD-WAN Claims

SDx Central is usually a pretty good web site that I love to read, but even they occasionally manage to publish a gem like this one:

The problem with MPLS and similar technologies is that they weren’t designed with today’s business challenges in mind. Today, a company may need to launch an overseas R&D office overnight, or it may acquire a startup and want to immediately network with offices in distant regions and countries. Older technologies just don’t have the flexibility to do this on the fly.

Not surprisingly, the above paragraph triggered a severe case of Deja-Moo.

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Risky Business #373 — Hacking Team gets owned. Quite a lot.

Obviously the Hacking Team breach is the big story of the week and we'll be jumping right into that.

It's a jam packed podcast this week -- we check in with Dave Aitel of Immunity to talk about the impending Wassenaar Arrangement disaster about to hit America. We're also joined by Claudio Guarnieri.

Claudio has spent years tracking Hacking Team's malware to the darkest regions of the planet. For a long time he's been claiming Hacking Team were up to no good, now we know he was right. We get him on to the show for a well-earned gloat.

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Hacking Team claims terrorists can now use its tools

Hacking Team has warned that a devastating data breach it suffered will allow its spying tools to be used by criminals and terrorists.The Milan-based security company, which develops surveillance tools for mostly government clients, saw more than 400GB of internal data released on Sunday, including emails, clients lists, financial information and source code.“Terrorists, extortionists and others can deploy this technology at will if they have the technical ability to do so,” wrote Hacking Team spokesman Eric Rabe in a news release on Wednesday. “We believe this is an extremely dangerous situation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

United’s woes show what’s hard about networking

United Airlines grounded its planes for about an hour on Wednesday, reportedly because of a router failure. That’s a wide path of destruction for one piece of equipment, but it’s the kind of hazard that comes with networking, where each piece is always linked to everything else.The grounding, which started around 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, caused delays across United’s routes and stranded passengers. It came on the same day that a computer-related outage halted trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and just weeks after another technology-related service interruption at United.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

United’s woes show what’s hard about networking

United Airlines grounded its planes for about an hour on Wednesday, reportedly because of a router failure. That’s a wide path of destruction for one piece of equipment, but it’s the kind of hazard that comes with networking, where each piece is always linked to everything else. The grounding, which started around 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, caused delays across United’s routes and stranded passengers. It came on the same day that a computer-related outage halted trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and just weeks after another technology-related service interruption at United.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

United’s woes show what’s hard about networking

United Airlines grounded its planes for about an hour on Wednesday, reportedly because of a router failure. That’s a wide path of destruction for one piece of equipment, but it’s the kind of hazard that comes with networking, where each piece is always linked to everything else. The grounding, which started around 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, caused delays across United’s routes and stranded passengers. It came on the same day that a computer-related outage halted trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and just weeks after another technology-related service interruption at United.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Big Flowering Thing

This is a rant. It borrows emotional (and some verbal) inspiration from Lewis Black’s “Big F**king Thing” bit. However, in order to keep things light and professional, I will be using the term “flower” in lieu of the four-letter word that I am using in my head. It’s not unreasonable that ongoing operations for existing applications, and as a result, remaining profitable, have been and always will be the priority.

Big Flowering Thing

This is a rant. It borrows emotional (and some verbal) inspiration from Lewis Black’s “Big F**king Thing” bit. However, in order to keep things light and professional, I will be using the term “flower” in lieu of the four-letter word that I am using in my head. It’s not unreasonable that ongoing operations for existing applications, and as a result, remaining profitable, have been and always will be the priority.

Big Flowering Thing

This is a rant. It borrows emotional (and some verbal) inspiration from Lewis Black’s “Big F**king Thing” bit. However, in order to keep things light and professional, I will be using the term “flower” in lieu of the four-letter word that I am using in my head.

It’s not unreasonable that ongoing operations for existing applications, and as a result, remaining profitable, have been and always will be the priority. It’s easy to sit atop an ivory tower and critique all of the shortcomings of the industry (applies anywhere, not even just IT), but the reality is, IT (and specifically network infra) is kind of a mess. And that’s okay! It’s the nature of growing organically - and few disciplines have had to learn this the hard way like network infrastructure. Most importantly, we’re all running businesses here. Nothing takes priority over the need to provide ongoing products and services to customers, and to be honest, the rant contained in this post actually points out the need for changes in our industry to be more conducive to this imperative.

All of that said, I feel like the entire networking industry (as well as other, seemingly better-off disciplines to some degree) Continue reading

Big Flowering Thing

This is a rant. It borrows emotional (and some verbal) inspiration from Lewis Black’s “Big F**king Thing” bit. However, in order to keep things light and professional, I will be using the term “flower” in lieu of the four-letter word that I am using in my head.

It’s not unreasonable that ongoing operations for existing applications, and as a result, remaining profitable, have been and always will be the priority. It’s easy to sit atop an ivory tower and critique all of the shortcomings of the industry (applies anywhere, not even just IT), but the reality is, IT (and specifically network infra) is kind of a mess. And that’s okay! It’s the nature of growing organically - and few disciplines have had to learn this the hard way like network infrastructure. Most importantly, we’re all running businesses here. Nothing takes priority over the need to provide ongoing products and services to customers, and to be honest, the rant contained in this post actually points out the need for changes in our industry to be more conducive to this imperative.

All of that said, I feel like the entire networking industry (as well as other, seemingly better-off disciplines to some degree) Continue reading

US Defense Secretary to renew call for cooperation with tech industry

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will renew his appeal to businesses to work more closely with the military on Thursday when he speaks to an audience of top executives at the Sun Valley conference in Idaho.The event is put on by investment bank Allen & Co. and usually attended by a host of big-name CEOs. Among the executives expected this year are Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk.Carter’s appearance at the secretive conference will be closed to media, but the DOD said he will speak about “the importance of a strong partnership between private sector innovators and government.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Glitch brings major disruption to NYSE trading

The New York Stock Exchange suffered its biggest outage in more than 10 years on Wednesday when an unspecified technical glitch forced a 3.5-hour long suspension of trading.The cause of the problem was not immediately disclosed, but the exchange quickly ruled out a cyberattack.Problems began during the morning and at 11:32am EDT the NYSE halted all trading to prevent the effects of the “internal technical issue” from affecting the overall market.“NYSE has temporarily suspended trading in all symbols,” the market said in a message to traders. “All open orders will be cancelled.”Updates for the public were few and far between during the duration of the outage, although the NYSE was said to be in constant contact with the Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A ‘black market’ for wireless cell service has popped up in Canada

Two articles at iPhoneInCanada.ca and AlphaBeatic.com tell the story of one enterprising Canadian who takes advantage of a loophole to provide substantially cheaper wireless cell service for a one-time $100 payment.How exactly he does it appears to be unclear, but it involves pricing discrepancies in Canada, where lower-populated provinces like Manitoba and Saskatchewan see much cheaper cell service. Basically, the scheme involves signing up for an account in one of these regions, where Canadian wireless service provider Koodo offers a 5GB monthly data plan for $48, then selling the account to people who live in more populated regions of the country, where the same plan typically costs at least $90, according to the reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft shrinks smartphone ambitions with mobile restructuring

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just unveiled the latest of the “tough choices” Microsoft is making to streamline its business, and it’s a doozy: the company is significantly cutting back its smartphone ambitions almost two years after announcing it would acquire Nokia’s Devices and Services business in an attempt to play a greater role in this market. In an email to employees, Nadella said that the company was moving away from being a phone manufacturer and towards creating a “vibrant Windows ecosystem” that includes a group of first-party devices. As a result, the company will be dismissing around 7,800 employees, with the majority of job cuts impacting people in Microsoft’s phone hardware business. The restructuring also included another aftershock from the Nokia acquisition: Microsoft will take a massive $7.6 billion write-down on the acquisition itself along with a restructuring charge of between $750 and $850 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft shrinks smartphone ambitions with mobile restructuring

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just unveiled the latest of the “tough choices” Microsoft is making to streamline its business, and it’s a doozy: the company is significantly cutting back its smartphone ambitions almost two years after announcing it would acquire Nokia’s Devices and Services business in an attempt to play a greater role in this market. In an email to employees, Nadella said that the company was moving away from being a phone manufacturer and towards creating a “vibrant Windows ecosystem” that includes a group of first-party devices. As a result, the company will be dismissing around 7,800 employees, with the majority of job cuts impacting people in Microsoft’s phone hardware business. The restructuring also included another aftershock from the Nokia acquisition: Microsoft will take a massive $7.6 billion write-down on the acquisition itself along with a restructuring charge of between $750 and $850 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft writes off $7.6B, admits failure of Nokia acquisition

Microsoft today wrote off billions of dollars related to its Nokia acquisition, saying it's taking an "impairment charge" of $7.6 billion, or nearly the full amount it paid for the Finnish firm's smartphone business and patents last year.The announcement slapped the failure sticker on the last major move made by former CEO Steve Ballmer, who pushed for the Nokia deal in his final months in office against objections by, among others, Satya Nadella before he was elevated to the chief executive's chair.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 10 (FREE!) Microsoft tools to make admins happier "It was a mistake to begin with," said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. "A monumental mistake. Microsoft had no business being in the cut-throat, low-margin phone business. Who's making money in phones besides Apple?"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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