Fighting Cancer: The Unexpected Benefit Of Open Sourcing Our Code

Recently I was contacted by Dr. Igor Kozin from The Institute of Cancer Research in London. He asked about the optimal way to compile CloudFlare's open source fork of zlib. It turns out that zlib is widely used to compress the SAM/BAM files that are used for DNA sequencing. And it turns out our zlib fork is the best open source solution for that file format.

CC BY-SA 2.0 image by Shaury Nash

The files used for this kind of research reach hundreds of gigabytes and every time they are compressed and decompressed with our library many important seconds are saved, bringing the cure for cancer that much closer. At least that's what I am going to tell myself when I go to bed.

This made me realize that the benefits of open source go much farther than one can imagine, and you never know where a piece of code may end up. Open sourcing makes sophisticated algorithms and software accessible to individuals and organizations that would not have the resources to develop them on their own, or the money pay for a proprietary solution.

It also made me wonder exactly what we did to zlib that makes it Continue reading

Microsoft pulls back from phone business, announces 7,800 layoffs

Microsoft is scaling down its mobile phone activities, writing off the entire value of the former Nokia smartphone business it bought last year and laying off almost one-third of that business’ staff. The company will no longer try to build a standalone phone business, but instead plans to build a Windows ecosystem that includes its own devices, CEO Satya Nadella told staff in an email announcing the changes. Up to 7,800 jobs will be cut, most of them in the phone business. The cuts come in addition to 18,000 layoffs announced last year: Those cuts included around half of the 25,000 staff who joined Microsoft from Nokia. + A LOOK BACK: Bloodiest tech industry layoffs of 2014, so far +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft pulls back from phone business, announces 7,800 layoffs

Microsoft is scaling down its mobile phone activities, writing off the entire value of the former Nokia smartphone business it bought last year and laying off almost one-third of that business’ staff. The company will no longer try to build a standalone phone business, but instead plans to build a Windows ecosystem that includes its own devices, CEO Satya Nadella told staff in an email announcing the changes. Up to 7,800 jobs will be cut, most of them in the phone business. The cuts come in addition to 18,000 layoffs announced last year: Those cuts included around half of the 25,000 staff who joined Microsoft from Nokia. + A LOOK BACK: Bloodiest tech industry layoffs of 2014, so far +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to prepare for and respond to a cyber attack

Cybercriminals are constantly looking for new ways to bypass security measures. In a survey conducted by the SANS Institute on the behalf of Guidance Software, 56% of respondents assumed they have been breached or will be soon, compared with 47% last year.

Assistant United States Attorney and Cybercrime Coordinator with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Delaware Ed McAndrew, and Guidance Software Director of Security Anthony Di Bello, have compiled best practices for preparing and responding to a cyber attack and working with law enforcement:

* Have an incident response plan – Creating established and actionable plans and procedures for managing and responding to a cyber intrusion can help organizations limit the damage to their computer networks and minimize work stoppage. It also helps law enforcement locate and apprehend the perpetrators.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SDN: The emerging reality

Change is still afoot in Software Defined Networking, but it is now at least clear that SDN is here to stay, that SDN will be the way we build networks going forward. In this Network World Spotlight special report, pulled together by the editors of Network World, we analyze key developments and gauge where organizations stand today in their SDN planning.Inside you’ll find:* Controller Market Consolidation. There are still many types controllers available, but the market is rallying around OpenDaylight and the Open Network Operating System.* Crossroads for OpenFlow? Once conflated with SDN, OpenFlow progress seems to have stalled. Does OpenFlow still have a significant role to play?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Router IP Traffic Export

Router IP Traffic Export (RITE), or simply IP Traffic Export, is a method of copying traffic directly from a router to an external device, such as a Protocol Analyzer or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS). This feature can be used to replace SPAN/RSPAN configurations deployed on L2 ports/VLANs. Two main benefits of RITE is, first, the ability to duplicate the traffic received on a WAN interface, such as Serial port, and second, granularity of our configuration – we can be very selective in what traffic will finally get copied from the network.

Before we discuss the configuration of RITE, just few words about limitations of this feature :

  1. The device receiving the exported traffic must be in the same L2 network as the router’s interface (e.g. must be directly connected). This interface is known as “outgoing” in the RITE’s terminology
  2. This (outgoing) interface must be an Ethernet port. Incoming interface(s) (where the traffic is received and optionally sent through) can be anything (e.g. WAN/LAN)
  3. Traffic generated by the router configured for RITE cannot be exported

A sample topology for RITE may look like one below. Our monitoring station (PC) is directly connected to R2’s RITE outgoing interface, Gig0/0 Continue reading

NASA’s cool, radical and visionary concepts

Phase IIImage by NASANASA this month announced a variety of technology concept program for continued study under Phase II of the space agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. NIAC funds programs NASA says are “visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs - radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts…” The projects include plans for metallic lithium combustion, submarines that explore the oceans of icy moons of the outer planets, and a swarm of tiny satellites that map gravity fields and characterize the properties of small moons and asteroids. Take a look.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ansible June Training Recordings

Copy_of_Add_subtitle_textIf you haven't signed up for any of our FREE Ansible trainings or webinars, head over to our Webinar page to register today.

Training classes are free, held online and run approximately 2 hours and held on the 2nd (10am EST) and 4th (1pm EST) Thursday each month.

June Training Recordings

 


Cybercriminals start using Flash zero-day exploit leaked from Hacking Team

It took just a day for cybercriminals to start using a new and yet-to-be-patched Flash Player exploit that was leaked from a surveillance software developer.The exploit was found by security researchers yesterday among the 400GB worth of files stolen recently from Hacking Team, an Italian company that develops and sells intrusion and surveillance software to government agencies.Adobe Systems confirmed the vulnerability, which received the identifier CVE-2015-5119, and is planning to release a patch for it later today. However, cybercriminals have already jumped on the opportunity to use it to infect computers with malware on a large scale.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, July 8

Road trip! Google’s self-driving cars test out the streets of Austin, TexasGoogle has picked Austin, Texas, as the second location to test its self-driving vehicles, expanding the trials beyond Mountain View, California. One of Google’s self-driving Lexus sport utility vehicles is already on Austin’s streets, the company said Tuesday. Until now, public road tests of Google’s self-driving technology took place only around Mountain View, where the search company has its headquarters. Expanding the trial area will allow Google to test its software in a location with different road conditions, traffic patterns and driving situations, the company said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft said to plan more staff layoffs

Microsoft plans a new round of layoffs that could affect its hardware and smartphones businesses, besides other parts of the company, according to a newspaper report.The job cuts will be in addition to the 18,000 staff the company said it would let go about a year ago, The New York Times reported, quoting people briefed on the plans who requested anonymity. The announcement of the cuts could come as early as Wednesday, according to the report, which did not specify the number of staff that will be laid off. Microsoft had over 118,000 employees globally at the end of March, the report said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft said to plan more staff layoffs

Microsoft plans a new round of layoffs that could affect its hardware and smartphones businesses, besides other parts of the company, according to a newspaper report.The job cuts will be in addition to the 18,000 staff the company said it would let go about a year ago, The New York Times reported, quoting people briefed on the plans who requested anonymity. The announcement of the cuts could come as early as Wednesday, according to the report, which did not specify the number of staff that will be laid off. Microsoft had over 118,000 employees globally at the end of March, the report said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New trial on damages ordered in Apple, Smartflash patent dispute

A federal court in Texas has ordered a new trial on damages in a patent infringement dispute between Apple and Smartflash that could modify an earlier US$533 million damages award to the patent-licensing company.District Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler division, ruled Tuesday that the earlier damages were set aside and vacated as the jury at trial may have not been properly instructed.Smartflash sued Apple in May 2013, alleging that iTunes software infringed on its patents related to serving data and managing access to data. A jury found in February that Apple infringed three Smartflash patents in order to produce and sell its iTunes software. It also found the three Smartflash patents to be valid. Smartflash had asked for $852 million in damages.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Android malware masquerades as Nintendo game emulator

A new family of Android malware adds insult to injury by making users pay for the data-stealing application.Palo Alto Networks found three variants of the malware, which it calls Gunpoder, masquerading as emulator applications used to play Nintendo games.Antivirus engines are having trouble detecting Gunpoder’s malicious code since it is packaged with an adware library called Airpush, wrote Cong Zheng and Zhi Xu of Palo Alto’s Unit 42 research group.“The malware samples successfully use these advertisement libraries to hide malicious behaviors from detection by antivirus engines,” they wrote. “While antivirus engines may flag Gunpoder as being adware, by not flagging it as being overtly malicious, most engines will not prevent Gunpoder from executing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Android malware masquerades as Nintendo game emulator

A new family of Android malware adds insult to injury by making users pay for the data-stealing application.Palo Alto Networks found three variants of the malware, which it calls Gunpoder, masquerading as emulator applications used to play Nintendo games.Antivirus engines are having trouble detecting Gunpoder’s malicious code since it is packaged with an adware library called Airpush, wrote Cong Zheng and Zhi Xu of Palo Alto’s Unit 42 research group.“The malware samples successfully use these advertisement libraries to hide malicious behaviors from detection by antivirus engines,” they wrote. “While antivirus engines may flag Gunpoder as being adware, by not flagging it as being overtly malicious, most engines will not prevent Gunpoder from executing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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