Federal wiretaps down slightly, encryption impact decreases

For the first time in a number of years the use of authorized federal wiretaps decreased 13% in 2014 over 2013.According to the 2014 Wiretap Report, released today by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of a total of 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized, with 1,279 authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges. Compared to the applications approved during 2013, the number approved by federal judges decreased 13% in 2014 and the number approved by state judges increased 8%. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, the report stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hacktivist group possibly compromised hundreds of websites

A hacker group known as Team GhostShell is publishing snippets of sensitive data allegedly stolen from the databases of hundreds of compromised websites.The group, which previously targeted government organizations, law enforcement agencies and companies from various industries in 2012, announced in March 2013 that it was halting its activities.In a surprise return Monday the group started posting on Twitter the names of websites it claims to have hacked as part of a new campaign, along with links to samples of data extracted from their databases.So far the group has published the names of over 450 websites, but claims that it has hacked many more. The alleged victims range from companies to education institutions and government organizations from different countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco Reverses CCIE Scheduling Policy Changes

As we reported last April, Cisco changed the CCIE Lab Exam retake policy to an exponential backoff, meaning that the more attempts you took at the lab the more time you had to wait between attempts.

In a sudden change of heart, today Cisco announced that they are reversing their policy change until at least December 31st 2015. Per Cisco:

“For a limited time, we will waive the current lab retake policy so that all lab candidates will be able to retest for their lab exam with only a 30-day wait period.” “If you register for any CCIE lab exam between now and December 31, 2015, you will have the option of retaking the exam with only a 30-day wait regardless of the number of attempts you may have already made.”

Frequently Asked Questions about the policy changes:

Q: Does this mean that between now and December 31, I can take the lab every 30 days?
A: Yes.

Q: Is the original policy back in place after December 31?
A: What happens after December 31 is dependent on the results of our research from now until that date.

Q: What does this mean if my current Continue reading

Microsoft Acquisition Rumors & Drones Vs. People

Tech media speculates on Microsoft acquiring AMD and Docker. And here's why drones and people don't always mix.

Author information

Drew Conry-Murray

I'm a tech journalist, editor, and content director with 17 years' experience covering the IT industry. I'm author of the book "The Symantec Guide To Home Internet Security" and co-author of the post-apocalyptic novel "Wasteland Blues," available at Amazon.
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The post Microsoft Acquisition Rumors & Drones Vs. People appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Drew Conry-Murray.

CCIE SPv4 Advanced Technologies Class Continues Today

INE’s CCIE Service Provider v4 Advanced Technologies Class continues today at 08:00 PDT (15:00 UTC) with Inter-AS MPLS L3VPN. All Access Pass subscribers can attend at http://live.INE.com. Recordings of some of the previous class sessions up to this point are now available via AAP library here.

Additionally, INE’s CCIE SPv4 Workbook is now available in beta format here.

Hope to see you in class!

Setting Go variables from the outside

CloudFlare's DNS server, RRDNS, is written in Go and the DNS team used to generate a file called version.go in our Makefile. version.go looked something like this:

// THIS FILE IS AUTOGENERATED BY THE MAKEFILE. DO NOT EDIT.

// +build    make

package version

var (  
    Version   = "2015.6.2-6-gfd7e2d1-dev"
    BuildTime = "2015-06-16-0431 UTC"
)

and was used to embed version information in RRDNS. It was built inside the Makefile using sed and git describe from a template file. It worked, but was pretty ugly.

Today we noticed that another Go team at CloudFlare, the Data team, had a much smarter way to bake version numbers into binaries using the -X linker option.

The -X Go linker option, which you can set with -ldflags, sets the value of a string variable in the Go program being linked. You use it like this: -X main.version 1.0.0.

A simple example: let's say you have this source file saved as hello.go.

package main

import "fmt"

var who = "World"

func main() {  
    fmt.Printf("Hello, %s.n", who)
}

Then you can use go run (or other build commands like go build or go install Continue reading

One third of enterprise iOS devices vulnerable to app, data hijacking attacks

Apple released patches for several exploits that could allow maliciously crafted applications to destroy apps that already exist on devices, access their data or hijack their traffic, but a large number of iOS devices are still vulnerable.The vulnerabilities allow for so-called Masque attacks because they involve the impersonation of existing apps or their components. Three of them were patched in iOS version 8.1.3 that was released in January and two newer ones were patched in iOS 8.4, released Tuesday.In order to attack iOS devices with these flaws, hackers would have to trick their owners into installing rogue apps through the enterprise provisioning system. Companies use this mechanism to deploy in-house developed apps that are not published on the official App Store.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rule 11 Redux

One way to cut through the morass of slow stovepipes of siloed infrastructure is to consolidate or unify disparate pools of server compute, storage and networking resources into a single system. Called converged and hyperconverged infrastructure, these platforms provide a tightly integrated stack of virtualized resources that can be rapidly provisioned on-demand.

Is it just me, or did we used to call this a mainframe?

The post Rule 11 Redux appeared first on 'net work.

Austrian court dismisses class action suit against Facebook

An Austrian court has dismissed a class action suit concerning Facebook’s privacy policy, saying it has no jurisdiction over the case.The decision is a blow to Europe-v-Facebook, the privacy campaign group whose front-man, Max Schrems, filed the suit, and to the 25,000 Facebook users who had assigned their claims against the company to the case.Schrems, an Austrian national, filed suit against Facebook in the Vienna Commercial Court, which referred the case to the Vienna Regional Court.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Tinker and the Geek: Information Technology

Imagine you’ve just woken up and found yourself in a small kingdom someplace in Europe around 1200 AD. You wander outside, interested in your surroundings, and find yourself in the middle of a fair. Taking stock, you see a man standing in a tent across the way who appears to be tapping on something with a small hammer. Working your way to the tent, you find he is actually tapping out intricate patterns on a small silver disc. While you’re not certain what the disc is for, you take a moment to ask — as any geek would — “are you in the information technology business?”

The tinker, living in 1200 AD, probably doesn’t even understand the question. “What’s information technology?,” he might ask. But let’s consider the tinker’s business. What does a tinker really do?

He takes some material, combines it with technical knowhow, including the development and use of tools, to create a product he knows customers will want. He can’t just use any old tool, or any old technique — he must know something about the correct technology to apply to the problem at hand. And he can’t just hammer anything out on the little Continue reading

AnsibleFest NYC Networking Automation Panel

Untitled_design-1A few weeks ago at AnsibleFest in NYC, we did something a little bit different: we assembled a panel of networking experts and had a very interesting discussion about some of the challenges and opportunities around networking automation. With representatives from Cisco, Cumulus, World Wide Technologies, and Network to Code, we dug into some of the reasons to automate your network, the technical and organizational challenges, and we reviewed some of the new Ansible modules being written for various networking components. Network automation is an exciting and early area for us, and we are looking forward to what the future holds.

 

Skype for Business preview adds support for massive meetings, cloud-based phone administration

Businesses that use Microsoft’s Skype for Business communication product have some new beta features to play with that make the enterprise messaging and calling product more useful.The features, which were first announced earlier this year when Microsoft officially rebranded its Lync service as Skype for Business, allow businesses to create large-scale meetings and better integrate Skype for Business with traditional phone lines. It’s all designed to make the service more appealing for enterprises when those features enter general availability later this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to deploy tablets to your mobile workforce

When Wakefield Canada, the exclusive distributor for Castrol in Canada, set out to replace the tablets used by their sales team, it went right to the source to figure out what to buy: The people who would be using them in the field. "A big part of this was really involving our end users in the tool selection," says Kent Mills, Wakefield Canada CTO. MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch The company landed on the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Here's why – and how they made an easy transition. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Wednesday, July 1

Court says NSA can keep collecting phone records even after Congress told it to stopThe National Security Agency just doesn’t want to stop collecting records of U.S. telephone calls. Congress told it to stop—but left a loophole in the USA Freedom Act so the courts could let it carry on. Now a U.S. surveillance court has approved a request from the FBI to extend the telephone records dragnet until Nov. 29. As the judge noted in his order: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”Vandal cuts cable after opening manhole: FBI looks into itTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

China tightens grip over the Internet with new security law

China has adopted a new security law that gives the government control over its Internet infrastructure, along with any critical data.On Wednesday, China’s legislature passed the national security law, which covers a wide range of areas including military defense, food safety, and the technology sector.A full text of the law’s final draft has yet to be released, but it calls for better cybersecurity, according to a report from China’s state-controlled Xinhua News Agency. The country’s key information systems and data will also be made “secure and controllable” under the law.Previous drafts of the legislation don’t state in detail what that control might mean, exactly. But U.S. trade groups have expressed ongoing concern that China’s security policies are going too far, and could push foreign businesses out of the country.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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