US reports massive breach of government personnel data

The U.S. is investigating a massive data breach that exposed personal information on around 4 million federal government workers, according to news reports Thursday.China is suspected of having a hand in the attack, described by an unnamed official as “one of the largest thefts of government data ever seen,” the Wall Street Journal reported.The attack targeted the Office of Personnel Management, a government agency tasked with hiring and retaining government workers. The same agency was breached last year, but this was apparently a separate attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US reports massive breach of government personnel data

The U.S. is investigating a massive data breach that exposed personal information on around 4 million federal government workers, according to news reports Thursday.China is suspected of having a hand in the attack, described by an unnamed official as “one of the largest thefts of government data ever seen,” the Wall Street Journal reported.APOLOGIES: Sorriest Technology Companies of 2014To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your next digital security guard should be more like RoboCop

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.

Humans are clearly incapable of monitoring and identifying every threat on today’s vast and complex networks using traditional security tools. We need to enhance human capabilities by augmenting them with machine intelligence. Mixing man and machine – in some ways, similar to what OmniCorp did with RoboCop – can heighten our ability to identify and stop a threat before it’s too late.

The “dumb” tools that organizations rely on today are simply ineffective. There are two consistent, yet still surprising things that make this ineptitude fairly apparent. The first is the amount of time hackers have free reign within a system before being detected: eight months at Premera and P.F. Chang’s, six months at Nieman Marcus, five months at Home Depot, and the list goes on.

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CA acquires Grid-Tools for agile development

Adding to a growing portfolio of software development applications, CA Technologies has acquired Grid-Tools, whose software automates the process of testing newly-built applications.CA customers will be able to use Grid-Tools’ products to build software using agile development methodologies, in which small teams work in close collaboration to quickly build and update large applications.Last week, CA announced it is purchasing for $480 million Rally Software, which offers a set of software and cloud services to help developers manage complex software projects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Beyond Alerts: Using orchestration to realize network self-healing

Managing modern networked systems and applications is daunting because infrastructure is complex and things can go wrong in so many parts of the technology stack -- servers, storage, network devices, applications, hypervisors, APIs, DNS, etc. How can you address the challenge?

A good place to start: problems that can solve themselves, should.

This is called “self-healing” in the systems management space. As our systems are increasingly virtualized, the opportunity to have our systems work around and self-correct issues has grown greatly in recent years.

The simplest example of self-healing is automatically restarting a service or process that stops or otherwise becomes unresponsive. It is important to keep in mind that this is a workaround and that automated activity of all sorts needs to be logged and monitored, in turn. If an application leaks memory such that it needs to be automatically restarted several times a day, that restart is not the fix, it’s a Band-Aid that is mitigating the impact while the developers responsible fix the application.

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IDG Contributor Network: Brain uploads could become possible as PCs get more powerful

Living inside a machine is "definitely a possibility," according to a British neuroscientist. Dr. Hannah Critchlow,of Cambridge University, says that if a computer could be built to recreate the 100 trillion connections in the brain, it would be possible to live within programs.Critchlow's statement, at the Hay Festival, was reported by the Telegraph and Metro newspapers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Brain uploads could become possible as PCs get more powerful

Living inside a machine is "definitely a possibility," according to a British neuroscientist. Dr. Hannah Critchlow,of Cambridge University, says that if a computer could be built to recreate the 100 trillion connections in the brain, it would be possible to live within programs.Critchlow's statement, at the Hay Festival, was reported by the Telegraph and Metro newspapers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco partners prepare for Cisco Live

With Cisco Live fast approaching, many third-party vendors who rely on Cisco and its installed base for their own business are announcing products before and at the show. Two are start-ups Glue Networks, a developer of SDN software for Cisco router WANs, and Avi Networks, a maker of application delivery controller software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Does Fortinet’s Meru buy mean we’re in for even more Wi-Fi industry consolidation?

Cybersecurity firm Fortinet’s purchase last week of wireless network manufacturer Meru Networks for $44 million is the second major acquisition of a Wi-Fi hardware vendor in three months – and, potentially, the start of a broader pattern.HP bought Aruba Networks in late February for $3 billion, in a move that upset the balance of the wireless industry by raising questions about Aruba’s OEM relationships with HP rivals like Dell. Now, that HP-Aruba deal looks as though it could be the herald of a more general consolidation in the wireless sector.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iOS 9 rumor roundup, part deux

With June already in full swing, the Apple world is gearing up for arguably the most exciting and important part of the year - WWDC. Though Apple doesn't typically announce major new hardware announcements at WWDC anymore, the company's annual developers conference is still compelling because it's where we get our first glimpse into upcoming versions of iOS and OS X, the software that powers Apple's beloved hardware.Of course, because the iPhone remains Apple's primary moneymaker, the most interesting thing to keep an eye on at WWDC this year will be iOS 9. While we already covered a few items we can expect to see in Apple's next-iteration of iOS, we're back with a second round of iOS 9 rumors to keep you in-the-know ahead of what are bound to be some exciting Apple announcements come Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NSA said to increase monitoring of US ‘Net traffic to catch hackers

The U.S. National Security Agency is reportedly intercepting Internet communications from U.S. residents without getting court-ordered warrants, in an effort to hunt down malicious hackers.The previously undisclosed NSA program monitors Internet traffic for data about cyberattacks originating outside the U.S., according to a New York Times article published Thursday and based on leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.President Barack Obama’s administration launched the NSA cybersecurity program without public notice or debate, according to the report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open Networking for the Whole of Your Data Center Network

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In the past, I’ve designed, deployed and operated networks of various sizes, needs and scopes. One of the perennial design points common to all of them is how to approach the out-of-band (OOB) network. When it comes to making sure your production network operates in the face of issues, the OOB network is often a critical component. But it also raises the question of how to build it, what components to use and how much they affect the “day job” of running the production network. These decisions haven’t always been easy.

Generally, there is a spectrum of approaches.  On one end is the choice to go with the same gear that you are deploying in the production network. On the other end is the decision to just build the OOB network out of what you can get from the local or online electronics superstore.  One can cause you budget problems; the other raises the question if your OOB network will be there when you most need it.  All too often the most frugal designs win, and this can cause you to have to troubleshoot the OOB network before you can troubleshoot the production network. So the issue is more than just the initial acquisition cost, Continue reading

Yahoo does Spring Cleaning: Shuts down Maps, Pipes & more

In case you were wondering what it is exactly that Yahoo does these days, the company says its focus is on "search, communications and digital content." The rest must go, and as such, Yahoo today has announced some things it is getting rid of.For starters, the company is doing away with maps.yahoo.com (a.k.a. Yahoo Maps) at the end of June. Though maps will live on within Yahoo search and Flickr in some fashion.  "We made this decision to better align resources to Yahoo's priorities as our business has evolved since we first launched Yahoo Maps eight years ago."RELATED: 7 Things Microsoft Killed Off in 2014To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Your Docker Agenda in June

Even though the upcoming DockerCon 2015 conference is sold out, there are plenty of great events in Docker communities near you to attend! From meetup presentations to conference talks to Official Docker Training Courses, check out our list of the … Continued

Pushing For The Next Level

Drew Conry-Murray joins the Packet Pushers as employee number 1.

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 Pushing For The Next Level appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Drew Conry-Murray.

Please take our Mobility survey

IDG Enterprise (which includes NetworkWorld, Computerworld and other news websites for IT pros) is in the process of fielding a survey with the objective of gauging strategy, challenges and drivers with regard to mobile technologies. You can expect to see articles across our publications based on the results in late summer. We invite you to take the survey and enter a drawing to win a $500 cash prize.* Tell us about your organization’s top mobile priorities, and how emerging technology is changing roles and responsibilities within your organization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco ACI in the CNPES Cert (Engineering Specialist)

Cisco’s current network programmability certs uses two exams per cert, with the second exam focusing on ACI. That represents the first ACI-focused specialist exams from Cisco, and a great reason to learn about ACI and validate that knowledge. Today’s post looks at the ACI-focused exam for the Cisco CNPES Cert exam: the 600-512 NPENGACI exam. We’ll look at both the exam and a related video course.

Other posts in this series:

Overview

First, to set the stage, Cisco rolled out their network programmability (read: SDN) certifications over a period of months, mostly in 2014. Figure 1 shows these four certs, with the engineering specialist cert focusing on engineering and implementation.

Figure 1: Overview of Cisco SDN Certifications

 

Today’s post focuses on the second exam: the 600-512 NPENGACI exam. The name itself is a bit of a mouthful:

Network Programmability ENGineering with ACI

Basically, the NPENG 600-504 exam covers SDN implementation excluding ACI, NPENGACI 600-512 exam includes ACI.

This list provides the links for more details – for the certification, each of the two exams, and each of Cisco’s two Continue reading

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