The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, April 3

Uber poaches Facebook’s Joe Sullivan for security chiefIn an indication that the ride-hailing app company is aware that it had better get security right, Uber Technologies has hired away Facebook’s head of security, Joe Sullivan, to be its first CSO. Sullivan has been fairly high profile as Facebook’s CSO for the last five years, and besides time spent at PayPal and eBay, he has a background prosecuting cyber crime, re/code reports. Sullivan has his work cut out for him, with Uber facing challenges ranging from data privacy to its riders’ physical security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung: New Galaxy phones are built for enterprise use

Smartphone makers are targeting the enterprise market like never before, unleashing a slew of third-party productivity and management apps for both end users and IT shops.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

LinkedIn buys social knowledge startup Refresh

In a move that could yield even more automated suggestions and tips for LinkedIn users, the professional network has acquired California startup Refresh, the maker of an app that gathers news and insights about participants in meetings.Launched three years ago, Refresh is designed to be a “digital briefing book” that can call up online information related to people that users are scheduled to meet. The information can be anything from blog posts, news articles or Facebook posts to personal notes or favorite sports teams.The Refresh mobile and desktop app is aimed at helping people relate to one another more quickly, but it can also be used to refresh one’s memory when running into acquaintances unexpectedly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Uber knuckles down on security, poaches exec from Facebook

Although it started off as a smartphone app to connect passengers with drivers, Uber Technologies is encountering the same real-world security issues as the taxi industry, includng the need for driver background checks and local regulatory compliance.On top of this there are the risks involved in handling masses of customer and driver data, which became evident earlier this year when the company admitted driver data had been compromised.On Thursday, Uber moved a step forward in its bid to fend off criticism of its security practices by appointing as its first chief security officer Joe Sullivan, a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor and, more recently, Facebook’s security chief.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Uber knuckles down on security, poaches exec from Facebook

Although it started off as a smartphone app to connect passengers with drivers, Uber Technologies is encountering the same real-world security issues as the taxi industry, includng the need for driver background checks and local regulatory compliance.On top of this there are the risks involved in handling masses of customer and driver data, which became evident earlier this year when the company admitted driver data had been compromised.On Thursday, Uber moved a step forward in its bid to fend off criticism of its security practices by appointing as its first chief security officer Joe Sullivan, a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor and, more recently, Facebook’s security chief.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Video: IPv6 Myths and Reality

I was talking and writing about IPv6 myths for years, but like any good myth they tend to be pretty robust. Unfortunately, as I explained in the IPv6 Myths and Reality part of IPv6 High Availability Strategies webinar, the reality seems pretty bleak: all we got are longer addresses, half-baked protocols, unsolved challenges, and heaps of confusion.

How to use MiniEdit, Mininet’s graphical user interface

The Mininet network simulator includes MiniEdit, a simple GUI editor for Mininet. MiniEdit is an experimental tool created to demonstrate how Mininet can be extended.

To show how to use MiniEdit to create and run network simulations, we will work through a tutorial that demonstrates how to use MiniEdit to build a network, configure network elements, save the topology, and run the simulation.

Set up Mininet

You should already be familiar with Mininet before trying to use MiniEdit. If you need some basic information about Mininet, please read my Mininet overview.

Before starting this tutorial, you should have already started the Mininet VM and connected to it via SSH with X forwarding enabled. If you need to learn how to do this, please read my post describing how to set up Mininet. If you want to use Mininet on an Amazon EC2 server, please see my post about installing Mininet on Amazon EC2.

Start MiniEdit

The MiniEdit script is located in Mininet’s examples folder. To run MiniEdit, execute the command:

$ sudo ~/mininet/example/miniedit.py

Mininet needs to run with root privileges so we started MiniEdit using the sudo command.

MiniEdit user interface

MiniEdit has a simple user interface that Continue reading

Networking Test – 3

In this networking test you will have 6 questions. MPLS, BGP, Routing convergence, MPLS Traffic Engineering are just some of the concepts in the test. Please provide your username and email for the Leaderboard. If you can be in leaderboard, I will use those information later to give special prizes such as discount in my… Read More »

The post Networking Test – 3 appeared first on Network Design and Architecture.

Gilat Satcom offers connectivity package for rural Africa for just $1 per month

Gilat Satcom has launched a portfolio of satellite services for rural Africa that will require subscribers to pay as little as US$1.00 per month.The Village Island portfolio of services will allow rural dwellers in Africa to access voice-over-IP (VoIP), cellular, video over IP and Wi-Fi connections via private satellite networks.Gilat said Village Island is being supported by governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), network operators, churches and major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and is aimed at specified groups in rural areas.The initiative comes as the high cost of communications and Internet connectivity in the region prevent many rural Africans from using telecom and Web services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

East Africa expands One Network Area to include data, mobile money

East Africa’s One Area Network initiative is being expanded to include data and mobile money services, a move expected to result in lower costs for subscribers.The One Area Network initiative, launched in January, has led to a decline in mobile phone communication rates across borders in East Africa.The East African Community (EAC) last year agreed that all calls between member countries should be billed as though they were local. The agreement led to a pact between Safaricom, MTN and Airtel Uganda that enables subscribers to receive calls for free while in Uganda and pay a flat rate of $0.11 for calls to other East African countries including Tanzania and Burundi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PQ Show 46 – SaiSei & Network Performance Enhancement

Saisei does Network Performance Enhancement that delivers visibility and control of the network traffic in a different way. In this show, we examine how software and algorithms provide visibility and control of network traffic. Traffic management for the next decade.

Author information

Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus.

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The post PQ Show 46 – SaiSei & Network Performance Enhancement appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Greg Ferro.

IDG Contributor Network: Low-power chip will last decades on a battery

For years we've been obsessed with increasing chip processing power. Intel's i386, launched in 1985, followed by the i486 in 1989, introduced economical multitasking and number crunching to the enterprise.In the following years, the chips got more powerful still, culminating with today's hundred-dollar smartphone threatening the PC.It could be argued that we've reached an acceptable level of multitasking and personal computing power for cost. We've found it in small-form-factor smartphones, and it may be all we really need now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Low-power chip will last decades on a battery

For years we've been obsessed with increasing chip processing power. Intel's i386, launched in 1985, followed by the i486 in 1989, introduced economical multitasking and number crunching to the enterprise.In the following years, the chips got more powerful still, culminating with today's hundred-dollar smartphone threatening the PC.It could be argued that we've reached an acceptable level of multitasking and personal computing power for cost. We've found it in small-form-factor smartphones, and it may be all we really need now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Confusion but hope as US faces payment revolution

In just under six months, a behind-the-scenes switch in the payments industry will change the way U.S. consumers shop and could bring wider acceptance for Apple Pay and its competitors.Beginning in October, liability for transactions with fraudulent credit and debit cards will shift from the card companies to retailers, if the retailers haven’t invested in terminals that don’t accept chip-based cards. The chip cards are already being sent from banks to customers, and some stores have them in place, but much is still up in the air.At this week’s Transact 15 expo in San Francisco, a gathering of companies in the electronic payments industry, everyone has questions and there are few answers. Could the shift be delayed, will banks mandate PIN numbers instead of signatures for purchases with the new cards, and will cybercriminals just shift their attention online?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung starts shipping new 4K TVs with Tizen OS

Streaming movies from mobile devices onto TVs isn’t as easy as it seems. Samsung hopes to make that easier with its new line of 4K Smart TVs, which have the brand-new Tizen operating system.Samsung has started shipping some of its new curved and flat-panel Smart TVs, and announced prices for other models that will ship in the coming months. The TVs, which start $949.99, come in ultra-high definition [3840 by 2160] resolutions.The user interface in the new Smart TVs will look different from TVs released in previous years. Samsung’s entire Smart TV line-up in 2015 is based on Tizen, which brings TVs closer to mobile devices and Internet-based streaming content, the company said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Snapchat tallies government data requests for the first time

Snapchat’s service featuring disappearing messages is known for its popularity among teens. Now it’s becoming popular with law enforcement.Snapchat, for the first time, has disclosed the number of requests for user information it has received from governments in the U.S. and in other countries. These requests may come in the form of subpoenas, court orders, search warrants or other legal processes, seeking a variety of user information like usernames, email addresses and phone numbers.Authorities may also seek the content of messages. They have a tight window, though—Snapchat says it deletes people’s messages from its servers after all recipients have viewed them, or 30 days after an unopened message is sent. Governments can also seek logs containing the metadata of messages, which Snapchat retains.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Snapchat tallies government data requests for the first time

Snapchat’s service featuring disappearing messages is known for its popularity among teens. Now it’s becoming popular with law enforcement.Snapchat, for the first time, has disclosed the number of requests for user information it has received from governments in the U.S. and in other countries. These requests may come in the form of subpoenas, court orders, search warrants or other legal processes, seeking a variety of user information like usernames, email addresses and phone numbers.Authorities may also seek the content of messages. They have a tight window, though—Snapchat says it deletes people’s messages from its servers after all recipients have viewed them, or 30 days after an unopened message is sent. Governments can also seek logs containing the metadata of messages, which Snapchat retains.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Smush your photos to boost Samsung Galaxy face recognition, researchers say

You can improve facial recognition security on Samsung Galaxy phones by morphing multiple photos of yourself to unlock the device, researchers at the University of York's FaceVar Lab say. This improves upon storing a single target image, according to the team led by David Robertson, of the Department of Psychology's FaceVar lab. Their paper, "Face averages enhance user recognition for smartphone security," has been published in the journal PLOS ONE. MORE: 6 things Galaxy 6 does that iPhone 6 can't | Biometric security is on the riseTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ansible and Containers: Why and How

Everyone loves the promise of containers.  

More specifically: everyone loves the promise of a world where they can build an application on their laptop, and have that application run exactly the same way in every environment -- from their laptop all the way to production, and at every step in between.

That's still a holy grail, though.  In the meantime, people seem to be looking for practical ways to get all of the advantages of containers -- consistency, lightweight environments, application segregation, and so on -- while still maintaining the flexibility required to work with the many environments that are not amenable to containerization.

Which may explain why so many people... wow, just a lot of people... seem to be talking about Ansible and containers together:

* Ansible playbooks are portable. If you build a container with a pure Dockerfile, it means that the only way you can reproduce that application is in a Docker container. If you build a container with an Ansible playbook, you can then reproduce a very similar environment in Vagrant, or in a cloud instance of your choice, Continue reading

Mirantis Joins Cloud Foundry but Keeps Focus on OpenStack

The not-so-thin line between IaaS and PaaS.