Yahoo’s reported willingness to pay $11M for ‘insurance’ was the real March Madness

You may recall that last year around this time Yahoo, Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans teamed up to offer this challenge: If anyone could pick the winner of every single game in the NCAA’s 64-team, six-round March Madness basketball tournament, he or she would win a billion dollars.No one met the challenge, or came close. In fact, the tournament wasn’t even half over before the final perfect bracket sheet was no longer perfect. This came as no surprise to anyone, in large part because the odds against completing the challenge successfully were one in 9 quintillion or one in 128 billion, depending on who’s doing the math, according to this explanation in Slate.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Remote port-mirroring in Junos

Information on remote port mirroring on Junos routers doesn’t seem to be very easy to come by for some reason – there is quite a lot of information about doing this on EX switches (a bit like RSPAN in Cisco’s IOS), which wasn’t what I needed.  Various other sources of information (such as Cluepon) say this can be done using a GRE tunnel, but that the capturing device needs to be a server that terminates the GRE tunnel – which all seemed a bit complicated.

I needed to remotely mirror a port on an MX to a second MX where a windows-based Wireshark was connected, so getting GRE working to a Windows host sounded like a non starter.

So I had to work it out myself – and hopefully this write-up will prove useful to someone else in the future.

An additional requirement for the customer was that the captured interface should be in a VRF, so the test-bed I set up below has production traffic flowing through a VRF, and the mirrored traffic in a GRE tunnel which is running in the global routing table.

Here’s the write-up I did for the customer:

Remote port-mirroring using GRE Continue reading

Kenya becomes second country in East Africa to enjoy free Wi-Fi

Kenya has become the second country in East Africa after Rwanda to offer free Wi-Fi to the public, thanks to an initiative by Liquid Telecom and the Kenyan government.As in Rwanda, the free Wi-Fi connection will give users open access to the Internet with the exception of unlawful activities such as streaming or downloading offensive content or content that violates copyright.The move is expected to raise the demand for Wi-Fi-enabled handsets in the country. In Southern Africa, only South Africa so far is enjoying free access to public Wi-Fi, also provided by Liquid Telecom.In Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa, Liquid Telecom has put in place outdoor nodes designed to withstand harsh climatic conditions to offer uninterrupted connectivity and stable bandwidth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

All major browsers hacked at Pwn2Own contest

Security researchers who participated in the Pwn2Own hacking contest this week demonstrated remote code execution exploits against the top four browsers, and also hacked the widely used Adobe Reader and Flash Player plug-ins.On Thursday, South Korean security researcher and serial browser hacker JungHoon Lee, known online as lokihardt, single-handedly popped Internet Explorer 11 and Google Chrome on Microsoft Windows, as well as Apple Safari on Mac OS X.He walked away with US$225,000 in prize money, not including the value of the brand new laptops on which the exploits are demonstrated and which the winners get to take home.The Pwn2Own contest takes place every year at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, Canada, and is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard’s Zero Day Initiative program. The contest pits researchers against the latest 64-bit versions of the top four browsers in order to demonstrate Web-based attacks that can execute rogue code on underlying systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Data centers in Iceland? Yes, really!

Companies in search of stable, inexpensive energy to power their data needs are looking beyond the borders of their own countries these days. Those willing to look really far might consider harboring their strategic assets in Iceland.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, March 20

Some on FTC wanted antitrust suit against GoogleGoogle came close to having to defend antitrust charges in the U.S.: Staff at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission who monitor competition pushed for an antitrust lawsuit against it in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported. A staff report that has just come to light concluded that the search giant used “anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and competitors,” the paper said. Another faction at the Commission, the economics bureau, issued a report advising against a lawsuit and no action was taken. Among the most damning findings: there was evidence that Google gamed its system to promote its own services and demote rivals, and scraped content from other sites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HTC replaces CEO with company founder

HTC founder Cher Wang is taking over as company CEO, as the Taiwanese Android smartphone maker fights to revive its struggling business.Peter Chou, the previous CEO, will remain with the company, and lead its “Future Development Lab” to identify new growth opportunities, HTC said Friday.Wang, who was already company chairwoman, had been taking a larger managerial role in the last two years, so that Chou could focus on product development.On Friday, the board of directors and HTC’s executive team agreed to formalize that progression and name Wang as CEO to usher in its next stage of development, the company said.During Chou’s tenure, HTC became a major Android handset maker, but its market share and sales have since declined in the face of fierce competition from Apple, Samsung Electronics, and an emerging crowd of Chinese vendors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HTC replaces CEO with company founder

HTC founder Cher Wang is taking over as company CEO, as the Taiwanese Android smartphone maker fights to revive its struggling business.Peter Chou, the previous CEO, will remain with the company, and lead its “Future Development Lab” to identify new growth opportunities, HTC said Friday.Wang, who was already company chairwoman, had been taking a larger managerial role in the last two years, so that Chou could focus on product development.On Friday, the board of directors and HTC’s executive team agreed to formalize that progression and name Wang as CEO to usher in its next stage of development, the company said.During Chou’s tenure, HTC became a major Android handset maker, but its market share and sales have since declined in the face of fierce competition from Apple, Samsung Electronics, and an emerging crowd of Chinese vendors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

To avoid NSA, Cisco gear gets delivered to strange addresses

One of the most successful U.S. National Security Agency spying programs involved intercepting IT equipment en route to customers and modifying it.At secret workshops, backdoor surveillance tools were inserted into routers, servers and networking equipment before the equipment was repackaged and sent to customers outside the U.S.The program, run by the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) group, was revealed by documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and reported by Der Spiegel and Glenn Greenwald.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Leaked US antitrust report on Google adds weight to rivals’ complaints

A leaked report by staff at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission paints an ugly picture of Google as a bullying monopolist and adds credence to complaints from rivals who have long criticized its business practices.The report, which was mistakenly provided to the Wall Street Journal as part of a public records request, reveals that FTC staff concluded in 2012 that Google’s business tactics had caused “real harm to consumers and to innovation,” and the staff recommended a lawsuit against the company.The FTC’s commissioners ultimately decided not to take action and closed their investigation of Google. But the conduct described in the 160-page critique paints a damaging picture of the company and seems to vindicate rivals such as Yelp that have complained about its tactics.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Deploying Kubernetes with SaltStack

The more I play around with Docker and Kubernetes the more I find myself needing to rebuild my lab.  Config file changes are done all over the place, permissions change, some binaries are added or updated, and things get out of sync.  I always like to figure out how things work and then rebuild ‘the right way’ to make sure I know what I’m talking about.  The process of rebuilding the lab takes quite a bit of time and was generally annoying.  So I was looking for a way to automate some of the rebuild.  Having some previous experience with Chef, I thought I might give that a try but I never got around to it.  Then one day I was browsing the Kubernetes github repo and noticed that there was already a fair amount of SaltStack files out in the repo.  I had heard about SaltStack, but had no idea what it was so I thought I’d give it a try and see if it could help me with my lab rebuilds.   

Make a long story short, it helps, A LOT.  While I know I’ve only scratched the surface the Continue reading

GinzaMetrics helps marketers get more bang for their social buck

Hard on the heels of its Competitor Discovery tool last month, GinzaMetrics has unveiled a new set of tools that aims to help marketers understand the impact of their social-media efforts.Its Social Intelligence Suite can reveal how social channels are contributing to revenue and other goals so brands can better plan how to use them for marketing. The suite has four tools, focused on marketing channel performance, the competitor social landscape, content insights and social engagement analytics.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At least 700,000 routers given to customers by ISPs are vulnerable to hacking

More than 700,000 ADSL routers provided to customers by ISPs around the world contain serious flaws that allow remote hackers to take control of them.Most of the routers have a “directory traversal” flaw in a firmware component called webproc.cgi that allows hackers to extract sensitive configuration data, including administrative credentials. The flaw isn’t new and has been reported by multiple researchers since 2011 in various router models.Security researcher Kyle Lovett came across the flaw a few months ago in some ADSL routers he was analyzing in his spare time. He investigated further and unearthed hundreds of thousands of vulnerable devices from different manufacturers that had been distributed by ISPs to Internet subscribers in a dozen countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At least 700,000 routers given to customers by ISPs are vulnerable to hacking

More than 700,000 ADSL routers provided to customers by ISPs around the world contain serious flaws that allow remote hackers to take control of them.Most of the routers have a “directory traversal” flaw in a firmware component called webproc.cgi that allows hackers to extract sensitive configuration data, including administrative credentials. The flaw isn’t new and has been reported by multiple researchers since 2011 in various router models.Security researcher Kyle Lovett came across the flaw a few months ago in some ADSL routers he was analyzing in his spare time. He investigated further and unearthed hundreds of thousands of vulnerable devices from different manufacturers that had been distributed by ISPs to Internet subscribers in a dozen countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At least 700,000 routers given to customers by ISPs are vulnerable to hacking

More than 700,000 ADSL routers provided to customers by ISPs around the world contain serious flaws that allow remote hackers to take control of them.Most of the routers have a “directory traversal” flaw in a firmware component called webproc.cgi that allows hackers to extract sensitive configuration data, including administrative credentials. The flaw isn’t new and has been reported by multiple researchers since 2011 in various router models.Security researcher Kyle Lovett came across the flaw a few months ago in some ADSL routers he was analyzing in his spare time. He investigated further and unearthed hundreds of thousands of vulnerable devices from different manufacturers that had been distributed by ISPs to Internet subscribers in a dozen countries.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Google’s partnership with Intel, TAG Heuer could fight off Apple Watch

Apple should take notice of the partnership announced today at the Baselworld watch and jewelry conference, because Google has put together partners that could build a watch that even iPhone customers would want. One can't dispute that Apple will sell a lot of watches. Just take a look at investment bankers UBS and Bernstein's forecasts. But if this Android Wear partnership is effective, it might be hard for Apple to achieve its optimistic forecasts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EMC eying Arista, Brocade?

Stoke the rumor fires once again. Bernstein Research has issued a note this week that states storage giant EMC is prepared to buy, and that Arista Networks and Brocade might make good fits.Arista, for one, combined with EMC’s VMware possession and go-to-market capability would create an alternative to Cisco “stronger than anything present in the market today,” the note states.The report’s authors say the catalyst for the EMC buying speculation were remarks by CEO Joe Tucci at a recent analyst meeting that “consolidation opportunities” existed for EMC that were instantly accretive. They say EMC could do up to a $10 billion+ cash deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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