5G networks look to new frequencies to deliver gigabit speeds

If operators are to build 5G mobile networks with download speeds at 10Gbps and above, they are going to need a lot more spectrum—but getting it won’t be easy.The amount of spectrum allocated to 5G will determine how fast networks based on the technology will eventually become. Until recently, only frequencies below 6GHz have been considered for mobile networks, mostly because they are good for covering large areas. But there’s now a growing need to unlock new spectrum bands in the 6GHz to 100GHz range too, attendees at the LTE and 5G World Summit conferences in Amsterdam heard this week.The use of spectrum in these bands is immensely important for 5G networks to be able to offer multiple gigabits per second, Robert DiFazio, chief engineer at wireless R&D company InterDigital Communications, said. By raising communication speeds, they are also expected to help lower latency in mobile networks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Keeping up with demand in an instant gratification economy

We've lost our collective ability to be patient. What used to be a virtue is now anathema because we have become so accustomed to having what we want when we want it, that we've simply forgotten what it's like to "wait it out."Need proof? We shifted our viewing habits to over-the-top video services quicker than it ever took us to walk to the nearest Blockbuster – yet many have already forgotten the formerly inconvenient task of walking, and now complain that an instance of buffering while streaming video means the service is "too slow." To wit, recent industry-sponsored research found that a poor experience such as buffering or poor-quality video drives almost 75% of viewers to give up in watching within the first four minutes of playback.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Trojan that hides inside images infects healthcare organizations

A computer Trojan that hides its malicious code inside PNG image files counts healthcare organizations in the U.S. among its primary targets.The Stegoloader Trojan uses digital steganography techniques to sneak past computer and network defenses. It originally appeared in 2012, but has seen a resurgence over the past several months.According to a recent report from Dell SecureWorks, the Trojan is designed to steal files, information and passwords from infected systems, but has additional modules that extend its functionality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Last Call for the Cisco DemoFriday: Solving the Lab Equipment Challenge with VIRL

VIRL-CISCO-DemoFriday This is it. Your last shot to register for the Cisco VIRL DemoFriday. Can your organization keep up with the increasing demand to provide new network services while still making significant changes to test and deploy networks consistently? If not, then the Cisco DemoFriday may be just for you. In this DemoFriday, Cisco will take us through VIRL (Virtual Internet Read more >

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, June 25

Microsoft vet throws open Snowflake data warehouseStartup Snowflake Computing has opened its cloud-based data warehouse service for business. The company, headed by Microsoft veteran Bob Muglia, is offering a service that lets companies pool all their data and workloads in a single warehouse that can be accessed by all their users. It’s also capable of taking in both structured and semi-structured data.Google brings a green data center to a coal-fired plantGoogle is building a new data center inside a former coal-fired power plant in Alabama, and is asking the regional utility to find renewable energy sources and bring them online to power the facility, the New York Times reports. It pointed out the practical reasons to use the old plant: it’s a solid building, obviously has good power lines, and also has access to lots of water needed for cooling.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Florida telemarketer, under FTC watch, suffers data breach

A Florida-based computer tech support call center has suffered a data breach, with customer records being abused by fraudsters trying to get access to online bank accounts.The data breach is the latest problem for Advanced Tech Support, an inbound call center based in Boca Raton, which is run by Inbound Call Experts.Last November, those two companies and others were sued by the Federal Trade Commission in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, for allegedly duping callers into buying overpriced computer support services and unnecessary security software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft testing new Office 365 features to entice educators

Microsoft announced a private beta for a pair of new services Wednesday aimed at making its Office 365 service work better in schools.The new Classroom Hub is a website that brings together content from different Office applications into a single, central location that teachers and students can use to stay on top of what’s going on in their classes. The service can pull in notes, assignments, calendars and class materials to provide a digital home for all of the information that students need to know. Teachers will also be able to track progress on assignments and provide students with feedback and grades through the site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft testing new Office 365 features to entice educators

Microsoft announced a private beta for a pair of new services Wednesday aimed at making its Office 365 service work better in schools.The new Class Dashboard is a website that brings together content from different Office applications into a single, central location that teachers and students can use to stay on top of what’s going on in their classes. The service can pull in notes, assignments, calendars and class materials to provide a digital home for all of the information that students need to know. Teachers will also be able to track progress on assignments and provide students with feedback and grades through the site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Wrap-Up: Day 2 of DockerCon 2015

DockerCon 2015 ended yesterday and we’re already missing the energy that was in the air during the conference. Once again, we’d like to thank the over 2100 attendees, 50 speakers and 70+ sponsors who contributed to make this 3rd DockerCon a … Continued

IDG Contributor Network: ISPs accused of violating net neutrality rules

The slow, buffering video stream that you're seeing during some peak hours may not be caused by the technical limitations of the internet at all, according to a pro-net neutrality activist group.BattlefortheNet says it has new evidence to prove that ISPs are deliberately slowing the internet down at the interconnections between ISPs and other networks, such as Transit Providers and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), in order to leverage fees from those other networks."AT&T is not provisioning enough ports" to accept the traffic it is requesting, S. Derek Turner of Free Press told me.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Facebook account is no longer needed for Messenger

Facebook wants to squeeze as much growth as it can out of its popular Messenger app, even if that means foregoing Facebook.While previously users had to sign up for Messenger with their Facebook accounts, now, in a few countries, it can be done with just a mobile telephone number. In the U.S., Canada, Peru and Venezuela, users who sign up this way can allow the app to sync with the contacts on their phone so they can easily find people to message.Along with the phone number, the user’s name and photo are still needed to complete the sign-up process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Check out these brand new videos on how to optimize CloudFlare

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Someone once said that the best things in life are free and I can’t agree more. I want to draw the attention of the CloudFlare community to a great resource that helps maximize the value of our product. Troy Hunt, an experienced trainer and blogger, has produced a video course on using CloudFlare. The video series is available through Pluralsight, an online training site for developers.

Because the folks at Pluralsight think that this is a great resource, the video tutorials are being offered to everyone for a week absolutely for free.

So what can you expect to learn? The course kicks off by explaining what CloudFlare brings to the table, and then sets up a site on CloudFlare, including configuring the name server records with your DNS provider. All of this helps get things up and running quickly. Then it gets deeper.

One module of the course is devoted to understanding more about SSL and further strengthening the implementation. For example, CloudFlare’s SSL rates high on the Qualys SSL Labs Test and scores an “A” right out of the box. But you can make it better – an “A+” – just by enabling HSTS. However, you really want to Continue reading

DockerCon Vendor Briefings

At DockerCon 2015 in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to meet with a few vendors in the Docker ecosystem. Here are some notes from my vendor briefings.

StackEngine

StackEngine describes themselves as enterprise-grade container application management. They tout features like being able to compose Docker applications using a drag-and-drop interface, deploy containers across multiple hosts, and provide automation—all with the sort of controls that enterprise IT groups are seeking. That’s all well and good, but the key problem in my mind is that these are features Docker is seeking for themselves. Docker Compose offers the ability to specify applications. True, there’s no GUI (yet). Alas, StackEngine can translate their GUI application design into YAML, but it doesn’t comply with Docker Compose. Thus, it ends up being more competitive than complimentary, in my opinion. Docker Swarm and the upcoming Docker Network address some of StackEngine’s deployment functionality, and if Project Orca takes off as an official effort—well, let’s just say I hope that StackEngine has more planned. This is not to say that StackEngine isn’t a well-engineered solution offering real value; rather, this is to say that StackEngine appears to be, unfortunately, in the crosshairs for functionality Docker is aiming Continue reading

Pressure mounts in EU to treat Facebook and Twitter as critical infrastructure

Pressure is mounting in the European Union to subject companies including Google, Twitter, eBay and Facebook to the same critical IT infrastructure security requirements as banks or energy networks.EU lawmakers want providers of essential services in industries including banking, health care, transport and energy to protect their networks from hackers, and to disclose data breaches to the authorities.The European Commission, which proposed the draft Network and Information Security Directive two years ago, also wants it to cover enablers of key Internet services, such as e-commerce platforms, Internet payment gateways, social networks, search engines, cloud computing services and app stores. The European Parliament, however, rejected their inclusion in the critical infrastructure rules last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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