Worth Reading — 0522

It’s Friday, which means it’s time to talk about some stuff around the ‘web that’s worth reading.

If you’ve not been asleep this week (most people seem to be, given the rate at which my emails are being answered!), then you’ve probably heard about logjam — a man in the middle attack against IKE and other DHE cypher suites. If you haven’t this is a really short (and cryptic) explanation of the attack, and how to mitigate it.

Bufferbloat has been in the news recently, with speedtest and other tools building in the ability to measure bufferbloat in DSL and cable connections. Buffers have always been a topic of hot discussion in the networking world — in fact, buffer size came up just this last week while in discussions in building an Ericsson reference design for data center fabric underlays. The point always comes down to this — can’t you just do better QoS and larger buffers, and skip all the 1:1 subscription rates? The answer I always give is a resounding NO!, but it’s hard to explain why without getting into an explanation of buffer bloat, and it’s effects on jitter (the often ignored step child of Continue reading

6 things almost every viral Kickstarter has in common

For many entrepreneurs, crowdfunding is a mystery. Celebrity music videos can flop, while simple, silly ideas can go viral overnight. Some campaigns are all about grassroots fundraising, while others can succeed on the strength of one or two wealthy backers.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: The most magnificent high-tech flying machines On closer inspection, however, there are a few signals in the noise. We looked at the thousand most successful Kickstarter projects ever based on percent funded—campaigns that raised more than 15 times as much money as they asked for—then compared those numbers to every Kickstarter campaign in history, over 220,000 in all.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, May 22

Connected cars will add to mobile traffic jamsExpect mobile networks to struggle as they are called on to handle a rapidly increasing number of connected cars. Traffic growth from M2M (machine to machine) connections, particularly from cars, will cause headaches for mobile operators, says Machina Research. Car connections are expected to surpass 500 million in 2019 and then 1 billion in 2023, when they will account for more than half of all M2M connections over cellular networks. And they’ll use lots of data, thanks to connected entertainment and navigation systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, May 22

Connected cars will add to mobile traffic jamsExpect mobile networks to struggle as they are called on to handle a rapidly increasing number of connected cars. Traffic growth from M2M (machine to machine) connections, particularly from cars, will cause headaches for mobile operators, says Machina Research. Car connections are expected to surpass 500 million in 2019 and then 1 billion in 2023, when they will account for more than half of all M2M connections over cellular networks. And they’ll use lots of data, thanks to connected entertainment and navigation systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Friday, May 22

Connected cars will add to mobile traffic jamsExpect mobile networks to struggle as they are called on to handle a rapidly increasing number of connected cars. Traffic growth from M2M (machine to machine) connections, particularly from cars, will cause headaches for mobile operators, says Machina Research. Car connections are expected to surpass 500 million in 2019 and then 1 billion in 2023, when they will account for more than half of all M2M connections over cellular networks. And they’ll use lots of data, thanks to connected entertainment and navigation systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Factory reset in Android phones leaves sensitive user data behind

It’s common sense to reset an Android phone to its factory state before selling or disposing of it. But beware, researchers recently found that this often fails to properly wipe all sensitive user data from the device.A test on 21 second-hand smartphones running Android versions between 2.3.x (Gingerbread) and 4.3 (Jelly Bean) revealed that it’s possible to recover emails, text messages, Google access tokens and other sensitive data after the factory reset function had been used.The study was done by researchers Laurent Simon and Ross Anderson from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. on used devices bought from eBay between January and May 2014. The devices included models from Samsung Electronics, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola and three from Google’s Nexus line of phones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Secom security drone follows, photographs intruders

If you think drones are more than slightly creepy, wait until you meet one that will autonomously follow you and record video.Japanese security company Secom is launching a drone that will automatically launch when an intruder is detected and follow him or her while sending video to human supervisors.The sleek silver quadcopter was shown off this week at the inaugural International Drone Expo held in Makuhari outside Tokyo, where about 50 companies gathered to exhibit drones and related technologies.The UAV will be offered to businesses in Japan operating on relatively large parcels of land—big enough to warrant a flying security camera—such as shopping malls and supermarkets with large parking lots.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Freelance hacking site vows to clean up dodgy listings

Charles Tendell is trying to repair a reputation problem for his website, Hacker’s List.The site debuted in November and quickly drew high-profile attention, including a front-page story in the New York Times. It’s an online marketplace where people can list computer-security related jobs for bidding and match them with the right “hacker.”It has been criticized as amateurish since forums where such deals are made are password-protected and generally hard to find for regular Internet users. It has also raised concern since many projects up for bidding appear illegal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Leaked database of Adult Friend Finder still online

Adult Friend Finder, one of the largest online dating sites, may have been breached more than two months ago, and the sensitive files—include names, ages, email addresses, zip codes and more—are apparently still online.British broadcaster Channel 4 reported Thursday that the website had been breached, although information regarding the breach had been trickling out in a low-key way for some time.FriendFinder Networks, a California-based company that owns Adult Friend Finder and other dating websites, said in an advisory that it has contacted law enforcement and is investigating.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ICANN chief to leave office early, may miss key transition

The ICANN leader who kicked off the Internet organization’s move away from U.S. government control will leave his post early, possibly before the transition is finished.Fadi Chehadé, who became president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in September 2012, will step down in March 2016, ICANN announced on Thursday. He is leaving for a new career in the private sector, outside of the domain name industry, the group said. Chehadé’s term was to have lasted until June 2017.Chehadé’s biggest job at the helm of ICANN, which coordinates the Internet’s DNS (Domain Name System) and Internet Protocol addresses, has been to shepherd its transition away from U.S. control. ICANN operates under a contract from the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is scheduled to expire in September.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open Source Routing: A Comparison

I have been getting more interested in open-source networking software, and I figured it was time to write a post comparing some of the more popular open source projects in this space. Not only do we have several options (which hasn’t always been the case) for running routing protocols in FOSS, but we also have a variety of use cases that are increasing in popularity (using BGP for SDN-type purposes, not just to do internet peering).

Open Source Routing: A Comparison

I have been getting more interested in open-source networking software, and I figured it was time to write a post comparing some of the more popular open source projects in this space. Not only do we have several options (which hasn’t always been the case) for running routing protocols in FOSS, but we also have a variety of use cases that are increasing in popularity (using BGP for SDN-type purposes, not just to do internet peering).

Welcome Acquia!

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We’ve had the good fortune to share many great experiences with the Acquia team over the last few years. From breaking bread with founder and CTO Dries Buytaert at SXSW, to skiing the slopes of Park City with the company’s CEO Tom Erickson, to staying up late with their incredible team onboarding a joint customer under a DDoS attack. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with the Acquia team.

Today we are thrilled to welcome Acquia as a CloudFlare Partner. Together we developed Acquia Cloud Edge powered by CloudFlare making it easier for any of their customers to access CloudFlare’s web performance and security solutions. The Acquia Cloud Edge is a family of products that protects websites against security threats, ensures only clean traffic get served, and speeds up site performance no matter where visitors are located.

Acquia Cloud Edge powered by CloudFlare comes as Edge Protect and Edge CDN. Edge Protect defends against DDoS and other network-level attacks. CloudFlare sits on the network edge in front of Acquia web servers, allowing early identification of attack patterns and questionable visitors, and mitigating attacks before they reach a user’s site. Edge CDN accelerates the delivery of digital experiences through CloudFlare’s Continue reading

Google to change Maps search system after offensive White House results

Google said Thursday it would make changes to its Maps search system after racist search terms brought up the White House among their top results.In Google Maps, some queries containing racist terms against African-Americans listed the White House and other surprising places among their top results. Google apologized and said it was working on a fix, but it had little else to say about what was causing the results to appear or how the company would fix the issue.Now Google is providing more information. The company has begun to update its ranking system to address a majority of the searches in question, by building on a previous algorithmic change that was developed for Google Search, Google said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US Senate leader to push for vote to renew NSA phone dragnet

The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to move forward on efforts to extend the section of the Patriot Act that the National Security Agency has used to collect millions of domestic telephone records.Congress is facing an effective deadline of this weekend to extend the phone records collection section of the antiterrorism law, with Section 215 of the Patriot Act expiring June 1 and lawmakers scheduled to take a weeklong break after finishing business this week.On Thursday, Senators were wrestling with three alternatives: allow the Patriot Act’s records collection program to expire, extend the program with no new limits, or pass a House of Representatives bill that aims to end bulk records collection but allows the NSA to search phone and business records in a more targeted manner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US Senate leader to push for vote to renew NSA phone dragnet

The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to move forward on efforts to extend the section of the Patriot Act that the National Security Agency has used to collect millions of domestic telephone records.Congress is facing an effective deadline of this weekend to extend the phone records collection section of the antiterrorism law, with Section 215 of the Patriot Act expiring June 1 and lawmakers scheduled to take a weeklong break after finishing business this week.On Thursday, Senators were wrestling with three alternatives: allow the Patriot Act’s records collection program to expire, extend the program with no new limits, or pass a House of Representatives bill that aims to end bulk records collection but allows the NSA to search phone and business records in a more targeted manner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feds want terabit-speed optical SDN-based system

A branch in the US Department of Energy want to take software-defined network technology and combine it with a high-speed underlying optical system that will be capable of supporting large scientific applications.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+Specifically the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research in the Office of Science at the U.S. DOE said that networks are becoming too complicated to manage and control, especially as they provide critical support for sophisticated distributed extreme-scale science activities and Big Data-intensive scientific collaborations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feds want terabit-speed optical SDN-based system

A branch in the US Department of Energy want to take software-defined network technology and combine it with a high-speed underlying optical system that will be capable of supporting large scientific applications.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+Specifically the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research in the Office of Science at the U.S. DOE said that networks are becoming too complicated to manage and control, especially as they provide critical support for sophisticated distributed extreme-scale science activities and Big Data-intensive scientific collaborations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HP’s profit slips 21 percent as services business stumbles

Hewlett-Packard has reported another drop in quarterly revenue and profit, with a notable 16 percent slide in its enterprise services business.The company said it’s on track to divide itself into two companies later this year, but made a last minute change to its leadership plans: CFO Cathie Lesjak will move to HP Inc., the division that will sell PCs and printers, and not to HP Enterprise, as originally planned.HP has been trying to expand its business for a few years without success, and the split is a bold gambit to see if can perform better as two companies. Revenue slipped 7 percent in the quarter ended April 30, to $25.5 billion—its 15th straight quarter of declining sales.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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