Size matters in mobile, but Nokia may find bigger isn’t better

Size is power in the mobile networks business, but it’s only one of the reasons Nokia is acquiring Alcatel-Lucent.Nokia estimates the company that will emerge from the planned buyout will be the second-largest vendor of carrier infrastructure by revenue, a bit smaller than Ericsson and slightly larger than Huawei Technologies. In a price-competitive industry where technology is constantly evolving, that matters, analysts say. But size alone isn’t reason enough to justify the €15.6 billion (US$16.5 billion) deal.As consumers watch more videos and use more apps on mobile devices, vendors are developing new technologies on multiple fronts to make sure networks can keep up with the demand. Putting up more conventional cells doesn’t cut it anymore, so they’re turning to exotic approaches like millimeter-wave beams and LTE networks that can use the same frequencies as Wi-Fi. Vendors are already jockeying for influence over 5G, the next generation of wireless specifications expected by 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM opens up its threat data as part of new security intelligence sharing platform

IBM has joined an increasing number of vendors who are pushing for real-time cybersecurity information sharing among private and public organizations, researchers and other network defenders.On Thursday, the company opened up over 700 terabytes of data about vulnerabilities, attacks and other threats through a new cloud-based threat intelligence sharing platform called IBM X-Force Exchange. Other organizations can use the platform to share or confirm their own data, so they can more efficiently respond to security incidents.The information that IBM made available through the X-Force Exchange includes one of the largest catalogs of vulnerabilities in the world, according to the company. The information also includes threat information based on monitoring of more than 15 billion security events per day, malware threat intelligence from a network of 270 million endpoints, and threat information based on more than 25 billion Web pages and images.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Forever 21 denies pirating Adobe software, strikes back

Retail chain Forever 21 has denied making illegal copies of Adobe’s software, as the Photoshop maker alleged in a lawsuit, and shot back that Adobe tries to bully customers who are accused of piracy into paying exorbitant license fees.Adobe sued Forever 21 in January, in a copyright lawsuit filed along with software makers Corel and Autodesk. All three companies claim that Forever 21 “wilfully, maliciously and intentionally” used their software without proper licenses.The retailer skirted copy protection technologies to illegally install software on its computers, they said. And it continued the behavior after it was alerted by Adobe to its infringement, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Northern California. The companies want a jury trial to determine financial damages.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Data breach notification bill could weaken consumer protections

Legislation that would require businesses across the U.S. to notify affected customers after a data breach is headed toward a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives even though some digital rights groups say the bill will actually weaken protections for consumers.The Data Security and Breach Notification Act, approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday, would pre-empt stronger breach notification laws in several states and would eliminate data protections of telecom account records, several consumer and digital rights groups said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Internet of Things Is Here – But We Can’t Trust the Things

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IDG Contributor Network: Bad cell service? Just start your own telco

We've all enjoyed a good moan about our cellular phone service over the years. Iffy coverage, bizarre billing practices, and infuriating customer service have all provided a source of jovial dinner table chat in my home. As the expression goes: you've got to laugh or you'd cry.But our trials are nothing compared to what some people experience. Many in rural areas have no service at all.Those unfortunate souls have, until now, had no redress. When powerful telco won't provide service, you simply don't have service.However, in Mexico, that's changing. Just as individual citizens in some Mexican communities have bandied together to create their own prisons (due to a lack of them), citizens are also creating their own local cellular systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tata gives employees anniversary bonus, cuts into profits

India’s outsourcing industry needs to hire and retain staff in big numbers to keep business humming, so for the 10th anniversary of its initial public offering, Tata Consultancy Services announced a one-time “special reward” for its employees.As a result, Tata took a dip in profits in the first quarter to give out a large bonus.TCS said all its employees worldwide, who have completed at least one year of service, would be eligible for the special bonus, with each employee paid one week’s salary for every year of service in the company.At the end of the quarter TCS had 319,656 employees. The bonus will cost the company about US$423 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft to integrate Skype, Office with Cyanogen’s version of Android

Microsoft’s mobile apps will be integrated into a future version of Cyanogen’s Android-based operating system, as CEO Satya Nadella steps up efforts to make the company’s software more popular on Google’s platform.Cyanogen and Microsoft announced a partnership on Thursday that will result in Bing search, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Office becoming part of the Cyanogen OS, which uses a heavily modified version of the Android interface.Exactly what this will look like remains to be seen, but Microsoft said it will create “native integrations” with Cyanogen’s operating system. That hints at integration that goes beyond pre-installed apps and well-placed icons.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New malware program Punkey targets point-of-sale systems

Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals have become an attractive target for hackers over the past year, reflected in the increasing number of RAM-scraping programs that steal payment card information from the memory of such systems.Last month security researchers from Cisco Systems issued a warning about a new PoS threat dubbed PoSeidon and on Wednesday security blogger Brian Krebs reported that the program has already infected PoS terminals at restaurants, bars and hotels in the U.S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Go-to storage and disaster recovery products

LEAF Commercial Capital used to wrestle with tape backups for disaster recovery. Now the equipment leasing and finance company is using a software-based service from Evolve IP for disaster recovery.Rusty Lorenzon, director of IT Infrastructure at Philadelphia-based LEAF, says Evolve IP’s disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) has allowed the company to reduce its recovery-time objectives from 48 hours or more to four hours or less. At the same time, LEAF has reduced its disaster recovery operational expenses.“We adopted Evolve IP as an update to our traditional disaster recovery strategy, which had our team using tape backups and interfacing with various DR suppliers,” Lorenzon says. “Evolve IP DRaaS ZT is a flexible solution with an intuitive interface that is easy to configure and use. It’s built for the VMWare hypervisor and is completely SAN agnostic, which allows us to avoid SAN vendor lock-in.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech pros’ favorite tools increase IT efficiency

Content is core to the work of Densho, an organization whose mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were held in internment camps during World War II.In the past, Densho needed a complex storage environment to house its 30TB of production data, says Geoff Froh, deputy director and CIO at the nonprofit organization based in Seattle.“The two-tier infrastructure was composed of high-performance SAN hardware and high-capacity consumer-grade NAS appliances. The SAN was expensive, difficult to manage and not scalable. The NAS gear was unreliable and lacked the IOPS to handle our workload,” Froh recalls.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fave Raves: 34 tech pros share favorite IT products

Fave Raves 2015We asked, and IT pros answered. Their favorite tech products keep people productive and enterprise assets running safely and efficiently. Check out the must-haves.SEE ALSO: Security pros name their must-have tools | Go-to storage and disaster recovery products | IT pros in retail are sold on these 6 products | Tech pros' favorite tools increase IT efficiency | To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VCDX-NV Interview: Ron Flax On The Importance Of Network Virtualization

Ron Flax is the Vice President of August Schell, a reseller of VMware products and IT services company that specializes in delivering services to commercial accounts and the federal government, particularly intelligence and U.S. Department of Defense. Ron is a VCDX-NV certified network virtualization professional and a VMware vExpert. We spoke with Ron about network virtualization and the NSX career path.

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The most exciting thing about network virtualization, I think, is the transformative nature of this technology. Networks have been built the same way for the last 20 to 25 years. Nothing has really changed. A lot of new features have been built, a lot of different technologies have come around networks, but the fundamental nature of how networks are built has not changed. But VMware NSX, because it’s a software-based product, has completely altered everything. It enables a much more agile approach to networks: the ability to automate the stand-up and tear-down of networks; the ability to produce firewalling literally at the virtual network interface. And because things are done at software speed, you can now make changes to the features and functions of networking products at software speed. You no longer have to deal with Continue reading

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 16

In antitrust case, EC could have a tough time proving Google abuseA European Commission victory in its antitrust case against Google is not a sure bet. The narrowly defined case, focusing on search results that allegedly favor Google Shopping, indicates that the Commission thought that broad charges would not stick, legal experts say. And to successfully conclude the case, the Commission must show that Google’s actions harm not just competitors, but consumers as well, which could be a stretch.Israeli camera tech may be lens on future Apple productsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Thursday, April 16

In antitrust case, EC could have a tough time proving Google abuseA European Commission victory in its antitrust case against Google is not a sure bet. The narrowly defined case, focusing on search results that allegedly favor Google Shopping, indicates that the Commission thought that broad charges would not stick, legal experts say. And to successfully conclude the case, the Commission must show that Google’s actions harm not just competitors, but consumers as well, which could be a stretch.Israeli camera tech may be lens on future Apple productsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How Do I Get Started with SDN and Virtualization?

Here’s a short question I got from one of my readers:

I am a CCIE in SP/DC & working as Technical Architect in US. I follow your website but I don’t know where to start for SDN/Virtualization/Openstack…

I guess he’s not alone, so here’s a long list of resources I put together in the last 5+ years.

Before I get started: you’ll find links to most of these resources on ipSpace.net SDN Resources page.

YouTube flaw allowed copying comments from one video to another

An Egypt-based security researcher said Google has fixed an interesting vulnerability he and a colleague found in YouTube.Ahmed Aboul-Ela wrote on his blog that he and a fellow researcher, Ibrahim Mosaad, wanted to find a problem in a feature on YouTube “that not many bug hunters have tested.”They focused on a setting in YouTube that holds comments for review before they’re published. If that feature is enabled, comments are then listed in a control panel labeled “held for review.”Aboul-Ela wrote he intercepted the http request that is sent to Google when a comment is approved. The request contains two parameters: “comment_id” and “video_id.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

CCNP RS – a road traveled

A former colleague who started following the blog asked about the study program used for the CCNP R/S. By the time an email reply was typed up I realized I had a blog post. Since this is fresh on the brain, here’s a breakdown.  Important note: I took the previous version of these exams. In […]

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Quentin Demmon

Network Engineer at Healthcare Specialty Benefits Management company

Quentin Demmon is a network engineer, hobbyist weightlifter (Olympic style), and wannabe philosopher. He is excited to be blogging about his CCIE journey in gory, melodramatic detail. Follow him on twitter, facebook, and instagram.

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The post CCNP RS – a road traveled appeared first on Packet Pushers Podcast and was written by Quentin Demmon.

Dropbox to pay security researchers for bugs

Dropbox said Wednesday it will pay rewards to independent researchers who find software flaws in its applications, joining a growing list companies who see merit in crowdsourcing parts of their security testing.The popular file storage service previously publicly recognized researchers, but did not pay a reward, also sometimes referred to as a bug bounty.“In addition to hiring world class experts, we believe it’s important to get all the help we can from the security research community, too,” wrote Devdatta Akhawe, a Dropbox security engineer.Facebook, Google, Yahoo and many other large companies pay researchers rewards that are often determined by the seriousness of the software flaw. Running such programs are more efficient than hiring more security engineers since a company’s applications are analyzed by a larger number of people with diverse security skills.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here