September, 2007

Survey Paints Bleak Outlook for Mobile Network Security

It seems like security breaches and data compromise are almost a daily occurrence now. From the stolen VA laptop, to the massive breach of customer trust and network security at TJX, to the more recent data compromise incidents at Monster.com and TD Ameritrade, it is hard to imagine that there is anyone left who hasn’t had their personal and financial information stolen. Continued »

Vendors Begin Development of USB 3.0

A group of hardware and software manufacturers, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP, have formed the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. The mission of the group is to coordinate development of the next-generation USB standard, USB 3.0. Their goal is to boost USB performance about 10 times over the existing USB 2.0 speeds. The target for finalizing the USB 3.0 standard is the first half of 2008, but don’t expect to see USB 3.0 compliant devices on the market until at least the end of 2009. This Computerworld.com article details more about the group’s efforts.

Wired Networks R.I.P.

According to a recent report from Burton Group Senior Analyst Paul DeBeasi, the end of wired Ethernet networking is at hand. Comparing the features and functionality of the latest standards- 802.11n wireless vs. wired Gigabit Ethernet- DeBeasi concludes that the benefits of an 802.11n network will establish it as the default network type and chip away at the dominance of wired networks over the next few years. You can read more about the report in this Computerworld.com article.

EMC Introduces Technology to Manage IPv6

IPv6, the next generation IP protocol which is replacing the current IPv4 (not sure what happened to IPv5) has not taken off quite the way it had been anticipated. Still, the standard is being rolled out more and more, if by nothing more than attrition, and organizations need next generation tools to handle the next generation protocol. Storage vendor EMC has rolled out just such a tool. Their Smart IPv6 Availability Manager provides discovery, mapping, monitoring and root-cause analysis of problems for IPv6 networks, and is also backward compatible with IPv4 networks or networks that mix both IPv4 and IPv6. For more details about this IPv6 tool, check out this Computerworld.com article.

Is The Perimeter Dead?

When it comes to network security, the perimeter has traditionally been the primary defense. Organizations have invested a significant amount of time, money and resources into firewalls and other perimeter security technologies aimed at keeping unauthorized network traffic outside and sensitive company information inside. Lately, there have been a lot of pundits and analysts stating that the perimeter is dead. In this SearchSecurity article, Mike Chapple declares the obituary of the perimeter both premature and wreckless. Continued »

Dissent In The ‘Unified’ Ranks

Less than a month ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Cisco CEO John Chambers held a joint press conference announcing their intent to cooperate and collaborate more in a team effort to bring to market the kinds of unified communication technologies that consumers and enterprises need. Apparently they still have some work to do on being “team players” and sharing the sandbox nicely with each other. Continued »

If It Ain’t Broke, Maybe It’s Time To Fix It

Ages of folk wisdom suggest that if something “ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. In many cases, this logic makes sense. If a system or process is working just fine the way it is, you don’t want to invest the limited resources you have in improving or altering it when you have actual broken things to fix. That may not be the case with network issues. Well, sort of. A study done by NetScout Systems which is discussed in this SearchNetworking.com article suggests that organizations need to be more proactive about identifying and resolving network issues before they become issues that cause user complaints or Continued »

Cisco Merges Technologies to Create ‘oneNAC’

Recently, I wrote about the struggles NAC (Network Admission Control) solutions have been going through to gain acceptance. According to a Computerworld.com article, Cisco is working to deal with the issues that have faced NAC solutions by merging both of their NAC approaches together. The resulting NAC solution will reportedly be faster, less complex to implement, and easier to maintain than either of the existing solutions. Cisco believes that the unified approach, dubbed oneNAC, will solve the primary issues and provide the flexibility enterprises are looking for to begin adopting NAC as a security solution.

IP Addressing Crash Course

Do you understand the difference between classless and classful IP addressing? Can you explain what is different in IPv6 from IPv4 and why businesses or individuals should care? How about calculating a subnet mask- or determining the total possible IP addresses based on the subnet mask?

I had a mental block for years on the subnet mask thing. I just could not seem to understand how to do the math either way- either to determine the subnet mask based on the address space I wanted, or to determine the number of available addresses from the subnet mask. Then one day I had an epiphany and what was confusing suddenly made sense. You don’t have to wait for an epiphany though. TechTarget’s SearchNetworking site has a free crash course in IP addressing that will have you understanding that CIDR is different than the cider you drink and otherwise fluent in all things IP. Check it out here- Crash Course: IP addressing and subnetting fundamentals.