Archive for June 28, 2012

| June 28, 2012
Comments Off on UN Internet Takeover

UN Internet Takeover

Network neutralityNetwork neutrality. The idea is that an ISP can’t discriminate against the traffic traveling over its network. Network neutrality is an enshrined legal right in some areas and a hotly contested regulatory fight in others. Stacey Higginbotham over at GigaOm points us over to a post over at TechDirt that details the UNs efforts to undermine network neutrality. The articles say the International Telecommunications Union is trying to dictate terms that will affect how traffic flows on the Internet.

UN Internet power grab

UN Internet TakeoverNetwork neutrality opposition at the United Nations arose earlier this month. The power grab started with proposed rules from the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO). The article says ETNO wants to gut network neutrality. Glyn Moody at TechDirt has read those documents. He clipped the relevant segments to argue that these proposals would effectively make network neutrality illegal. As he writes at TechDirt:

“That may sound innocuous enough, but “supporting innovation to provide a value-added service” is a coded way of saying that the telcos should be allowed to abandon net neutrality, something confirmed in one of the accompanying proposals… “

The author says the key sentence in this proposal is “Nothing shall preclude commercial agreements with differentiated quality of service delivery to develop.”

Comcast network neutrality power grab

Net Neutraility RIPGigaOm says that here in the US Comcast (CMCSA) has created a value-added service. Comcast decided to exempt Xfinity traffic delivered via the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox from its 250 GBPS/month broadband cap. The U.S. version of network neutrality regulations allows Comcast to exempt that traffic. The loophole is the Xbox traffic doesn’t travel over the public Internet. The anti-net neutrality loophole exists because the FCC didn’t want to deal with the concept of value-added services on an ISP’s network when it made its network neutrality regulations.

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GigaOm calls on the UN and the ITU to open up its process. Maybe then UN member countries will think twice about the types of rules they want to enshrine. Or maybe they’ll keep listening to the people who run the networks instead of the people who use them and depend on them for their businesses.

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 26, 2012
Comments Off on Credit Agency Trawls Facebook

Credit Agency Trawls Facebook

GigaOm has an article that documents the efforts by Schufa, the largest credit rating firm in Germany to mine data from the Facebook (FB), LinkedIn (LNKD), and Twitter accounts of its customers. David Meyer cites documents leaked to German media, that the firm whose slogan is “We Build Confidence” would use the information “to identify and evaluate opportunities for and threats to the company.”

“It cannot be that social networks are systematically scoured for sensitive data, resulting in credit ratings of customers,” said consumer protection minister Ilse Aigner.

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Get over it.

Facebook logoI wrote about firms like RapLeaf mining social networks for employers and banks back in 2010. What is surprising to me and Mr. Meyer is that this latest social network mining operation comes out of Europe and especially Germany, a country where most people are very conscious of data protection concerns.

This goes back to the internet-age-old issue of privacy. Where is the line between public and private is it different for some groups than others? Do the NSA, CIA, MI5, and whoever else is listening get different access to data than Rapleaf, Apple (AAPL), Facebook, Twitter?

Just because the info is out there, public by default do they have the right to use it?

Get over itOn the other hand users of Facebook and Foursquare happily tie their credit cards to these accounts, post status updates, and check in to places for the world to see.  

Maybe we are just getting what we deserve.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 24, 2012
Comments Off on Spaceships Drawn to Scale

Spaceships Drawn to Scale

Spaceships Drawn to ScaleMolecular astrophysicist Invader Xan created a cool infographic of spaceships, real and fictional, drawn to scale and posted them to his blog Supernova Condensate. Invader Xan writes…

“This, my friends, is an image showing several of the most notable spacecraft we plucky human beings have created (and are busily creating) to date. The past, the present, and the ones that never quite made it. All spacecraft shown are to scale (assuming my sources were accurate). Because I felt I needed to exercise my graphic design muscles. And because, well, let’s face it — space ships are just inherently cool, aren’t they?”

Spaceships Drawn to Scale

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 21, 2012
Comments Off on White Space Broadband in Michigan

White Space Broadband in Michigan

Residents of tiny Vergennes, Michigan a small community east of Grand Rapids, is taking matters into their own hands to solve their lack of broadband. They’re using “white space” radios from Carlson Wireless, combined with lightly licensed 3.65 WiMax and cellular microcells reports Dailywireless.

MichiganRyan Peel, owner of Vergennes Broadband has been continuously frustrated with the lack of broadband access. Peel’s solution according to the article is to combine three different technologies to extend wireless broadband coverage in his community: WiMAX at 3.65 GHz; TV white space radios; and micro-cell mini-towers to extend cellular phone coverage as well. It’s currently being constructed.

“There’s going to be a hybrid network”, explains Peel. “The primary technology will be WiMAX using 3.65 GHz semi-licensed band. It’s going to use WiMAX radio technology with 6x diversity. But there are a significant number of people in the area that WiMAX cannot reach, because of the terrain and tree cover as is the nature of rural America”, Peel told the blog.

TV white spaceVergennes Broadband uses two 100+ foot towers, each with a WiMAX radio and a Carlson TV white space radio called the RuralConnect IP. The software-defined radio uses the slivers of VHF and UHF spectrum not used by television broadcasters Dailywireless says.

According to the article, Peel is adding supplemental value to the project by offering femtocells. Femtocells provide a local cellular connection and use broadband for the backhaul. It simply plugs into customers’ new Internet connection to work.

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The plan seems like a kludge with a mix of three technologies. However, Comcast (CMCSA) and Charter are never going to do a build-out in rural areas. The Internet plans costs are

512 Kbps $39.99
1 Mbps     $49.99
2 Mbps     $59.99
3 Mbps     $79.99

This was a problem that RUS Obama-money was supposed to address, but that has gone so well. Maybe Merit can do it.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

 

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| June 19, 2012
Comments Off on Attackers Attack Emerging Technologies

Attackers Attack Emerging Technologies

Help Net Security reports that attackers continue to focus on social engineering attacks and circumventing legacy enterprise security systems according to a recent report by Zscaler. The Sunnyvale, CA-based firm reported shifts in the sources of enterprise web traffic, and that some popular sites attempt to improve user security. Here are some of the top findings detailed in the report:

  • Local apps are generating more direct HTTP and HTTPS traffic
  • Not all web traffic comes from browsers, and as this traffic shifts, web threats have a new attack vector
  • Internet Explorer 6 is on the decline in the enterprise. While this mitigates the security risks of the old browser platform, it could lead to a shift in attacks.
  • Google (GOOG) is actively attempting to thwart search engine optimization (SEO) spam and fake AV attacks, the topmost Internet threats today. However, most users remain exposed to these threats.
  • More sites, like Facebook (FB) and Gmail, are moving to HTTPS delivery. This is good for preventing sidejacking, but it allows savvy attackers a way to bypass traditional network-based security controls like IDS/IPS, which cannot decrypt traffic for inspection.

Internet of Things“Attackers know the limits of traditional security solutions,” says Michael Sutton, VP of Security Research at Zscaler. “But they are also very good at taking advantage of emerging technologies and new vectors for attack. Standalone user applications, social engineering attacks, and the move to HTTPS all have the potential to introduce new threats. Now more than ever, enterprise security solutions must inspect traffic in real-time, all the time, regardless of source, to provide true protection.”

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I have covered IOT for a while here and here. I wrote about the big sites moving to HTTPS a while ago here and even wrote about HTTPS Everywhere here. And I am sure I don’t cost as much as an engagement with these firms.

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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