Networking

A disgruntled network administrator pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of computer tampering for allegedly setting up an unauthorized access system and holding much of the city of San Francisco's computer network hostage

The possibility of a gadget world without wires took a big step forward Thursday when 14 of the biggest names in consumer electronics said they would work with Sony on its short-range, high-speed "TransferJet" wireless data system.

The security researcher who recently discovered a heretofore unknown flaw in the Internet's core Domain Name System (DNS) protocol warned IT managers on Thursday to expect more security fixes aimed at mitigating the issue over the coming months.

The 1979 film "When a Stranger Calls" portrayed the terror-filled night of a young woman fielding prank and increasingly threatening calls that climaxed when the police determined "the calls are coming from inside the house." Today IT security executives experience a similar chill down their spine when they realize the biggest threat they face comes from internal security attacks and data breaches.

Australian broadband ISP Internode claims to have become the first in the country to give national direct access to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) as part of its standard service.

The US Defense Information Systems Agency, which provides most of the systems used within the Department of Defense, has been reaching out to a wide range of companies in the belief that their IT approaches -- including the use of cloud computing technologies -- could help DISA better support the military's warfighting men and women.

The US Air Force is using Web 2.0 technologies to better support its missions despite wariness about security, a civilian technology official of the service said last week.

It's been about three years since San Diego's five major hospitals first convened to discuss sharing electronic medical record data in an effort to improve diagnoses, reduce errors and improve the quality of patient care. The group held several meetings and entered discussions with a vendor as a possible corporate sponsor -- and that was that.

Remember the old M&M analogy - security is like an M&M candy, hard shell on the outside, soft on the inside. In other words, put up firewalls, built a strong perimeter and you're good to go. Of course, nobody believes that M&M-type security is sufficient in today's world of insider threats, data leakage, mobile workers, thumb drives and sophisticated malware. So, what's the new metaphor? We asked around and came up with a number of interesting and useful ways to think about enterprise security.

Macs are immune from security threats, right? It's Windows we have to worry about. That water-cooler wisdom needs to be flipped on its head, security experts and IT managers warn. Microsoft has gotten its security act together with Vista and its current security-response program; meanwhile, Apple is fast becoming the company most in need of getting its security mojo going.

When TV production company FremantleMedia Australia had an opportunity to move to IP telephony during an office refurbishment, the open source Asterisk proved itself to offer everything required and more for the 150-plus handset deployment.

Gibson Guitar is enjoying the sweet music playing out on its multifaceted unified communications system that connects its users across the globe.

West Virginia-based WesBanco Bank, which provides financial services to the residents and businesses of West Virginia, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, grows through acquisition.

The US$1.5 billion Venetian resort in Las Vegas is a city within a city.

City West Water has reduced maintenance costs, eliminated paper based reporting and increased responsiveness with an integrated job management system and a new fleet of Next G handsets.

John McCool took over for Jayshree Ullal when the longtime and very visible Cisco data center chief resigned in May. McCool is no stranger though -- he came to Cisco in the Granite Networks acquisition during the industry's Gigabit Ethernet boom in the 1990s. Weeks into his new job as senior vice president of data center, switching and security, McCool shared some of Cisco's plans and visions with Managing Editor Jim Duffy.

Wendell Odom, Cisco press author, instructor and blogger was recently a repeat guest for Network World chat. Attendees asked him the best ways to build a home lab, which certifications still have power in the market, and strategies for most easily passing the hardest exams.

It's been three months since Padmasree Warrior left Motorola to become Cisco's CTO. Since then, she's not been available for interviews -- until now. Jim Duffy caught up with her at the Cisco Live! customer conference in the US.

Diane Greene is the president, CEO and co-founder of VMware, a pioneer of x86 server virtualization and one of the most innovative companies to hit the IT world in the past decade. Greene was in Boston last week with her VMware team, briefing analysts on new technologies that haven't been made public yet. She took some time out to speak with Network World's Jon Brodkin about a range of topics.

Over 100 attendees gathered for Network World's live chat on counterfeit network gear -- how to detect it and protect yourself -- with guest Mike Sheldon, chief executive officer of Network Hardware Resale. NHR employs more than 200 people in the United States and Europe. Sheldon discussed methods for identifying fake gear, the refurbished hardware industry's efforts to educate users about counterfeits and Cisco's role in eradicating this growing problem.

There has been a lot of speculation devoted to the impending release of information about a DNS vulnerability discovered and initially announced by Dan Kaminsky almost two weeks ago. A lot of the coverage has been back and forth arguing about whether what has been discovered is relevant or not but the best thing to have done in the intervening period is to have sat on your hands and waited.

Last week I began to discuss a remarkable virtual-appliance-based system for network monitoring and management called Groundwork Monitor Community Edition.

Practically every company I talk with is consolidating data centers, constructing new ones, or both. These aren't the old "glass house" models of the 1980s and 1990s: They're next-generation designs with racks of blade servers, virtualized clusters and storage-area networks.

Cisco is famous for its venture capital interests. (The company says it currently has more than US$2 billion in venture capital investments under management.) But its i-Prize Contest is a little different. Like a reality T.V. show, the winner of the i-Prize will be financed by the router giant for the next two years, Cisco says. Who knows, maybe the winner will be the company's next billion-dollar business? While the contest technically ended on May 3, Cisco is keeping mum about the 12 finalist entries. It says it doesn't want to tip its hand about what ventures it might be interested in. Nevertheless, we scoured the i-Prize Web site to select our own picks of the 10 most interesting projects. (Please note: these are probably not be the finalists.)

A while back, I wrote about the concept of social networking. The upshot: Although the wisdom of crowds may be overhyped, the phenomenon of social networking isn't.

Cisco take note: Juniper's new EX 4200 switch not only fills a hole in a leading competitor's product line, but also represents a credible alternative for enterprise access switching.

The wide variety of so-called NAC (network access control) products on the market shows a broad range of thinking about policy-based security controls and the management of the network in general, including the end-point devices that connect to the network. Some vendors enforce policies using a client agent, some enforce them in the network, and some even use peers for enforcement. Network-based enforcement itself can take many forms, including dedicated gateway, DHCP manipulation, 802.1x authentication, and port- and VLAN-based enforcement on switches.

Small businesses have, for some time, been able to easily deploy a wide-open access point or two, or put together a couple of access points with a basic level of security. The thing that hasn't been easily available is a small, secure, managed wireless network that's easy to deploy and administer, and priced for the needs of a smaller business. Now there is such a thing, and its existence does a good job of highlighting what we've been missing. The solution is the Ruckus Wireless ZoneFlex Smart WLAN System, and it is a very good thing, indeed, for the SMB wireless market.

Network admins have spent many a late night trying to figure out how to improve application response or file replication across the WAN. Faster performance is all about bigger pipes, right?

Just this week while I was on-site, an IT services company serving a client of mine asked for my help. They needed to know where to put their efforts in securing information. Their customers are varied, with a range of systems and connectivity. For each infrastructure, they wanted to know, where are the highest risks? In one case, there are two connections to the Internet, remote access, mobile users, and a complex web of systems and networks, some with external data sharing.