Category: Network

US Defense Dept. proposes armoring civilian networks

SAN FRANCISCO – A senior Defense Department official said today that the U.S. military should “expand” a technological shield used to protect their own networks for large private sector teams as well, which could sweep parts of the Internet and raises civil liberties issues.

William Lynn, Under Secretary of Defense, proposed at the RSA Conference to extend “the high level of protection afforded by active defense to private networks that operate the infrastructure,” which is crucial for the army or the U.S. economy.

What Lynn refers to as “active defense” were initiated by the National Security Agency. In an essay last year, Lynn compared with a cross between a “sentinel” and a “sniper”, which can also hunt within “a network of malicious code or an attacker who managed to penetrate the network perimeter.

But the power to control civilian networks for misconduct includes the ability to control, in general, and was the NSA also pioneered a controversial program of warrantless wiretapping under the Bush administration. NSA Director Keith Alexander was appointed head of U.S. Cyber Command last year, an idea he had defended Lynn.

The privacy concerns are likely to turn into the details, including whether the military is limited to establishing the source code for the technologies of defense and attack – or whether it includes the real authority and supervision. Another open question is whether sites like Hotmail.com Google.com and could be considered “critical infrastructure” or the definition is reduced to facilities such as power plants.

Lynn, who has spoken frequently about cyber security threats in the last year, gave no further details. “Ensuring military networks matter little if the grid goes down or the rest of the government ceases to function,” he said.

That echoes comments made by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who are committed to restoring a controversial bill gives the president power Obama in computer systems private property during a “national cyberemergency, with limited judicial review. It has been called an Internet “kill switch” bill, especially after Egypt’s what he did.

For now, the Pentagon is responsible only for defense. Computers million, and the Department of Homeland Security has the responsibility of other government networks. Lynn said the army (and remember, the NSA is part of the Department of Defense) is helping EDS, as well as providing troops and helicopters to help after a natural disaster

“The Army provides support to DHS in the cyber domain,” said Lynn. As troops and equipment provided to FEMA, he said, the military cyber support will be “available to civilian leaders to help secure networks that support the operations of government and critical infrastructure … These resources are under civilian control and be used according to civil laws. ”

“Through the classified information based on the threats and the technology we have developed to use a network defense,” he said, “that can significantly increase the effectiveness of cyber security practices that the industry is doing.”

Homeland Security hinted at this during an interview with ZDNet Asia site last year, CNET sister at the RSA Conference. The department said at the time that could eventually extend Einstein 3 technology, which is designed to detect and prevent cyber attacks in progress by the exchange of information with the NSA, the networks operated by the private sector.

Network design, dollars impact public Wi-Fi access

When users find the network congestion while surfing public access points Wi-Fi, the problem can be attributed to the cost of network installation and supply, and the size of the device to access the Web, analysts say .

Bryan Wang, president of Asia-Pacific research associate vice president connectivity Springboard Research, told ZDNet Asia that the challenge of installing Wi-Fi hotspot is less about a technical problem about efficiency in terms utilization and cost.

The more access points can be added to minimize congestion of Wi-Fi network when traffic gets heavy, this will result in low utilization during periods of low traffic rush hour, Wang said in an email interview .

Although additional access points can be turned off, from a business perspective, organizations that provide public access are, inevitably, remains concerned about the costs of bandwidth and maintenance costs incurred to keep the network running, he said.

J. Ramesh Babu, director of managed services for Cisco Systems Mexico, added that another reason for the cessation of Wi-Fi may be in the fact that the use of legacy equipment and aging is still prevalent today.

Using old client technology will slow down network performance, especially with the amount of rich media and data transmitted to mobile devices, Babu, said in an e-mail.

He added that the challenges associated with the deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots or outdoor can be overcome with the network settings and the right tools and proper planning. For example, suggested that site owners must install a solution that can support a wide variety of devices such as Wi-Fi Internet Protocol phones, laptops and mobile phones with the dual mode capability, and are able to run on both cellular and Wi–Fi networks.

He noted that the wireless coverage range of the access point may be affected by structures such as walls, metal cabinets and elevator shafts. There may also be interference from cordless phones, Bluetooth and other wireless devices, he added.

The supplier of W-Fi services can solve this through tools that can detect and automatically mitigate RF (radio frequency) interference by configuring the wireless network to work around the source of interference.

Consumers expect Wi-Fi access
Babu said that access to the “pervasive Wi-Fi is a reasonable expectation” of today’s consumers because more companies are now mobilizing employees, partners, customers, and even corporate assets.

senior consultant at Ovum, Craig Skinner, agreed. He noted that the increasing use of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, along with notebooks and netbooks are fueling demand for bandwidth Wi-Fi.

Ovum analyst added that the public Wi-Fi networks, if designed for it, can handle high traffic density of a mixture of mobile devices as smart phones and lists as well as larger devices such as laptops. Wang reiterating views on resource requirements, Skinner said the question, however, goes back to how the costs of construction of this network are covered.

In an email interview, explained that it is “realistic” to expect the same level of network performance in an open access, where the network is funded with public money, as provided for in a technology conference .

Described many times, public access Wi-Fi is free as an incentive to attract consumers to a place or to persuade businesses to hold events in one place or another. But ultimately, the costs of infrastructure and operation of free public access must still be paid, Skinner said.

Because users are not directly paying for the service, there is less incentive for the operator place to go in providing high quality network service, especially for times when heavy use is anticipated, he said.

Also, the analyst noted that the size of the device – access to the Wi-Fi – also plays an important role in the quality of access. He explained that the size of the antenna and the transmitting power level, may limit both the range of network detection and interference level of the device can continue to operate in.

Therefore, when the smaller devices like mobile phones seem to “fight” to connect in a situation of high congestion, which is the result of design tradeoffs in terms of size, not because the network has been clipped, Skinner continued .

Asked if the expectations of consumers of Wi-Fi service has increased – due to the increase in mobile devices, mobile workforce and even Wi-Fi access on board aircraft – Trampoline Wang said Wi-Fi is not a solution mobility.

“Wi-Fi can not support the faster hand from one conflict to another,” he said. “Because of their limited coverage [front] with 3G or WiMax, Wi-Fi if you use a mobility solution when moving, it takes a lot of transfer of the network will have a lot of resources from the network. Therefore, Wi-Fi is not a practical technology for use as a mobility solution. “

Cisco adds security certification with CSS1

Cisco Systems has added a new security certification called Cisco Security Specialist 1 (CSS1), to its line of increasingly popular certification. CSS1 is a great choice because it shows that you have expertise on security issues and security technologies foundation of Cisco-centric. CSS1 is a mid-level certification that is similar to Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) that should have already achieved the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) to qualify to take the tests CSS1. The CCNA certification (and review, as it is only a single test) covers basic knowledge of Cisco networks, such as the OSI model, TCP / IP, subnetting, basic commands in Cisco IOS, and router base and switch operation.
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