Cisco to Introduce Digital Stereo System at CES

Cisco has won much attention from consumer news sites since the New York Times reported Monday that the networking giant at CES next week is expected to unveil a digital stereo system that can move music wirelessly around a house, among other consumer offerings. But analysts and pundits say there are hurdles that Cisco must overcome in a market where Cisco is an unknown brand. Pundits also point to similar offerings from Sonos, Logitech and Apple.

Jonathan Greene writing in eHomeUpgrade says he’s puzzled as to “why Cisco is not simply focusing on enabling the connectivity and distribution piece on the network rather than going for the end-point.” He adds that he’d rather see “something neutral that provides access to content (and not just music btw) where I want it – whether that’s in my house or pushed out to my mobile device.” Greene also points out that Cisco will need to gain access from the very closed Apple iTunes ecosystem to make this a useful device. “So far, the standard fault of every media streamer is that it can’t play iTunes DRM … I don’t see how Cisco’s solution solves any of this,” Greene writes. Continue reading “Cisco to Introduce Digital Stereo System at CES”

Cisco: Broadband providers should not treat all bits the same

All bits running over the Internet are not equal and should not be treated that way by broadband providers, despite net neutrality advocates’ calls for traffic neutral regulations, Cisco Systems said.

A huge number of Internet-connected devices with a wide variety of traffic requirements, including billions of machine-to-machine connections, will come online over the next four years, Cisco predicted in its Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption, released Tuesday.

“What we’re seeing is a wide range and a very diverse range of devices, applications and requirements that results in a much greater complexity of the networks,” said Robert Pepper, Cisco’s vice president for global technology policy. “The Internet of everything is here, it’s real, and it’s growing.” Continue reading “Cisco: Broadband providers should not treat all bits the same”

Closing the data floodgates

I grew up in south Florida, probably one of the flattest places in the country. We had no mountains, hills or even mounds — nothing but flat in all directions. There was one diversion from the flat when I was a kid — an odd ravine along a residential street. We referred to it as the “deep deep” and drove by for a look every chance we got.

Over 30 years ago, I moved to Atlanta, a land of hills and valleys. My house backs up to a floodplain area with a ravine that makes the “deep deep” in Miami look small by comparison. Since I see it every day from my window, I really don’t think much about it anymore.

So, what does this reminiscence have to do with preventing data loss? I would suggest that the underlying problem is the same. Companies concerned about losing key data, such as the elements regulated by HIPAA and PCI, begin watching their communication channels (email, USB drives, etc.) for the presence of such data, and filter out the critical items. It seems an easy task at first, but after the hundredth email message, their eyes glaze over, causing them to miss data items, just like me looking out my window, and no longer noticing my ravine. Thus, there is a legitimate need for some automated approach to monitoring communication channels for inappropriate data. Continue reading “Closing the data floodgates”

Data breaches can be prevented with one simple solution

There have been so many major data breaches over the past year or two that it’s hardly even news anymore when millions of customer accounts are compromised. We’ve become jaded, and just expect that attackers will find a way to penetrate our networks and steal our data. The reality, however, is that there is one simple thing companies—and individuals—can do that will prevent the vast majority of data breaches: two-factor authentication.

“While people may claim that the attackers in these breaches are advanced, sophisticated, or state-sponsored, their actual execution is quite simple in nature,” declared Jon Oberheide, co-founder and CTO of Duo Security. “Simple phishing and other credential theft attacks have not only been the initial entry vector to these companies, but also how attackers move laterally within an organization to reach their eventual target.”

Oberheide warns that companies are setting themselves up for attack if they don’t implement two-factor authentication. “It’s expected that attackers will take advantage of that and find the path of least resistance.” Continue reading “Data breaches can be prevented with one simple solution”

Vicious new ransomware takes your money and still deletes your files

There’s a new form of ransomware—apparently built by amateurs—that takes your money but deletes your personal files anyway. Security research firm Talos recently published a blog post about a new form of malware dubbed Ranscam.

This ransomware follows the basic premise of previous variants. It claims your files have been encrypted, and thus inaccessible to you, then threatens to delete all your files if you don’t pay up. Ransomware’s scary premise prompts many people to fork over the dough in order to save their photos and other content.

Ranscam ignores conventional ransomware behavior, however, and deletes the victim’s content long before they have a chance to pay up. In typical ransomware scams the user is usually prompted to pay up in Bitcoin, which is harder to trace than other forms of payment. After they pay it, and the transaction is verified, the files are decrypted and the ransomware deletes itself.

The Ranscam authors, however, don’t bother with all those technical details and just hope for the easy payout without regard to the user’s files.

The impact on you at home: The good news is Ranscam is still in its early days and doesn’t appear to be widespread. Nevertheless, it’s an important reminder that you shouldn’t trust that you’ll get your stuff back if you end up paying a ransomware scam. Continue reading “Vicious new ransomware takes your money and still deletes your files”