India has suggested close partnership with the U.S. in cyber security, particularly against cyber terrorism, as the two countries take their economic and technological collaboration to the next level.
Indian Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot made the suggestion in talks with senior officials at the White House and in the US Department of Commerce during a week long visit, Indian officials said Tuesday.
Highlighting the mutual advantages of establishing close India-US collaboration in the area of cyber security, in particular against cyber terrorism, he also emphasised the need for bilateral initiatives to be specific, result-oriented and time-bound.
Healthcare and skill formation were among other ideas that came up in talks on how to take the India-US economic and technological collaboration to the next level, including through fostering joint innovation with broad-based benefits.
Among the officials who called on him were the newly appointed Under Secretary for International Trade Administration Francisco Sanchez, Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and Senior Adviser for Innovation to the US Secretary of State Alec Ross.
In interactions with trade and industry bodies, pilot described the opportunities that India presented in the field of Communications and Information Technology, not only for services but also in manufacturing.
In exchanges with the members of the US India Business Council (USIBC), and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), Tuesday, he spoke about the Indian government's commitment of the to use information technology as a platform for providing access to services to those who had not benefited so far.
Stressing the mutually beneficial nature of the bilateral economic relationship, Pilot pointed to the broadly balanced trade in services, the fast rate of growth of US exports to India and the rapid growth in Indian investments flowing into the United States.
He said that the two governments should work to provide an enabling environment in which goods, services and persons can move freely to utilize emerging opportunities from which both sides stand to gain.
Pilot who also visited New York and Philadelphia, met with senior executives from a number of US and Indian companies to discuss the potential for further collaboration between India and the US in the field of technology, particularly with regard to using Communications and Information Technology to promote inclusive growth.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Experts hack iPhone SMS database in 20 sec
Two security researchers have found an exploit to hack iPhone's SMS Database in 20 seconds, while displaying their skills at the Pwn2Own contest at the CanSecWest Security show. Ralf Philipp Weinmann of the University of Luxembourg and Vincenzo Iozzo of German company Zynamics found this exploit for the iPhone that won them $15,000 prize, reported ZDNet.
iPhone was not the only thing to get hacked. Safari on Snow Leopard and Internet Explorer 8 as well as Firefox browsers on Windows 7 got hacked too, according to TechTree. Weinmann and Iozzo collaborated to finding vulnerability and then writing an exploit - the entire process took two weeks. As a part of the hack, iPhone users have to visit a website hosting malicious code and then steal iPhone's SMS database - all in the matter of 20 seconds! Weinmann explained, "Basically, every page that the user visits on our [rigged] site will grab the SMS database and upload it to a server we control".
Thomas Dullien, Weimann's colleague explained that the attacker had potential to do more damage without leaving the iPhone Sandbox, a tightly-controlled set of resources for running unverified codes. The exploit was written to bypass the digital signatures for verifying if the code in memory is from Apple or not. Weinmann pointed out that there's a non-root user called 'mobile' with certain user privileges and using that exploit, he could can do anything that 'mobile' (non-root user) can do.
Charlie Miller, principal security analyst at Independent Security Evaluators, found an exploit to hack Safari on a MacBook Pro without physically touching the machine and won $10,000 worth prize money.
Kaspersky shares insights about global spam network
Kaspersky Lab has announced the publication of an informative article by Maria Namestnikova that explores the relationship between spam and the global economy.
The article looks at how spam has developed into a fully-fledged industry that expands and contracts in synch with the global economy. This view is given credence by the fact that the client/spammer relationship adheres to the same set of business principles that any legitimate commercial undertaking would. It also means that the spam industry is as susceptible to changes in the health of the national and international economy as any other industry, legitimate or otherwise.
The author uses the example of the global financial crisis to demonstrate this dependency. The downturn in spam activity during August 2008, and again in October of the same year, followed exactly the same curve as the global economy. The economic downturn had led, unsurprisingly, to swaging cuts in the spam advertising budgets of small and medium-sized businesses.
Not every area of spam-based adverting took such a hit though. Spam advertising the chance to rent or buy real estate, primarily office space vacated by the previous tenants, went into overdrive. The amount of this type of spam is usually insignificant because the majority of real estate agencies are established companies that would not consider using the services of the spammer.
Maria's article also examines why January 2009 saw the start of a significant increase in the level of spam advertising the services of the spammers themselves. Although this type of spam had always existed, it had never been pushed quite as aggressively as it was during the crisis period.
The article concludes by stating that the recovery of the spam industry reflects the general recovery in the economy as a whole.
The article looks at how spam has developed into a fully-fledged industry that expands and contracts in synch with the global economy. This view is given credence by the fact that the client/spammer relationship adheres to the same set of business principles that any legitimate commercial undertaking would. It also means that the spam industry is as susceptible to changes in the health of the national and international economy as any other industry, legitimate or otherwise.
The author uses the example of the global financial crisis to demonstrate this dependency. The downturn in spam activity during August 2008, and again in October of the same year, followed exactly the same curve as the global economy. The economic downturn had led, unsurprisingly, to swaging cuts in the spam advertising budgets of small and medium-sized businesses.
Not every area of spam-based adverting took such a hit though. Spam advertising the chance to rent or buy real estate, primarily office space vacated by the previous tenants, went into overdrive. The amount of this type of spam is usually insignificant because the majority of real estate agencies are established companies that would not consider using the services of the spammer.
Maria's article also examines why January 2009 saw the start of a significant increase in the level of spam advertising the services of the spammers themselves. Although this type of spam had always existed, it had never been pushed quite as aggressively as it was during the crisis period.
The article concludes by stating that the recovery of the spam industry reflects the general recovery in the economy as a whole.
Scientists develop laser security for Internet
Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed a new security system for Internet using a special laser that will help in keeping hackers' prying eyes off for good. It is developed using fiber optic and computer technology that transmits binary lock-and-key information in the form of light pulses.
Dr. Jacob Scheue, who came up with this device, said that a shared key code can be unlocked by the sender and receiver, and absolutely nobody else. "Rather than developing the lock or the key, we've developed a system which acts as a type of key bearer. The trick is for those at either end of the fibre optic link to send different laser signals they can distinguish between, but which look identical to an eavesdropper."
Adding to that, he said, "We've already published the theoretical idea and now have developed a preliminary demonstration in my lab. Once both parties have the key they need, they could send information without any chance of detection. We were able to demonstrate that, if it's done right, the system could be absolutely secure. Even with a quantum computer of the future, a hacker couldn't decipher the key."
Tripura gets tough with cyber crime
The Tripura government Wednesday notified guidelines that propose stringent action, including a 10-year jail term, against those involved in cyber crime.
"If anybody is found guilty of indulging in cyber crime, he can be prosecuted with a maximum of 10-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.200,000," police spokesman Nepal Das told reporters.
He said the government has notified guidelines for private cyber cafes and internet dhabas. "If the cyber cafe and internet dhaba owners violate these guidelines, stringent actions will be taken against them," Das added.
"There shall not be any cabin in any cyber cafe and proper records with detailed identity of the users shall be maintained by the cyber cafe and internet dhaba owners," the guidelines added.
"Children below the age of 18 years should come to cyber cafe and internet dhaba with their guardians," said the guidelines.
The spokesman said surprise raids will be conducted on cyber cafes and internet dhabas to ensure adherence to the Information Technology Act 2000.
The government has also designated certain police officials who can be informed by people about cyber crimes.
"If anybody is found guilty of indulging in cyber crime, he can be prosecuted with a maximum of 10-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.200,000," police spokesman Nepal Das told reporters.
He said the government has notified guidelines for private cyber cafes and internet dhabas. "If the cyber cafe and internet dhaba owners violate these guidelines, stringent actions will be taken against them," Das added.
"There shall not be any cabin in any cyber cafe and proper records with detailed identity of the users shall be maintained by the cyber cafe and internet dhaba owners," the guidelines added.
"Children below the age of 18 years should come to cyber cafe and internet dhaba with their guardians," said the guidelines.
The spokesman said surprise raids will be conducted on cyber cafes and internet dhabas to ensure adherence to the Information Technology Act 2000.
The government has also designated certain police officials who can be informed by people about cyber crimes.
Durham Holdings' motion patent may threaten iPhone
The rights granted to Durham Holdings to a "method and apparatus for controlling a computer system" that would use motion sensors to steer the interface on a handheld, such as a PDA or smartphone, could pose trouble for high end phones.
In a blog written for Electronista mentioned that Apple has motion patents of its own but didn't file them until October 2007, more than a year before the July 2006 filing for the Durham Holdings patent. Experts also say that not many of the people are aware of Durham Holdings, as it has no real public presence, including either online or in government records.
An original patent holder, Ygomi, also said it knows nothing about the company that obtained rights to the patent. Such deliberately low-key firms can sometimes be "patent trolls", or particular varieties of intellectual property holding companies that exist solely to find overly broad patents and then sue others, making a living off of royalties without actually producing goods based on those patents.
Among the techniques would be picking icons by tilting left or right, or moving the device up and down to scroll.
Security risks in datacenter virtualization projects
According to a research by Gartner published in late January, 60 percent of virtual servers become less secure than the ones they replace. The trend is likely to continue through the end of 2015, when the number of insecure virtual servers is expected to drop to 30 percent, reports Kathleen Hickey from the MCPmag.com. Datacenter virtualization projects can open up security issues, depending on how they are implemented, as per Gartner.
"Virtualization is not inherently insecure," said Neil MacDonald, Gartner fellow and Vice President. "However, most virtualized workloads are being deployed insecurely. The latter is a result of the immaturity of tools and processes and the limited training of staff, resellers and consultants."
Numerous state, local and federal agencies have moved or are moving to virtual servers, including the state of California and the Energy Department. While Gartner estimated that only 18 percent of enterprise datacenter workloads had been virtualized at the end of 2009, that number is expected to grow to more than 50 percent by the close of 2012.
One of the major causes of this issue is a lack of involvement of the IT security team in the architecture and planning stages of development, Gartner said. About 40 percent of the surveyed organizations had not brought security professionals into the projects. Another risk is that the virtualization layer could compromise all hosted workloads, with hackers already targeting this layer, Gartner said. Gartner recommends keeping the layer as "thin as possible, while hardening the configuration to unauthorized changes."
Also, the Gartner's study pointed to a lack of visibility and controls on internal virtual networks, which are not visible to network-based security protection devices, such as network-based intrusion prevention systems. Another potential problem is consolidations of workloads of different trust levels on the same physical server without adequate separation. There is also the potential for inadequate administrative access controls and administrative tools for the hypervisor/virtual machine manager layer. Finally, a potential loss of separation duties for network and security controls could lead to inadvertently allowing users to gain access to data that exceeds their normal privilege levels.
To address these risks, Gartner recommended that treating the virtual network as similar to a physical one, with the same kind of monitoring and separation of workloads and the same team handling both. Additionally, organizations should isolate virtual desktop workloads from the rest of the physical datacenter and restrict access to the virtualization layer.
Cisco announces CRS-3, a next gen carrier router
Cisco has announced a new powerful router, CRS-3, which will be available in a few months for prices beginning at $90,000, and has 12 times the traffic capacity of its nearest competing system. The implication now is that Cisco is betting on the CRS-3 as its entry in the race to roll out 100G networks, reports Information Week.
Pankaj Patel, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Service Provider Business, predicted that the CRS-3 will become the company's flagship router of the future and will form the foundation of intelligent and advanced broadband networks in the Internet.
The presentation by the company featured an appearance by AT&T's Keith Cambron, who talked about the carrier's successful 100G field trial between Florida and Louisiana as a harbinger of better networking things to come. Cambron, who is president and CEO of AT&T Labs, noted that AT&T's video traffic is growing at a rate of 80 percent a year.
AT&T has been under pressure to speed up its wireless network, because its exclusive arrangement with Apple to provide the iPhone has pressured AT&T's mobile network while the carrier's landline broadband struggles to keep up with growing traffic.
Praising Cisco's CRS-3, Cambron said, "We are entering the next stage of global communications and entertainment services and applications, which requires a new set of advanced Internet networking technologies. AT&T's network handled 40 percent more traffic in 2009 than it did in the previous year and we continue to see this growth in 2010."
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Pankaj Patel, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's Service Provider Business, predicted that the CRS-3 will become the company's flagship router of the future and will form the foundation of intelligent and advanced broadband networks in the Internet.
The presentation by the company featured an appearance by AT&T's Keith Cambron, who talked about the carrier's successful 100G field trial between Florida and Louisiana as a harbinger of better networking things to come. Cambron, who is president and CEO of AT&T Labs, noted that AT&T's video traffic is growing at a rate of 80 percent a year.
AT&T has been under pressure to speed up its wireless network, because its exclusive arrangement with Apple to provide the iPhone has pressured AT&T's mobile network while the carrier's landline broadband struggles to keep up with growing traffic.
Praising Cisco's CRS-3, Cambron said, "We are entering the next stage of global communications and entertainment services and applications, which requires a new set of advanced Internet networking technologies. AT&T's network handled 40 percent more traffic in 2009 than it did in the previous year and we continue to see this growth in 2010."
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India plans to launch 10 satellites every year
India, U.S. ties proposed against cyber terrorism
Avnet to acquire Bell Microproducts
Smartphones to surpass feature phones in U.S. by 2011
D-Link introduces new SAN device
Networking firm D-Link has announced that some of its storage area network (SAN) products have been given the seal of approval for use with VMware technology, reports Comms Express.
Two of the xStack SAN Storage devices have received VMware Ready status. This means that they have passed extensive VMware-specified tests to ensure that they make best use of VMware technology, and are 'ready for deployment in customer environments.
The DSN-3200-10 and DSN-5210-10 are suitable for businesses of all sizes and provide cost-effective solutions for organizations looking for robust and expandable storage. D-Link's Chief Technology Officer, AJ Wang said, "Server consolidation provides a triad of benefits through flexibility, scaling and redundancy. Our VMware Ready xStack Storage SAN arrays can form a solid foundation for customers by providing a fast, reliable and cost-effective solution that can scale with their future needs."
D-Link recently introduced piece of network equipment for homes and small businesses that can display photos as well as providing network attached storage.
Two of the xStack SAN Storage devices have received VMware Ready status. This means that they have passed extensive VMware-specified tests to ensure that they make best use of VMware technology, and are 'ready for deployment in customer environments.
The DSN-3200-10 and DSN-5210-10 are suitable for businesses of all sizes and provide cost-effective solutions for organizations looking for robust and expandable storage. D-Link's Chief Technology Officer, AJ Wang said, "Server consolidation provides a triad of benefits through flexibility, scaling and redundancy. Our VMware Ready xStack Storage SAN arrays can form a solid foundation for customers by providing a fast, reliable and cost-effective solution that can scale with their future needs."
D-Link recently introduced piece of network equipment for homes and small businesses that can display photos as well as providing network attached storage.
Radware introduces new Ondemand switches
Radware, a provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart networking, has expanded its Alteon application switch product line with two new Ondemand switches, the Alteon 4408 and Alteon 4416, reports CXO Today.
The Alteon4-series rounds-out the product suite together with the recently introduced Alteon 5412, which now offers complete application delivery throughput coverage up to 20 Gbps. With a focus on business-IT alignment in the datacenter, Radware's Alteon 4-series provides the required application insight to efficiently scale both service and throughput levels based on business demand. The Alteon 4-series, built on Radware's on demand infrastructure approach, enables Alteon customers to start with a certain bandwidth and application services to meet current operational needs, and then increase capacity and capabilities on a pay-as-you-grow model - without replacing or rebooting supporting hardware - while maintaining high performance levels in layers 4-7.
"The Alteon 4-series is a core component of both the current and next-generation datacenter; strategically aligning business-IT investments through real-time awareness, increased speed, performance, and compliance of mission-critical applications," said IlanKinreich, Chief Operating Officer, Radware.
Leveraging simple, easy-to-deploy software license upgrades, coupled with Radware's five-year platform longevity guarantee, Alteon customers gain a 'future-proofed' datacenter solution that successfully meets application needs across Layers 4-7, ensures transaction completion with maximum performance, and minimizes capacity planning risks.
The Alteon4-series rounds-out the product suite together with the recently introduced Alteon 5412, which now offers complete application delivery throughput coverage up to 20 Gbps. With a focus on business-IT alignment in the datacenter, Radware's Alteon 4-series provides the required application insight to efficiently scale both service and throughput levels based on business demand. The Alteon 4-series, built on Radware's on demand infrastructure approach, enables Alteon customers to start with a certain bandwidth and application services to meet current operational needs, and then increase capacity and capabilities on a pay-as-you-grow model - without replacing or rebooting supporting hardware - while maintaining high performance levels in layers 4-7.
"The Alteon 4-series is a core component of both the current and next-generation datacenter; strategically aligning business-IT investments through real-time awareness, increased speed, performance, and compliance of mission-critical applications," said IlanKinreich, Chief Operating Officer, Radware.
Leveraging simple, easy-to-deploy software license upgrades, coupled with Radware's five-year platform longevity guarantee, Alteon customers gain a 'future-proofed' datacenter solution that successfully meets application needs across Layers 4-7, ensures transaction completion with maximum performance, and minimizes capacity planning risks.
Sprint uses iPhone to sell WiMAX router
Sprint is now marketing its Sierra Wireless Overdrive router as a companion to the iPhone. A new commercial by the company suggests that the iPhone is 'limited by AT&T's 3G speeds' and that the 4G-to-Wi-Fi hotspot could be used to speed up the smartphone, reports electronista.
The speed boost is potentially accurate, as WiMAX on Sprint usually floats between 3Mbps and 6Mbps depending on quality; the figure is usually at least twice as fast as AT&T's typical HSPA-based 3G network, where peak speeds are about 1.7Mbps. However, the service would cost users a $60 monthly premium in addition to the cost of the Overdrive to get the added speeds.
Sprint's move is known not to be the only instance of rival carriers trying to ride on Apple devices despite a lack of support. An internal memo from Verizon has the company trying to sell WiFi routers to iPad buyers as a way of getting 3G for the iPad without needing the more expensive model
The speed boost is potentially accurate, as WiMAX on Sprint usually floats between 3Mbps and 6Mbps depending on quality; the figure is usually at least twice as fast as AT&T's typical HSPA-based 3G network, where peak speeds are about 1.7Mbps. However, the service would cost users a $60 monthly premium in addition to the cost of the Overdrive to get the added speeds.
Sprint's move is known not to be the only instance of rival carriers trying to ride on Apple devices despite a lack of support. An internal memo from Verizon has the company trying to sell WiFi routers to iPad buyers as a way of getting 3G for the iPad without needing the more expensive model
Sales of Ethernet switches, routers, Wi-Fi on rise
Sales of Ethernet switches, enterprise routers and wireless LAN equipment are expected to rise this year and beyond coming out of the recession, according to Infonetics Research. The markets rebounded a bit in the second half of 2009, but were still down overall from 2008, the firm notes, reports Jim Duffy from Network World.
According to the findings from Infonetics, the Ethernet switch market grew 15 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2009, to $4.2 billion and port shipments grew 4 percent. Worldwide revenue of 10G Ethernet switches grew 63 percent in 2009. Overall, customers opted for lower cost switches, which negatively impacted switch revenue growth. Surprisingly, sales of higher-priced chassis-based systems had the highest sequential growth within the market, Infonetics found.
Ethernet switch market leader Cisco, which earlier this week introduced new switches, saw its revenue jump 19 percent sequentially in Q4. In enterprise routers, Cisco's unit share decreased by one point, while the company's revenue share increased by a point in 2009, Infonetics found.
Overall, worldwide enterprise router revenue was down 28 percent to just over $3 billion in 2009. 3Com was the only vendor to increase enterprise router revenue in 2009, Infonetics found. Sequentially, Q4 router revenue was up 10 percent over Q3 to $821 million. Infonetics concludes that enterprise router sales are beginning to stabilize, with sales growing again sequentially and year-over-year declines shrinking.
In WLANs, worldwide revenue was flat sequentially in Q4 at $571 million, but grew 16 percent compared to Q4 of 2008. For the full year, worldwide Wi-Fi network equipment revenue was down 6 percent compared to 2008. WLAN growth in 2010 will be driven by increasing mobility in the enterprise, fixed-mobile convergence and wired/wireless LAN convergence. Cisco continues to lead the WLAN equipment market with 46 percent in both 2009 and Q4, followed by Aruba Networks, according to Infonetics.
According to the findings from Infonetics, the Ethernet switch market grew 15 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2009, to $4.2 billion and port shipments grew 4 percent. Worldwide revenue of 10G Ethernet switches grew 63 percent in 2009. Overall, customers opted for lower cost switches, which negatively impacted switch revenue growth. Surprisingly, sales of higher-priced chassis-based systems had the highest sequential growth within the market, Infonetics found.
Ethernet switch market leader Cisco, which earlier this week introduced new switches, saw its revenue jump 19 percent sequentially in Q4. In enterprise routers, Cisco's unit share decreased by one point, while the company's revenue share increased by a point in 2009, Infonetics found.
Overall, worldwide enterprise router revenue was down 28 percent to just over $3 billion in 2009. 3Com was the only vendor to increase enterprise router revenue in 2009, Infonetics found. Sequentially, Q4 router revenue was up 10 percent over Q3 to $821 million. Infonetics concludes that enterprise router sales are beginning to stabilize, with sales growing again sequentially and year-over-year declines shrinking.
In WLANs, worldwide revenue was flat sequentially in Q4 at $571 million, but grew 16 percent compared to Q4 of 2008. For the full year, worldwide Wi-Fi network equipment revenue was down 6 percent compared to 2008. WLAN growth in 2010 will be driven by increasing mobility in the enterprise, fixed-mobile convergence and wired/wireless LAN convergence. Cisco continues to lead the WLAN equipment market with 46 percent in both 2009 and Q4, followed by Aruba Networks, according to Infonetics.
India has a scarcity of 70k networking professionals
Networking giant Cisco estimates that India is facing a shortage of 70,000 professionals in networking alone, as datacenters increase in number and the internet expands to help businesses and homes alike. "It is high time India trains more number of networking professionals to reap benefits," Milind Gurjar, Director of Global Market Development and Training Delivery at Cisco, told Hindustan Times.
According to the company, globally, the shortage of quality networking professionals is as high as one million. Gurjar said young networking professional aspirants should consider specialized courses after acquiring experience for a couple of years to tap the emerging opportunity. Cisco says, an increasing trend to outsource IT infrastructure management will only widen the shortfall in the months to come.
Apart from maintaining switches and routers, networking experts also take care of security and risk management in datacenters and employ "virtualization" under which a job done by a machine can now be executed through software, enabling easier network management from remote locations. Gurjar added that in a survey conducted on CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) certified individuals reveals that these areas will be in hot demand over the next five years.
Cisco to deploy next-generation network at NSE
Networking equipment major Cisco said it had won a major contract to deploy next-generation network at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), but did not specify the value of the deal.
"The network comprise routing, switching, security and core technologies to help ensure high network availability, boost network security and expand the exchange's reach across the country," Cisco India vice-president Anil Bhasin said in a statement here.
As an exclusive networking technology provider to the country's largest stock exchange, Cisco will install a three-tier network architecture with routers, switches, firewall and intrusion prevention system modules.
"The system is designed to provide enhanced security, intelligent load balancing for business continuity, better collaboration and integration across 3,000 NSE member locations," Bhasin noted.
NSE Chief Technology Officer Ravi Apte said: "Our decision to shift to Cisco's intelligent network platform was driven by the need for a secure, resilient and collaborative network infrastructure".
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