As is now widely known, over the Labor Day weekend, hundreds of naked photos of celebrities were leaked on the image-based Web bulletin board 4chan before spreading to multiple Internet sites, with one of the involved hackers pointing towards vulnerabilities in Apple's iCloud service as the source of the security breach. For its part, MacRumors has reported that "Apple is actively investigating [the] alleged breach of several celebrity iCloud accounts that may have allowed hackers to access the private photos and videos of multiple well-known actresses," according to a statement by an Apple spokesperson. Meanwhile, Business Insider's James Cook has assembled an investigative report that takes a look inside the underground iCloud hacking ring that leaked the nude celebrity photos. Finally, for stringently security-minded regular (i.e. non-celebrity) folk, Forbes has posted a handy step-by-step reference that describes how to disable Apple iCloud.
More News: Apple says data centers now run on 100% renewable energy
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Friday, August 1, 2014
25 reasons why cable technicians hate you
From Consumerist, comes the following list, "written by a cable tech who isn’t afraid to let it fly."
The blog containing the list is long on spicy language and an amusingly unhinged perspective. Technical highlights, however, include the following:
6. Your router. Do it your damn self.
18. Coax wiring — don’t try to do it yourself, because you probably don’t know what you're doing. Radio Shack and Wal-Mart coax cable sucks. It’s usually RG-59 equivalent and is good for nothing. We use RG-6 or better. and the connectors, and dielectric/outer sheet layer differences on our cable make worlds of difference. Thanks for trying to help, but trust us on this one.
19. If your house is over 450 feet from the tap (or pole) don’t expect premium services (digital cable, Internet, or digital phone) to work well, if they work at all. You probably shouldn't even have cable.
See: 25 Reasons Why Cable Technicians Hate You (consumerist.com)
The blog containing the list is long on spicy language and an amusingly unhinged perspective. Technical highlights, however, include the following:
6. Your router. Do it your damn self.
18. Coax wiring — don’t try to do it yourself, because you probably don’t know what you're doing. Radio Shack and Wal-Mart coax cable sucks. It’s usually RG-59 equivalent and is good for nothing. We use RG-6 or better. and the connectors, and dielectric/outer sheet layer differences on our cable make worlds of difference. Thanks for trying to help, but trust us on this one.
19. If your house is over 450 feet from the tap (or pole) don’t expect premium services (digital cable, Internet, or digital phone) to work well, if they work at all. You probably shouldn't even have cable.
See: 25 Reasons Why Cable Technicians Hate You (consumerist.com)
Monday, July 14, 2014
Where Big Data and optical networks intersect
Cablinginstall.com's sister site Lightwave has published an illuminating guest blog by Jim Theodoras of ADVA Optical Networking:
Optical networks and the era of Big Data
By Jim Theodoras, ADVA Optical Networking
With the coming of the era of “Big Data,” we are faced with the latest in a long line of buzzwords. Big Data refers to the mining of huge data sets to gather new insights and trends that have never before been identifiable by other means.
In the past, scientists did deep dives into dusty records in musty basements, attempting to prove or disprove a thesis that may or may not have led to fame. Today scientists can sift through vast amounts of data in real time and identify trends as they are occurring. An example frequently sited is Google’s flu map that is able to identify flu levels across a country before the cases are even reported, simply by looking at people’s Internet search patterns.
At first glance, Big Data might seem to have little to nothing to do with optical communications. Yet, let’s look at one of the more recent analogs, the “cloud.” The cloud referred to the moving of services from local resources to hosted resources that could reside physically anywhere on the globe. When the cloud was mentioned in the same breath as optical communications, it seemed somewhat of a reach. Yet, fast forward to today and the growth in the cloud is arguably the biggest driver in continued growth in optical. I would go as far as saying it has become optical’s most recent savior, for just when it seemed our industry was doomed to follow the slow and steady growth of telecommunication network upgrades, along came the cloud.
Now it’s all about Big Data. So what does that have to do with the plumbing of the network? It turns out, more than one would think.
Related news: QKD security technology shares single fiber with data in live trial
As databases have outgrown the confines of their data centers, they have become truly global in nature. No longer is data hosted locally and simply backed up overnight. Data and computations on that data are now constantly being replicated and load balanced across global networks of data centers. Virtual machines are moved as needed in real time across huge geographical distances. In this context, I would argue that the traditional WAN has become somewhat a misnomer, as wide area networks are no longer relegated to merely areas and may be as wide as the globe.
The cloud stores everyone’s cold, hard data like a big hard drive in the sky. And now, Big Data will store all the warm and fuzzy relationships between those data sets, a kind of social media for bits and bytes.
Transport networks for big data transport have some unique needs versus their predecessors. They must be efficient, as space, power, and money are forever in short supply when storing all of mankind’s knowledgebase. Scalability also is important, as some content providers have technology replacement/upgrade cycles as short as 3 years. Big Data is also big money, and given the value inherent in the data itself, all data must be secured as it is shuttled from site to site.
It turns out Big Data needs big networks. All of which bodes well for our optical industry.
Jim Theodoras is senior director of technical marketing at ADVA Optical Networking
Related Lightwave coverage: The security of networks and the role optical can play in it
Optical networks and the era of Big Data
By Jim Theodoras, ADVA Optical Networking
With the coming of the era of “Big Data,” we are faced with the latest in a long line of buzzwords. Big Data refers to the mining of huge data sets to gather new insights and trends that have never before been identifiable by other means.
In the past, scientists did deep dives into dusty records in musty basements, attempting to prove or disprove a thesis that may or may not have led to fame. Today scientists can sift through vast amounts of data in real time and identify trends as they are occurring. An example frequently sited is Google’s flu map that is able to identify flu levels across a country before the cases are even reported, simply by looking at people’s Internet search patterns.
At first glance, Big Data might seem to have little to nothing to do with optical communications. Yet, let’s look at one of the more recent analogs, the “cloud.” The cloud referred to the moving of services from local resources to hosted resources that could reside physically anywhere on the globe. When the cloud was mentioned in the same breath as optical communications, it seemed somewhat of a reach. Yet, fast forward to today and the growth in the cloud is arguably the biggest driver in continued growth in optical. I would go as far as saying it has become optical’s most recent savior, for just when it seemed our industry was doomed to follow the slow and steady growth of telecommunication network upgrades, along came the cloud.
Now it’s all about Big Data. So what does that have to do with the plumbing of the network? It turns out, more than one would think.
Related news: QKD security technology shares single fiber with data in live trial
As databases have outgrown the confines of their data centers, they have become truly global in nature. No longer is data hosted locally and simply backed up overnight. Data and computations on that data are now constantly being replicated and load balanced across global networks of data centers. Virtual machines are moved as needed in real time across huge geographical distances. In this context, I would argue that the traditional WAN has become somewhat a misnomer, as wide area networks are no longer relegated to merely areas and may be as wide as the globe.
The cloud stores everyone’s cold, hard data like a big hard drive in the sky. And now, Big Data will store all the warm and fuzzy relationships between those data sets, a kind of social media for bits and bytes.
Transport networks for big data transport have some unique needs versus their predecessors. They must be efficient, as space, power, and money are forever in short supply when storing all of mankind’s knowledgebase. Scalability also is important, as some content providers have technology replacement/upgrade cycles as short as 3 years. Big Data is also big money, and given the value inherent in the data itself, all data must be secured as it is shuttled from site to site.
It turns out Big Data needs big networks. All of which bodes well for our optical industry.
Jim Theodoras is senior director of technical marketing at ADVA Optical Networking
Related Lightwave coverage: The security of networks and the role optical can play in it
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Cabling Africa's remote interior
As reported at The Economist, a mobile-telecoms cabling firm with roots in Zimbabwe has, with remarkable tenaciousness, brought fast broadband to landlocked parts of Africa -- "the continent that [network] infrastructure forgot."
"It had taken two years to negotiate the various permits required for Liquid Telecom to take its cable across the Limpopo from South Africa to Zimbabwe," says the Economist report. "A further 18 months of talks for permission to run the cable along one of the two bridges at Chirundu had come to nought. The network in Zambia was ready to be switched on. Then someone suggested suspending the cable between two disused electricity pylons on either side of the river, which would not require any special permits. The cable was strung across the Zambezi but was almost washed away by its powerful current. And then the rigger hired to clamp the cable to both pylons came across a beehive at the top of one of them."
"Even the hardiest of riggers would struggle to fix a cable to a tall pylon while being stung by a swarm of African bees. Happily the intrepid cablers were able to improvise a beekeeper’s outfit from four Thomas Pink shirts (taken from the boss’s suitcase), a pair of overalls, some insulating tape and a mosquito net expensively acquired from a trucker queuing at the nearby border post."
"A fainthearted firm might have given up. But Liquid has doggedness in its genes. It is a sister company of Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile-telecoms firm, which in 1998 won a five-year legal battle with Robert Mugabe’s government to be allowed to operate."
See also: Philippines' city councilor: No more 'messy' cabling
"It had taken two years to negotiate the various permits required for Liquid Telecom to take its cable across the Limpopo from South Africa to Zimbabwe," says the Economist report. "A further 18 months of talks for permission to run the cable along one of the two bridges at Chirundu had come to nought. The network in Zambia was ready to be switched on. Then someone suggested suspending the cable between two disused electricity pylons on either side of the river, which would not require any special permits. The cable was strung across the Zambezi but was almost washed away by its powerful current. And then the rigger hired to clamp the cable to both pylons came across a beehive at the top of one of them."
"Even the hardiest of riggers would struggle to fix a cable to a tall pylon while being stung by a swarm of African bees. Happily the intrepid cablers were able to improvise a beekeeper’s outfit from four Thomas Pink shirts (taken from the boss’s suitcase), a pair of overalls, some insulating tape and a mosquito net expensively acquired from a trucker queuing at the nearby border post."
"A fainthearted firm might have given up. But Liquid has doggedness in its genes. It is a sister company of Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile-telecoms firm, which in 1998 won a five-year legal battle with Robert Mugabe’s government to be allowed to operate."
See also: Philippines' city councilor: No more 'messy' cabling
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Carriers are still Cisco's burden, but future beckons
Mitch Wagner of Light Reading's "Carrier SDN/SDN Archictectures" news analysis blog reports that Cisco's quarterly earnings have once again suffered from weakness in its Carrier segment.
"Weak carrier business continues to drag down Cisco's revenue, but that sector is improving, and future growth will be driven by the cloud, the Internet of Everything, and other new technologies and markets," the company revealed in its fiscal third-quarter earnings call on May 28, as reported by Wagner.
The service provider market is an area where the company is having problems "both macro and Cisco specific," Cisco's CEO John Chambers said during the call. "Service provider orders were down 5%, showing improvement from the 12% decline in Q2 and 13% decline in Q1. Weakness in emerging markets also hurt the service provider market. Also, service provider video revenue declined 26%, and orders declined 11%."
"We are seeing some signs of stabilization in the SP business but believe it will take multiple quarters to return to growth," Chambers added.
Full blog: Cisco Earnings Suffer From Carrier Weakness (lightreading.com)
"Weak carrier business continues to drag down Cisco's revenue, but that sector is improving, and future growth will be driven by the cloud, the Internet of Everything, and other new technologies and markets," the company revealed in its fiscal third-quarter earnings call on May 28, as reported by Wagner.
The service provider market is an area where the company is having problems "both macro and Cisco specific," Cisco's CEO John Chambers said during the call. "Service provider orders were down 5%, showing improvement from the 12% decline in Q2 and 13% decline in Q1. Weakness in emerging markets also hurt the service provider market. Also, service provider video revenue declined 26%, and orders declined 11%."
"We are seeing some signs of stabilization in the SP business but believe it will take multiple quarters to return to growth," Chambers added.
Full blog: Cisco Earnings Suffer From Carrier Weakness (lightreading.com)
Monday, May 12, 2014
Could AT&T's new fiber-optic phone network stymie first responders?
As aptly characterized by Gizmodo, "AT&T's plan to roll out next-gen fiber-optic cables nationwide as a replacement for its traditional copper-based telephone networks is great in most respects -- save for the fact that it won't support the government's special telephone service for national emergencies."
AT&T's new fiber network reportedly won't support a priority line, called Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), which is used during disasters or terrorist attacks when phone lines are usually clogged. "Essentially, the new AT&T network would force government to use the same -- potentially inundated -- phone networks as everyone else to communicate, potentially delaying first responders," adds Gizmodo.
Related story:
As originally reported by Brian Fung at the Washington Post's "The Switch" blog, "The Department of Homeland Security says an AT&T plan to test new network technology would degrade a special telephone service reserved for national emergencies and presidential communications. If implemented, the plan would hamper the ability of first responders and public officials to respond to a crisis of the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy or even 9/11, according to DHS."
GETS has proven its value in the past; the system served 10,000 phone calls during 9/11 and, in conjunction its wireless counterpart WPS, 45,000 calls during Hurricane Katrina.
The tech blog Engadget sums up, "AT&T's at least willing to work with the DHS to configure its fiber-optic network to recognize priority calls. That could take some time, though, and there's no word on whether Ma Bell's putting its plans to test the new technology on hold until then."
AT&T's new fiber network reportedly won't support a priority line, called Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), which is used during disasters or terrorist attacks when phone lines are usually clogged. "Essentially, the new AT&T network would force government to use the same -- potentially inundated -- phone networks as everyone else to communicate, potentially delaying first responders," adds Gizmodo.
Related story:
As originally reported by Brian Fung at the Washington Post's "The Switch" blog, "The Department of Homeland Security says an AT&T plan to test new network technology would degrade a special telephone service reserved for national emergencies and presidential communications. If implemented, the plan would hamper the ability of first responders and public officials to respond to a crisis of the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy or even 9/11, according to DHS."
GETS has proven its value in the past; the system served 10,000 phone calls during 9/11 and, in conjunction its wireless counterpart WPS, 45,000 calls during Hurricane Katrina.
The tech blog Engadget sums up, "AT&T's at least willing to work with the DHS to configure its fiber-optic network to recognize priority calls. That could take some time, though, and there's no word on whether Ma Bell's putting its plans to test the new technology on hold until then."
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Philippines' city councilor: No more 'messy' cabling
In the Philippines' Davao City, councilor Leonardo Avila III is reportedly drafting an ordinance that will address the municipality's "messy" electric and communication cables. Speaking in a recent public forum, Avila said that salient features of a new ordinance will be a provision for underground cabling and requiring buildings to have a service entrance for communication cables.
Avila, who also chairs the city's Committee on Transportation and Communication, noted that current building permit requirements in Davao specify only a service entrance for electric cables. "The service entrance for communication cables will be a new requirement for acquiring a building permit," he added.
The newly mandated service entrance will serve as a point of entry for communication cables, which will be connected to service equipment. Users can then connect to the equipment by connecting to an outlet that is connected to the service equipment. "This will benefit the establishment because they do not have to install a lot of cables but instead they can just connect to the outlet," said Avila.
Related: More Tales of Cabling Spaghetti
The service entrance for communication cables will be required for new buildings; older buildings will be given a grace period of two to three years to adopt the new service entrance.
The new draft ordinance also initially includes provisions for underground cabling, including right-of-way and its importance for future city planning. "The underground cabling [provision] will be mainly for electric distribution and communication companies," Avila stated. He also explained that use of underground cabling will lessen the number of utility poles located throughout the city. When passed into law, the new measure will allow one pole per a specified area.
Avila said his committee is currently preparing a report for the new city ordinance, after having studied similar ordinances, such as those in the Philippines' Tagum City and Cagayan de Oro City. "We expect that the ordinance will be passed this year," he concluded.
Source: SunStar (Phillippines)
Avila, who also chairs the city's Committee on Transportation and Communication, noted that current building permit requirements in Davao specify only a service entrance for electric cables. "The service entrance for communication cables will be a new requirement for acquiring a building permit," he added.
The newly mandated service entrance will serve as a point of entry for communication cables, which will be connected to service equipment. Users can then connect to the equipment by connecting to an outlet that is connected to the service equipment. "This will benefit the establishment because they do not have to install a lot of cables but instead they can just connect to the outlet," said Avila.
Related: More Tales of Cabling Spaghetti
The service entrance for communication cables will be required for new buildings; older buildings will be given a grace period of two to three years to adopt the new service entrance.
The new draft ordinance also initially includes provisions for underground cabling, including right-of-way and its importance for future city planning. "The underground cabling [provision] will be mainly for electric distribution and communication companies," Avila stated. He also explained that use of underground cabling will lessen the number of utility poles located throughout the city. When passed into law, the new measure will allow one pole per a specified area.
Avila said his committee is currently preparing a report for the new city ordinance, after having studied similar ordinances, such as those in the Philippines' Tagum City and Cagayan de Oro City. "We expect that the ordinance will be passed this year," he concluded.
Source: SunStar (Phillippines)
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Greenpeace grades greenest mega-data centers
A new report by the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace grades the efforts of the world's Internet technology giants toward greening their data centers. The report presents a "clean energy index" -- based on data from the companies or otherwise publicly available information -- that determines how much clean energy, on average, a company uses to power its data centers.
The report states that Apple, Google and Facebook have all made significant strides in applying renewable energy sources within their data centers to drive their Internet services. Amazon and Twitter's data centers? Not so much. Among the tech giants, Oracle is also singled out for its lack of enthusiasm for clean energy usage within its data centers.
Oregon receives special attention in the report because of the state's concentration of mega-data centers, drawn by the region's relatively low power prices.
See also:
And as noted by The Oregonian's Mike Rogoway, "Amazon.com, which operates a big server farm in [the state's] Morrow County, gets an F grade from Greenpeace for concealing its sources of its electricity and for lobbying, successfully, to relax Oregon’s clean energy laws during the last legislative session. Amazon disputed Greenpeace's analysis, and said it runs environmentally friendly, energy-efficient data centers."
Meanwhile, at the other end of the grading spectrum, Apple was lauded as the most improved company in terms of green energy usage, since Greenpeace's last report in 2012.
Read the new report from Greenpeace: Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet - April 2014
The report states that Apple, Google and Facebook have all made significant strides in applying renewable energy sources within their data centers to drive their Internet services. Amazon and Twitter's data centers? Not so much. Among the tech giants, Oracle is also singled out for its lack of enthusiasm for clean energy usage within its data centers.
Oregon receives special attention in the report because of the state's concentration of mega-data centers, drawn by the region's relatively low power prices.
See also:
And as noted by The Oregonian's Mike Rogoway, "Amazon.com, which operates a big server farm in [the state's] Morrow County, gets an F grade from Greenpeace for concealing its sources of its electricity and for lobbying, successfully, to relax Oregon’s clean energy laws during the last legislative session. Amazon disputed Greenpeace's analysis, and said it runs environmentally friendly, energy-efficient data centers."
Meanwhile, at the other end of the grading spectrum, Apple was lauded as the most improved company in terms of green energy usage, since Greenpeace's last report in 2012.
Read the new report from Greenpeace: Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet - April 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Facebook opens up data center PUE, WUE metrics
As reported by Datacenter Dynamics' Yevgenly Sverdlik, "Facebook has open sourced the code for online Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) dashboards it has built for its own data centers, hoping that others will use the code to create their own."
“In the spirit of transparency, we encourage others to share these data as well,” Lyrica McTiernan, sustainability program manager at Facebook, wrote in a blog post. “To make this easier, we’re open sourcing the code for these dashboards so anyone can use it."
“In the spirit of transparency, we encourage others to share these data as well,” Lyrica McTiernan, sustainability program manager at Facebook, wrote in a blog post. “To make this easier, we’re open sourcing the code for these dashboards so anyone can use it."
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Cisco hits hard times
As noted by IDG News Service/Network World, Cisco Systems reported another soft quarter on February 12, saying that its profits have fallen by more than half, and that its revenue has declined by nearly 8 percent.
"For its second fiscal quarter, which ended Jan. 25, Cisco reported revenue of $11.2 billion and net income of $1.4 billion, or $0.27 per share. That profit figure was down 54 percent from $3.1 billion, or $0.59 per share, a year earlier," writes IDG's Stephen Lawson.
Macroeconomic factors were the most prominent cause of the networking vendor's weak first-quarter results and forecast. "Sales were dramatically lower in most of the company's important developing markets, executives told financial analysts. But transitions in some product lines also hit sales," added the IDG report.
Silver lining: For its data centers and security businesses, Cisco said it amassed more revenue and orders than for the year prior. Cisco CEO John Chambers said the company's UCS (Unified Computing System) data center architecture continues to gain market share.
More news: Cisco, Microsoft team on cloud data center
Cisco certifies Proact for European data center supply
Cisco buffs up Catalyst Ethernet switches
Cisco lays off 2% of workforce
"For its second fiscal quarter, which ended Jan. 25, Cisco reported revenue of $11.2 billion and net income of $1.4 billion, or $0.27 per share. That profit figure was down 54 percent from $3.1 billion, or $0.59 per share, a year earlier," writes IDG's Stephen Lawson.
Macroeconomic factors were the most prominent cause of the networking vendor's weak first-quarter results and forecast. "Sales were dramatically lower in most of the company's important developing markets, executives told financial analysts. But transitions in some product lines also hit sales," added the IDG report.
Silver lining: For its data centers and security businesses, Cisco said it amassed more revenue and orders than for the year prior. Cisco CEO John Chambers said the company's UCS (Unified Computing System) data center architecture continues to gain market share.
More news: Cisco, Microsoft team on cloud data center
Cisco certifies Proact for European data center supply
Cisco buffs up Catalyst Ethernet switches
Cisco lays off 2% of workforce
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Rubber meets road for Internet of Things in 2014?
In an investigative article, TechHive's Caitlin McGarry notes how "over the last few years, companies have used the International CES [Consumer Electronics Show] to show off all types of Internet-connected hardware -- the usual suspects like phones, tablets, and PCs, but also TVs, thermostats and smoke alarms, not to mention cars, refrigerators, lightbulbs, and yes, even Bluetooth-enabled toothbrushes. It exists, therefore it is connected to the Web."
McGarry's reporting then seeks to answer the question, 'But after every device we own has been hooked up to the Internet, what then?', by examing how, this year, companies took to to the CES show floor especially geared up to show how "...smart gadgets "can [now] flawlessly talk to each other to fully automate our lives." Top topics of consideration include "the universal remote" for media devices, and how "smart can [also] be practical."
In related news, as reported by tongue-in-cheek Silicon Valley chronicler Valleywag, Google has just agreed to pay $3.2 billion in cash to buy Nest Labs, the makers of "unloved but important" home devices like thermostats and smoke alarms, "i.e. hardware that could help save and improve lives for a huge demographic of homeowners."
When Google pays $3.2 billion for a thermostat, you know the Internet of Things is real.
Related News: Corning touts Thunderbolt optical cabling at CES 2014
CES 2014: Amendment to 802.11ac spec unveils MU MIMO technology
McGarry's reporting then seeks to answer the question, 'But after every device we own has been hooked up to the Internet, what then?', by examing how, this year, companies took to to the CES show floor especially geared up to show how "...smart gadgets "can [now] flawlessly talk to each other to fully automate our lives." Top topics of consideration include "the universal remote" for media devices, and how "smart can [also] be practical."
In related news, as reported by tongue-in-cheek Silicon Valley chronicler Valleywag, Google has just agreed to pay $3.2 billion in cash to buy Nest Labs, the makers of "unloved but important" home devices like thermostats and smoke alarms, "i.e. hardware that could help save and improve lives for a huge demographic of homeowners."
When Google pays $3.2 billion for a thermostat, you know the Internet of Things is real.
Related News: Corning touts Thunderbolt optical cabling at CES 2014
CES 2014: Amendment to 802.11ac spec unveils MU MIMO technology
Friday, January 10, 2014
Escalating Target data breach (110M and *ulp* rising) exposes major security threat of POS malware, botnets
USA Today reports that Target says its data breach has now reached 110 million customers who had personal information stolen in it is credit/debit card data breach, escalating numbers from previous estimates of 40 million, and then, 70 million cards affected.
TechRepublic's Michael Kassner has the additional reporting: PoS malware and botnets abound.
As reported by Kassner:
Some fallout from the Target data breach has been the acknowledgment that PoS systems are under attack. This US-Cert bulletin from January 2nd mentions:
“For quite some time, cyber criminals have been targeting consumer data entered in PoS systems. In some circumstances, criminals attach a physical device to the PoS system to collect card data. In other cases, cyber criminals deliver malware which acquires card data as it passes through a PoS system.”
The US-Cert quote is an opportunity [...] to introduce Dexter. The PoS malware referenced in the bulletin. Researchers, with Arbor’s Security Engineering and Response Team, in early 2013 discovered servers hosting Dexter.
Dexter steals the process list from the infected computer, and dissects memory dumps looking for the track one and two data I mentioned earlier. At a certain point, the infected machine sends the captured data to the attackers’ command and control server. After which the criminals are free to use the information to clone new cards. The unfortunate thing is that as of yet, no one understands how the malware makes its way into the PoS system.
[However], it seems the bad guys are not content with their success, deciding to bring their game to the next level—PoS botnets.
This from ArsTechnica:
“Underscoring the growing sophistication of Internet crime, researchers have documented one of the first known botnets to target PoS terminals.”
Dan Goodin in the ArsTechnica post mentioned that Dexter went through a major revision, and now incorporates botnet malcode. Grouping all the infected machines into a botnet is beneficial in that it allows the bad guys to monitor, in real time, the goings on of all the infected machines. It also allows the bot masters to issue commands that immediately propagate to all member bots. To put it simply, using botnet technology helps the bad guys steal more money, while improving their odds of avoiding detection.
TechRepublic's Michael Kassner has the additional reporting: PoS malware and botnets abound.
As reported by Kassner:
Some fallout from the Target data breach has been the acknowledgment that PoS systems are under attack. This US-Cert bulletin from January 2nd mentions:
“For quite some time, cyber criminals have been targeting consumer data entered in PoS systems. In some circumstances, criminals attach a physical device to the PoS system to collect card data. In other cases, cyber criminals deliver malware which acquires card data as it passes through a PoS system.”
The US-Cert quote is an opportunity [...] to introduce Dexter. The PoS malware referenced in the bulletin. Researchers, with Arbor’s Security Engineering and Response Team, in early 2013 discovered servers hosting Dexter.
Dexter steals the process list from the infected computer, and dissects memory dumps looking for the track one and two data I mentioned earlier. At a certain point, the infected machine sends the captured data to the attackers’ command and control server. After which the criminals are free to use the information to clone new cards. The unfortunate thing is that as of yet, no one understands how the malware makes its way into the PoS system.
[However], it seems the bad guys are not content with their success, deciding to bring their game to the next level—PoS botnets.
This from ArsTechnica:
“Underscoring the growing sophistication of Internet crime, researchers have documented one of the first known botnets to target PoS terminals.”
Dan Goodin in the ArsTechnica post mentioned that Dexter went through a major revision, and now incorporates botnet malcode. Grouping all the infected machines into a botnet is beneficial in that it allows the bad guys to monitor, in real time, the goings on of all the infected machines. It also allows the bot masters to issue commands that immediately propagate to all member bots. To put it simply, using botnet technology helps the bad guys steal more money, while improving their odds of avoiding detection.
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