Does Wi-Fi Security Really Matter?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Seems the Wi-Fi Alliance is having yet another crack at coming up with
a really secure protocol, this time to be called WPA3
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/09/wi_fi_wpa3/>.
Does anybody care? Remember that on the Internet, security is
implemented between the endpoints, the protocols are designed not to
care that everything in-between might be pawed through by
eavesdroppers, or even active attackers trying to inject fake data.
1 year, 1 month
Wellywood’s Digital Edge Has Dulled
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
You may have seen an item in the news lately about a report into the
large amount of subsidies that the Government puts into the local film
industry. This latest report says that these subsidies pay off in jobs
and revenue elsewhere, but independent reviewers question this, saying
such conclusions are very sensitive to initial assumptions
<https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=1207...>.
This extract from one of the linked documents caught my eye:
Weta Digital executives ... considered that 10 years ago they were
at the forefront of technology and that studios were forced to use
them to achieve particular effects, they said that this is no
longer true: “the degrees of difference in technology are almost
imperceptible”. It is no longer technical capability that wins
work, it is price point; they consider themselves a price taker.
“If the grant were to disappear tomorrow it would call into
question the business itself…the subsidy allows us to compete.”
There is “no scenario” where the US studios would pay 20% more for
Weta Digital than its competitors.
VFX have long been a commodity; it’s actually surprising that Weta
Digital has managed to last this long, compared to, say, Rhythm & Hues,
which went bust shortly after winning an Oscar for “Life Of Pi”
<http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article128729769.html>.
I guess it’s all down to those Government subsidies...
1 year, 8 months
Android Bug Allows Geolocation Tracking of Users
by Peter Reutemann
'Researchers have discovered a weakness in all version of Android
except 9, the most recent release, that can allow an attacker to
gather sensitive information such as the MAC address and BSSID name
and pinpoint the location of an affected device. The vulnerability is
a result of the way that Android broadcasts device information to apps
installed on a device. The operating system uses a mechanism known as
an intent to send out information between processes or applications,
and some of the information about the device's WiFi network interface
sent via a pair of intents can be used by an attacker to track a
device closely.
A malicious app -- or just one that is listening for the right
broadcasts from Android -- would be able to identify any individual
Android device and geolocate it. An attacker could use this weaknesses
to track a given device, presumably without the user's knowledge.
Although Android has had MAC address randomization implemented since
version 6, released in 2015, Yakov Shafranovich of Nightwatch
Cybersecurity said his research showed that an attacker can get around
this restriction.'
-- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/08/30/1725225
Cheers, peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
1 year, 9 months
What Dropbox Dropping Linux Support Says
by Peter Reutemann
'Jack Wallen, writing for TechRepublic:
For a company to support Linux, they have to consider supporting:
Multiple file systems, multiple distributions, multiple desktops,
multiple init systems, multiple kernels. If you're an open source
developer, focusing on a single distribution, that's not a problem. If
you're a company that produces a product (and you stake your living on
that product), those multiple points of entry do become a problem.
Let's consider Adobe (and Photoshop). If Adobe wanted to port their
industry-leading product to Linux, how do they do that? Do they spend
the time developing support for ext4, btrfs, Ubuntu, Fedora, GNOME,
Mate, KDE, systemd? You see how that might look from the eyes of any
given company?
It becomes even more complicated when companies consider how
accustomed to the idea of "free" (as in beer) Linux users are.
Although I am very willing to pay for software on Linux, it's a rare
occasion that I do (mostly because I haven't found a piece of
must-have software that has an associated cost). Few companies will
support the Linux desktop when the act of supporting means putting
that much time and effort into a product that a large cross-section of
users might wind up unwilling to pay the price of admission. That's
not to say every Linux user is unwilling to shell out the cost for a
piece of software. But many won't.'
-- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/08/29/0949228
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
1 year, 9 months
The Linux Foundation Is Changing The Fabric Of Networking
by Peter Reutemann
'Will Townsend, a senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy research
firm, writes:
As it relates to networking, the Linux Foundation is currently focused
on a number of projects that are bringing top networking vendors,
operators, service providers, and users together. Among the top
initiatives are the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) and Data
Plane Development Kit (DPDK). In this article, I would like to dive
into both of these initiatives and share my perspective on how each is
transforming the nature of networking [Editor's note: the website may
have auto-playing videos; an alternative link was not available].
It makes sense that ONAP's releases are named after global cities,
considering the platform's growing global footprint. ONAP is aimed at
bringing real-time automation and orchestration to both physical and
virtualized network functions. The first release in the fall of 2017,
named Amsterdam, delivered a unified architecture for providing
closed-loop networking automation. The underlying framework ensured a
level of modularity to facilitate future functionality as well as
standards harmonization and critical upstream partner collaboration.
Initial use cases centered on Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) services as well
as Virtualized Consumer Premise Equipment (vCPE). Both are extremely
cost disruptive from a deployment and management perspective and
deliver enhanced service provider agility. What I find extremely
compelling is that Amsterdam was only an eight-month development cycle
from start to release. That's an amazing feat even in the fast-paced
technology industry.
[...] DPDK was an effort initially led by Intel at its inception
nearly eight years ago, but became a part of the Linux Foundation back
in 2017. At a high level, the technology accelerates packet processing
workloads running on a variety of CPU architectures. DPDK is aimed at
improving overall network performance, delivering enhanced encryption
for improved security and optimizing lower latency applications that
require lightning-fast response time. The transformative power of 5G
networks lies in their potential to deliver low latency for
applications such as augmented/virtual reality and self-driving cars
-- DPDK will further extend that performance for next-generation
wireless wide area networks. I had the opportunity recently to speak
to project chair Jim St. Leger after the fifth DPDK release, and I was
impressed with the depth and breadth of the open source project. Over
25 companies and 160 technologists are involved in advancing the
effort. With the proliferation of data, cord cutting at home, and
growing consumption of video over wired and wireless networks,
high-quality compression techniques will dramatically improve
performance and reliability. DPDK appears to be poised to contribute
significantly to that effort.'
-- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/08/29/1646231
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
1 year, 9 months
Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing To OpenStreetMap
by Peter Reutemann
'At the recently concluded State of the Map conference in Milan, teams
from Microsoft, Apple and Facebook presented their projects,
describing how they are working with communities. From a report:
The Microsoft Open Maps team has recently released open data on
building footprints in the US. Microsoft was among the first to
release satellite imagery for use by OpenStreetMap and the images are
now integrated into the default editor. It also has a community of
mappers directly contributing to OpenStreetMap in Australia. Apple has
an internal volunteer programme that has around 5,000 staff
contributing to Missing Maps, they've released building data for
France and Denmark, and are engaged with data improvement projects
around the world. Facebook is exploring how artificial
intelligence-assisted tracing can help to improve the quality of
OpenStreetMap data in Thailand.
DigitalGlobe has made its satellite imagery available under a licence
that will allow it to be used by the OpenStreetMap community to
improve their mapping efforts. Telenav launched OpenStreetCam to help
collect openly-licensed street imagery and has now released open data
and code to explore how machine learning can enable the images to be
used to improve OpenStreetMap with stop signs and turn directions.'
-- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/08/27/2258229
Cheers, Peter
--
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
1 year, 9 months