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May 2014 Archives
Cloud-based Media Workflows: A Business Proposition
The following post is part one of a two-part series exploring cloud-based media workflows. Stay tuned for a more technically oriented blog post from Akamai's Professional Services guru Frank Paolino. When you hear people talking about "the cloud," they're typically discussing its various technical benefits. Elastic scalability, flexibility, availability and other features that end in -bility are often hot topics of conversation. In general, this can be very engaging, worthwhile
What's Your Favorite Security Conference?
I've been participating in an ongoing, online panel hosted by the Information Security Buzz website. The latest question is, "Based on your experience and knowledge, what would you say is the BEST Information Security event to attend and why?"
6 More Great Security Podcasts
Tuesday, I wrote a post about five security podcasts worth your time. This is a sequel post, directing you toward six more great podcasts that'll make you smarter and better informed about all things InfoSec. 1.) ISC podcast and daily Stormcast from the SANS Internet Storm Center Always a rich source of real-time security monitoring, the Sans Internet Storm Center's podcasts offer quick status checks on threats around the Internet.
Online Extortion and World Cup Risks
In the latest episode of the Akamai Security Podcast, I talk to CSIRT researcher Mike Kun about the latest threats his team is monitoring, including online extortion attempts and possible disruptions during the World Cup. Listen to the full episodeMore Akamai Security Podcast episodes are available here.
DDoS, as simple as your ABC's
DDoS tool kits, and DDoS-for-hire along with some bitcoins, anonymous email, a TOR connection and a sense of purpose, has made it trivial for individuals, hacktivist collectives and cyber criminals to launch an effective DDoS attack.
6 Security Podcasts Worth Your Time
Though we have our own show called the Akamai Security Podcast and spend a lot of time promoting it in this blog, there are many other security podcasts worth your time. What follows are six favorites.1.) Liquidmatrix PodcastAkamai Security Advocate Dave Lewis hosts this podcast with James Arlen, Matt Johansen and Ben Sapiro.2.) Network Security PodcastLondon-based Akamai Security Advocate Martin McKeay hosts one of the longest-running and most popular podcasts in the
PLXsert Eyes Spike in SNMP Reflection DDoS Attacks
Akamai's Prolexic Security Engineering Response Team (PLXsert) has seen a significant resurgence in the use of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) reflection attacks this past month. In an advisory, PLXsert said these DDoS attacks abuse the SNMP protocol, which is commonly supported by network devices such as printers, switches, firewalls and routers.
More Bricks of Security Enlightenment
Akamai Security Advocate Dave Lewis (@gattaca on Twitter) continues his prolific blogging on CSOonline. He has also begun writing for Forbes. What follows are his posts so far for May 2014. We begin with his inaugural Forbes column. Previous posts from Dave
Public Research Docs: The List So Far
Akamai InfoSec has slowly been making its security advisories public. What follows is a list of what has been released so far. These can be found in the security research section of the Akamai Security microsite.
The Brittleness of the SSL/TLS Certificate System
Despite the time and inconvenience caused to the industry by Heartbleed, its impact does provide some impetus for examining the underlying certificate hierarchy. (As an historical example, in the wake of CA certificate misissuances, the industry looked at one set of flaws: how any one of the many trusted CAs can issue certificates for any site, even if the owner of that site hasn't requested them to do so; that
Web Security Buzz
Each week, we compile a list of headlines trending on social media and distribute it internally via a newsletter called "Web Security Buzz." We recently decided to start running a public version via this blog. What follows are some of the stories we've been keeping an eye on for the past couple of weeks.
Big Data 101
Big Data is one of the hottest technology buzzwords today. More and more organizations look to understand and utilize their data better. This video explains what does the term Big Data actually mean, what are the primary tools used for it, and how can Akamai help organizations deal with Big Data.
Microsoft's May 2014 Patch Load
Microsoft released it's May 2014 Security Update Tuesday. The latest vulnerabilities to be addressed affect everything from Windows, Internet Explorer and Office to Microsoft Server Software, Productivity Software and the .NET Framework.
Internet Disruptions Possible During World Cup 2014
Researchers from Akamai's CSIRT team warn of potential Internet disruptions during the upcoming World Cup event. FIFA's World Cup will be held in Brazil starting June 12. At the 2010 World Cup hosted in South Africa, some 3,170,856 spectators attended 64 matches. FIFA is again distributing a total of over 3,000,000 tickets for the tournament, where Brazilian and international visitors will attend football (soccer) matches in 12 cities across Brazil.
Podcast: CSO Andy Ellis on Heartbleed
By now, most of you are aware of the Heartbleed vulnerability that sent shockwaves through the tech industry. Like many of you, Akamai had to work overtime to ensure our customers were protected. We did that, but as is the case with any large security threat, we continue to be vigilant and, while letting everyone know what we did to keep them secure, we're looking back at the lessons learned
Microsoft Issues Patch Tuesday Preview for May 2014
Microsoft has released advance notification regarding the security updates it plans to release Tuesday. It looks like a busy month of patching ahead. The breakdown is below.
BSides Boston 2014: HallwayCon
As I noted in previous posts, LobbyCon is an important part of any security conference experience. At BSides Boston Saturday, attendees will enjoy the ritual with a special twist.Organizers call it HallwayCon. A description from the BSides Boston website:First come, first served! (Sign-up and put your name and topic on the board!) These lightning talks are 15-minute each and will go throughout the entire day.A variation of this happened during
BSides Boston 2014: Dan Geer and Heartbleed
I first met Dan Geer 10 years ago, after he debated Microsoft's Scott Charney on the "Microsoft Monoculture" at a USENIX event in Boston. I was just starting to write about security and the man intimidated me. His intellect and speaking style were light years beyond anything I had comprehended before. As a news reporter, you talk to a lot of police officers, firefighters and politicians who speak in plain,
BSides Boston Keynote Profile: Jack Daniel
An old friend will deliver the first keynote of BSides Boston Friday: Jack Daniel, technical product manager at Tenable Network Security. His talk is called "Doomed to Repeat: InfoSec's Failure to Learn from the Past."
The Flash Crash 4 Years Later: Ready for the Next On ...
May 6, 2010 started like most days in the stock market. A few minutes before the U.S. equities markets opened at 9:30 AM, leading brokerage firms opened their internal "market open" conference calls. This is a common practice in the industry: get internal representatives from IT operations, networking, market data systems, software development, etc. on the phone together. Run through checklists making sure all systems are ready for the opening
BSides Boston 2014: Full Agenda
Bsides Boston 2014 -- scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center -- promises to be another enlightening event. Akamai is a gold sponsor, and I'll be there both days. If you're thinking of going, here's the full agenda to consider:
Microsoft Releases Emergency IE Fix
Internet Explorer users take note: Microsoft issued an emergency security update yesterday to address a serious, widely-publicized vulnerability. Dustin C. Childs of Microsoft's Security Response Center announced the fix in a blog post yesterday.
And you thought your page could not be cached ...
As we carry out performance evaluations for our customers, we often come across very popular pages that are made 'non-cacheable' at the edge. On top of incurring additional latency and therefore a degraded user experience, it generates heavy loads on our customers' origin infrastructure.
Latest State of the Internet Report: Security Highli ...
Akamai released its Fourth Quarter 2013 State of the Internet Report last week. Security highlights include the following: DDoS traffic increased 23 percent quarter-over-quarter, up by 75 percent from fourth quarter 2012.Enterprise and commerce continued to be the industries targeted most frequently.China remained the top producer of attack traffic, growing to 43 percent of observed attack traffic.The United States also saw significant growth in observed attack traffic, while Indonesia's contribution