Archive for April 17, 2018

Still Another Reason To #DeleteFacebook… Cambridge Analytica May Have Data On MORE People

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

The Facebook data leak scandal may have just got worse.

Cambridge Analytica and its partners used data from previously unknown “Facebook-connected questionnaires” to obtain user data from the social media service, according to testimony from a former Cambridge Analytica employee.

Brittany Kaiser provided evidence to the British Parliament today as part of a hearing on fake news. Kaiser, who worked on the business team at Cambridge Analytica’s parent company until January of this year, wrote in a statement that she was “aware in a general sense of a wide range of surveys” used by Cambridge Analytica or its partners, and she said she believes the number of people whose Facebook data may have been compromised is likely higher than the widely reported 87 million.

That’s bad. And we need answers to how far this goes. It’s also another reason why Mark Zuckerberg needs to go to the UK to answer questions in front of Parliament.

Having said that, how many non-users did Cambridge get information on? After all, Facebook has profiles for non-users as well as actual users. I’m told repeatedly that I am the only remaining person alive between the age of 8 and 80 who doesn’t have a profile on Facebook. Thus it would be really interesting to know if Cambridge got information on luddites like me as well.

 

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Darktrace Mobile App Version 2 Unveiled

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

Darktrace, the world’s leading AI company for cyber defense, has today launched version 2 of the Darktrace Mobile App. The new update enhances the ability for security teams to investigate in-progress threats and control Antigena autonomous response actions while in transit.

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Powered by artificial intelligence, Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System is uniquely capable of identifying and stopping subtle and stealthy threats in real time. With 5,000 deployments across more than 97 countries, organizations across all industries rely on its self-learning technology to detect in-progress attacks missed by traditional tools – including insider threat, IoT breaches, and zero-day attacks.

Available for iOS and Android, the Darktrace Mobile App gives security teams the ability to easily access Darktrace after working hours or on the go. Designed to offer maximum flexibility, the Darktrace Mobile App increases the speed of threat mitigation by offering push notifications of in-progress threats. For the hundreds of customers around the globe relying on Darktrace Antigena, the Darktrace Mobile App offers one-click confirmation of autonomous response actions when in human confirmation mode – enabling organizations with the ability to automatically fight back against emerging threats.

Version 2 of the Darktrace Mobile App adds new features that provides teams with in-depth, detailed insights into their networks. The new update allows for even faster threat notification and mitigation, the means to locate external locations, and a streamlined authentication process. A full list of new features include:

  • Enhanced filtering and sorting options
  • New ability to search for devices by user credentials
  • Ability to locate external connections in Maps app
  • Real-time notification support for faster updates
  • Streamlined authentication process

 

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VMware Elevates The Hybrid Cloud Experience With New Releases of vSphere and vSAN

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

VMware today unveiled new releases of VMware vSphere and VMware vSAN — which power the industry’s leading hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions — to help enterprises securely run their business-critical and modern applications in the data centre, at the edge, in the public cloud, or in hybrid cloud environments. VMware vSphere 6.7 and VMware vSAN 6.7 will both enhance user experience, security, application support, and hybrid cloud management features.

Enterprises are faced with increasingly complex technology environments made up of a growing landscape of public cloud services as well as data centre and edge resources. To cope with this complexity and the growing rate of technological changes, enterprises need to build on a digital foundation that provides consistent infrastructure and operations and is secure by default. VMware’s software forms an integrated digital foundation that powers the apps and services transforming businesses and industries. For customers, this provides the broadest investment protection by enabling a flexible and secure common operating environment from the cloud to the data centre to the edge.

VMware vSphere and VMware vSAN — building blocks of this digital foundation — both have leading positions in their relative industries according to IDC. (1,2)

VMware vSphere 6.7: Efficient and Secure Platform for the Hybrid Cloud
VMware vSphere 6.7 will introduce new capabilities and enhancements to help deliver an efficient and more secure platform for hybrid cloud environments. The latest release will feature simple and efficient management at scale, comprehensive built-in security, increased support for more workloads, and further enable a seamless hybrid cloud experience. VMware vSphere 6.7 will continue to offer customers a universal application platform that supports workloads spanning artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Big Data, business-critical, cloud-native, in-memory, and 3D graphics, among others.

New and enhanced features in VMware vSphere 6.7 will include:

  • New vCenter Hybrid Linked Mode: Will enable unified visibility and management across different versions of vSphere running on-premises and in the public cloud such as VMware Cloud on AWS, IBM Cloud and other VMware Cloud Provider Program partner clouds. This will allow customers to maintain their current version of vSphere on-premises as needed while enjoying the benefits of new capabilities in vSphere-based public clouds.
  • New ESXi Single Reboot and vSphere Quick Boot: Will significantly reduce patch and upgrade times by halving the number of reboots required to one, while vSphere Quick Boot will skip hardware initialization steps to gain further re-start efficiencies.
  • New vSphere Persistent Memory: Will leverage the latest innovation around non-volatile memory and significantly enhance performance for both existing and new apps.
  • Enhanced NVIDIA GRID vGPUs Support for Modern Workloads: Will improve host lifecycle management and reduce end-user disruption via new suspend and resume capabilities for VMs for GPU-accelerated environments. vSphere 6.7 will enhance support for NVIDIA GRID Virtual PC/Virtual Apps (for knowledge workers) and NVIDIA Quadro Virtual Data Center Workstation (for design and engineering professionals) to enable optimal management of VDI workloads as well as enable administrators (admins) to run other NVIDIA GPU-enabled workloads, including AI and ML.
  • New Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 Support and Virtual TPM 2.0: This combination will significantly enhance protection and integrity for both the hypervisor and the guest operating system (OS). Virtual TPM 2.0 will help prevent VMs and hosts from being tampered or compromised, thwarting the loading of unauthorized components and enable guest OS security features.
  • Enhanced VMware vSphere Client: This latest release of the HTML-5-based vSphere Client will introduce new functionality to manage VMware NSX, vSAN and vSphere Update Manager along with an increased support for third-party products.

The enhanced vCenter Server Appliance will deliver an improved user experience made possible through more efficient management capabilities and significant performance improvements. It will deliver a faster experience for vSphere admins (compared to vSphere 6.5), while delivering considerable time and cost savings. Performance improvements will include:

  • 200 per cent faster performance in vCenter operations per second (3)
  • 300 per cent reduction in memory usage (3)
  • 300 per cent faster DRS-related operations (e.g. Power-on, Placement of VM) (3)

VMware vSphere customers can deploy VMware AppDefense to further secure applications running in the data center or cloud. AppDefense leverages its unique position in vSphere to understand what applications are intended to do, monitor against that intended state, and automate response if anyone or anything attempts to manipulate them.

VMware vSAN 6.7: Elevates the HCI Experience On-Premises and in the Cloud
Powering the largest hybrid cloud ecosystem of any HCI vendor, vSAN enables customers to evolve their vSphere environment on-premises or in the cloud with hyper-converged infrastructure that lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) with efficient operations and that easily scales to future demands. VMware vSAN 6.7 reduces time-to-expertise with a new intuitive interface and accelerates decision-making through advanced monitoring and analytics.

New and enhanced features in VMware vSAN 6.7 include:

  • New VMware vSphere HTML5 Client Support: Will provide vSAN admins with a unified, intuitive management experience using the HTML5-based vSphere Client that introduces new functionality and optimized workflows for vSAN operations.
  • New Integrated vRealize Operations Healthchecks in vCenter Server: Will offer a single pane of glass to monitor and control multiple HCI environments. vRealize Operations 6.7 will provide a global operations view of vSAN 6.7 environments with six new dashboards embedded within vCenter Server 6.7 enabling customers to monitor capacity, performance, KPIs and alerts, and more. This capability does not require a separate vRealize Operations license and is available to anyone with a vSAN Advanced or vSAN Enterprise license.
  • New Host-Pinning and iSCSI failover support: Will extend the suitability of HCI to applications such as Cassandra, Hadoop and MongoDB as well as to clustered Windows Server environments. New application support requires customers to contact VMware for additional details.
  • New Intelligent Self-Healing Capabilities: Will mitigate the effects of disruptive events such as hardware failures with smart resource allocation.
  • Enhanced vSAN Encryption: Will meet strict U.S. Federal government security requirements with FIPS 140-2 validation to protect data from disruptive events.

As part of today’s announcement, VMware is also introducing vSAN ReadyCare to improve the support experience for HCI environments. VMware will help customers maintain performance by avoiding or quickly resolving issues and minimize downtime through a combination of proactive telemetry capabilities from vSAN Support Insight advanced analytics, and a broad investment in VMware support staff.

VMware is widely recognized as the leading HCI software provider, and now delivers vSphere and vSAN-powered HCI in two of the top four public cloud providers, including AWS and IBM. Through an expansive partner ecosystem, VMware supports the broadest set of consumption options for its HCI software from turnkey HCI integrated systems such as Dell EMC VxRail and VxRack SDDC solutions to certified vSAN ReadyNode hardware reference architectures to as-a-service consumption models in public clouds.

VMware vSphere 6.7 and VMware vSAN 6.7 are both expected to become available by the end of VMware’s Q1 FY19 (May 4, 2018).

Additional Resources

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Reformulary Group introduces Alexa for DrugFinder

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

Today Reformulary Group, a healthcare technology group, has launched a first of its kind Alexa voice skill called DrugFinder. The skill makes it easy and free for all Canadians to research their prescriptions and see if they can save money by selecting a preferred drug alternative that provide the best combination of clinical and cost-effectiveness by using voice technology to access independent expert research on prescription drugs.

First of its kind in Canada

Reformulary Group trained Alexa to enhance the DrugFinder user experience. By simply speaking the name of the drug into an Alexa-enabled device like the Amazon Echo, Alexa will respond to the patient with information on what the drug treats, whether it is a preferred drug (combination of how well it works and how much it costs) and what the alternatives are. Alexa can email consumers a personalized Note for your Doctor or Pharmacist, which can help them have a conversation about their drug choices with their pharmacist or physician.

Most Canadians don’t know they have options when it comes to their prescriptions. News coverage tends to focus on the increase in drug spending, a related rise in chronic conditions and the flood of expensive new specialty drugs on the market, but few solutions exist to give individuals the power to be active participants in their drug choices. Especially for the 12 per cent of Canadians who either don’t have coverage or can’t afford their medication, cost-effective alternatives have a real impact on a patient’s bank account.

How it works

Step 1: Download the DrugFinder app and create an account.
Step 2: Download the Alexa app and create an account.
Step 3: Enable the DrugFinder skill on an Alexa-enabled device.
Step 4: To your Echo device, say, “Alexa, open DrugFinder.”

Users can ask questions such as:

  • “Are there better options for Drug X?”
  • “What is the generic of Drug X?”
  • “What does Drug X treat?”

DrugFinder is an online tool that searches the Reformulary®, a list of drugs reviewed and handpicked by clinical experts. Users can search by drug name or medical condition, find out how much of the cost is reimbursed, and look up if there is an alternative drug that works just as well. Users can also keep track of their medications in DrugFinder’s virtual Medicine Cabinet and sign up for alerts about alternative drugs and new drugs on the market, as well as other health-related information. The new Touch ID feature makes it easier and secure to log into your Medicine Cabinet.

Here’s a Video on DrugFinder:

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Husqvarna Canada Plants 17,600 Trees Through Partnership With Pro Soccer Teams

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

Thanks to every goal scored by Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecapsand Montreal Impact teams, Canada will have 17,600 more trees! Husqvarna Canada Inc., the official and exclusive lawn partner of each team during the 2017 season, is working with One Tree Planted to see through its commitment from its Goals for Trees program that promised 100 trees to be planted for every goal scored by the three Canadian teams.

Goals for Trees will complete the planting between April and May, with 5,000 trees in B.C., 7,400 in Ontario and 5,200 in Quebec.

This commitment is evident through Husqvarna’s involvement with the United Nations Global Compact and FTSE4Good initiatives. Both of which help push innovation forward within the professional-grade battery-powered tool industry that include chainsaws, leaf blowers and lawn and hedge trimmers that offer traditional performance, but with a power source that provides a cleaner and quieter experience. Globally, Husqvarna Group is the market leader in outdoor power products and is also the market leader in development and sales of robotic mowers.

 

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#Fail: Twitter Seems To Be Down

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

If you’re trying to access Twitter, you might be seeing this at the moment:

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Seeing as this started just before 10 AM EST, I am guessing Twitter just took a header. As a result, I am sure people are heading over to Facebook to vent. More as it comes.

UPDATE: I am able to get SOME access to Twitter on my iOS device. For example, I can check trending topics as well as post a Tweet. But I cannot see new Tweets from others. I can do nothing via a browser.

UPDATE #2: Just after 10:30 AM EST Twitter came back up. I’d love to know what happened. Hopefully Twitter gives the planet a statement on this outage.

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US & UK Says Russia Scanning Millions Of Routers To Pwn Them For Use In Future Attacks

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

In a joint announcement on Monday that is unprecedented as far as I am concerned, the US Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the UK’s National Cyber Security Center, officials warned that Russian spies have been looking for vulnerabilities on millions of routers as a tool for future attacks. The targets include routers in homes and offices, as well as firewalls and switches from internet service providers, critical infrastructure and major private companies.

As part of this announcement, all the parties involved urge device manufacturers to either beef up the security on the network gear that they sell, or stop supporting outdated equipment to force the purchase of newer gear that is more secure. They also urge people to update their routers to the latest security fixes to avoid pwnage by Russians.

This seems like the cold war all over again. This time it’s in cyberspace.

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UK Says ZTE Is A Threat To National Security

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

It seems the UK has jumped onto the same bandwagon that the US has in terms of Chinese companies that sell telco gear. I say that because according to The BBC, The National Cyber Security Centre has said that ZTE is a threat to national security:

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has written to UK telecoms providers warning them that the use of ZTE’s equipment and services could pose a national security risk.

The move coincides with a US government ban preventing American businesses from selling components to the Shenzhen-based company.

ZTE has yet to respond.

This comes after the US decided to order US companies not to sell to ZTE yesterday. As a result of the latter action (but I am sure the UK decision didn’t help), trading of ZTE’s stock has been halted due to the fact that this is pretty much a crisis for the company. Thus I fully expect China to retaliate and do so forcefully as they seem to be rather good at that.

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Microsoft Says That Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Delay Due To Blue Screen Of Death Issues

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

Last week it came to light that Microsoft had pulled the Spring Creators Update to Windows 10 at the last possible minute due to some sort of show stopper bug. But nobody knew what the bug was.

Well, thanks to this post from Dona Sarkar who runs the Windows 10 Insiders program, we do now:

As Build 17133 progressed through the rings, we discovered some reliability issues we wanted to fix. In certain cases, these reliability issues could have led to a higher percentage of (BSOD) on PCs for example. Instead of creating a Cumulative Update package to service these issues, we decided to create a new build with the fixes included.

I’ll give points to Microsoft for not shipping dodgy code. But it does highlight one thing. Windows insiders (which is Microsoft speak for public beta testers) found this issue. It was not found by Microsoft’s QA department. The fact that it slipped through Microsoft’s internal QA and almost made it out to the planet is kind of bad. Maybe they need to step up their game on that front. Otherwise, they’ll have a QA department as bad as the Apple QA department is at the moment. Just a thought.

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Facebook Posts Document With Answers To Questions That Zuckerberg Couldn’t Come Up With In Front Of Congress… And You’ll #DeleteFacebook Because Of It

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 17, 2018 by itnerd

Last week a common refrain from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg while testifying in front of congress was “I’ll get back to you” or “I don’t know.” That led to this document being posted by Facebook with the things that Zuckerberg could not answer during his testimony. Now I will let you go through it for yourself to see the sort of stuff they’re up to. But the one that will get your attention is this one:

When you visit a site or app that uses our services, we receive information even if you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook account. This is because other apps and sites don’t know who is using Facebook.

That’s right, Facebook tracks non-users. That’s a wee bit creepy. It goes on to explain how it does that (sort of), and that others do that as well (True. But depending on the site it could be less or just as invasive). Keep in mind that Facebook has denied this in the past, then copped to it when they were forced to stop tracking Belgians earlier this year.

While I give points to Facebook for putting this document out publicly (as they could have just sent it to congress and left the rest of us out of the loop), it really doesn’t make me feel better about Facebook. It’s clear that they were off doing things that at best were questionable for some time, and that reinforces that people shouldn’t be using Facebook. Though, it’s also clear that even if you’re like me and you didn’t have a Facebook account, you were being tracked anyway.

Hopefully congress is paying attention.

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