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2010-03-08

Corsair makes direct contact Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Heat sinks, flash and SSDs

Corsair LogoCORSAIR HAS SOME new toys at CeBIT along the usual lines of flash, memory and power supplies. Nothing was revolutionary, but all were updated in some useful ways.

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2010-03-05

Apple calls in the German police for CeBIT raids Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 How to kill a trade show

Cebit logoWHAT DO YOU get when you cross Apple, Siemens and Sisvel with the German police at CeBIT? Raids of course, with lots of police, lawyers, and people stripping booths clean of everything electronic.

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2010-03-03

USB3 flash drives are finally affordable Semi-Related
CeBIT 2010 Supertalent breaks the $70 barrier for speed

Super Talent logo iconSUPERTALENT IS SHOWING a line of storage and memory products that range from consumer toys to serious enterprise level kit. The best one is the last missing piece of the storage puzzle, an affordable USB3 memory stick.

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2010-02-05

Web Security Scanners in Detail Semi-Related
Part 2: Closer looks at the data

security graphIN PART 2, we look at the overall findings of the scanner, and a close look at each one. Also included is a look back at the 2007 results in light of the new data.

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2010-02-04

Intel announces Core vPro processors Semi-Related
Adds even more confusion

HERE WE GO again, Intel has come up with yet another nifty marketing name, Core vPro. These are not only Intel’s 'new' processors for businesses of all sizes that add a host of features, but they're also said to gain cost savings.

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vPro

Intel branding

Intel on notebooks

Consumer friendly

i5 impressions

 
     
Symbian OS Goes Open Source Semi-Related
Proves Steve Jobs didn't invent smartphones

The Symbian platform, which has been developed over more than 10 years and has shipped in more than 330 million devices around the world, is now completely open and the source code is available for free. According to the Symbian Foundation, an industry group; the transition from proprietary code to open source has been the largest such project in software history.

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History

More

Android vs. Symbian

 

 
     
Web Security Scanners Evaluated Semi-Related
Part 1: Clear differences surface

Scanner graphTHIS PAPER FOCUSES on the accuracy and time needed to run, review and supplement the results of the web application scanners (Accunetix, Appscan by IBM, BurpSuitePro, Hailstorm by Cenzic, WebInspect by HP, NTOSpider by NT OBJECTives) as well as the Qualys managed scanning service.

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2010-01-19

Lockheed launches IronClad Semi-Related
No it's not a boat it's to do with computers, silly

LOCKHEED MARTIN MIGHT not be a company that most of us associate with computers, but as the company is heavily involved with the US military, it has come up with a secure computing solution called the IronClad in co-operation with IronKey. At first glance it might just look like any other USB key, although in a fancy brushed aluminium casing, but one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

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Airplanes?

IronKey

7x secure

Peekaboo

 
     

2009-11-13

HP buys 3Com, validates Cisco Semi-Related
Not late to the game, honest

HP iconHP ANNOUNCED that it will buy 3Com for $2.7 billion the other day, and with one swipe of pen on checkbook validated Cisco's strategy. HP also showed that it won't be able to compete in the converged network arena for years to come.

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1) Black Blade

2) No Handcuffs?

3) Good Commodities

4) Bad Commodities

5) Quite Unique

 
     

2009-11-03

SuperTalent RAIDs USB3 memory sticks Semi-Related
320MBps from a thumb drive

Supertalent IconSUPERTALENT IS THE FIRST out of the gate with a USB 3.0 RAID memory stick it calls RAIDDrive. This thing is said to hit 320MBps when it's plugged into a USB 3.0 port.

Updated

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1) Fragile Army

2) Green Sticks

3) mmmmmmSATA

4) High IQ

5) Spicy Meatloaf

 
     

2009-10-29

A look at the 100-core Tilera Gx Semi-Related
It's all about the network(s)

Tilera logoTILERA IS CLAIMING to have the first commercial CPU to reach 100 cores, and while this is true, the real interesting technology is in the interconnects. The overall chip is quite a marvel, and it is unlike any mainstream CPU you have ever heard of.

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1) Made Here

2) Competition Here

3) Older Here

4) Work Here

 
     

2009-09-30

LSI virtualizes storage in hardware Semi-Related
IDF 2009: SR-IOV demo delivers performance

LSI logoLSI AND REDHAT were showing off the next step in hardware virtualization, IOV or I/O Virtualization, during IDF. The idea is simple, make SAS or SATA cards aware of virtual spaces, speeding up I/O for VMs many times.

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1) Next Step

2) Could Use

3) Knotty Problem

4) Flashy Cache

5) Quiz Time

 
     

2009-09-25

Intel talks TV, problems remain Semi-Related
IDF 2009: Lots of 3D tech as well

Intel logINTEL'S LAST KEYNOTE of IDF focused on TVs and how PCs could integrate with them. All it managed to do is convince me that the future is darker than I had feared, the wrong forces are in control, and Intel doesn't understand this market.

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2009-09-22

Larrabee breaks cover at last Semi-Related
IDF 2009: Gulftown, Jasper, SSDs and 30W quads

Intel logoSEAN MALONEY GOT all the good toys to show off at IDF this year, with Larrabee, Jasper, Gulftown and much more. There is a lot of good silicon in the pipeline.

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Intel shows Sandy Bridge and 22nm Semi-Related
IDF 2009: Otellini's keynote

Intel logoINTEL KICKED OFF IDF in the traditional way, a keynote by Paul Otellini. The topics were the usual, where they are going, new chips coming up, and all the ways Intel is making things better.

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2009-08-20

AT&T can't see the Apple products it sells Semi-Related
No MobileMe, but they get IE

Apple Logo IconHOW DO YOU SAY irony in corporate-speak? How about AT&T selling a service that it can't show, demonstrate or debug properly in its stores because its IT department only lets its staff use Internet Explorer.

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1) Me Work

2) Bad Alternative

3) Worse Alternative

4) True Standards

5) Grow mold

 
     

2009-08-02

Moron tries scamming with a fake ATM at Defcon Semi-Related
Epic fail of the day

Defcon logo iconSOME MORON TRIED to plant a fake cash machine at Defcon 17. In case it isn't obvious, trying to pull off a computer scam at a computer security event is not the brightest thing you can do.

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1) Good guys

2) A tip

3) Look out

4) The perpetrators

5) Well organized

 
     
Dan Kaminsky Feels a disturbance in The Internet Semi-Related
Researchers Present PKI Vulnerabilities

Pabst can iconDEFCON'S TWO-BEER version of Dan Kaminski's PKI flaws presentation was a repeat presentation of his Black Hat talk.  Kaminsky, a flamboyant security research with IOActive, described findings from a team of researchers looking at digital certificates. Digital certificates are the identity protection mechanism inside the TLS (a/k/a SSL) protocol we all use to protect credit card data and other sensitive traffic on the Internet.

 

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1) MD5 Flaws

2) Zusman & Sotirov

3) Dobbertin

4) Digital Certificates


 
     

2009-08-01

Defcon 17: Still going strong Semi-Related
Some signs of grey hair in the mohawks

Defcon 17DEFCON, THE 'HACKER CON', part of the security conference activities in Las Vegas this week, seems to not have suffered too badly from the economy. Thousands of people - computer professionals, government security folks, frat boys looking to learn to pick locks, and various other flavors of geeks have shown up at the Riviera for Defcon 17.

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1) Defcon

2) ISC

3) US CERT

 
     
Block RFID readers with your wallet Semi-Related
Faraday caged protection

Defcon logo iconA COMPANY CALLED DIFRWear is producing something that privacy advocates have been wanting for a long time, RFID blocking wallets. Technically they are called Faraday caged apparel, but you get the idea.

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1) RFID basics

2) SIGH, Government

3) Pretty dangerous

4) These tagged?

 
     
Process Control Network Security: New Problems Semi-Related
Is obscurity really enough?

THIS WEEK AT BLACK HAT, and starting today at Defcon, the buzz around process control and power grid hacking has been quite noticeable. Mike Davis and Tony Flick each presented talks on power grid security issues, whilst Travis Goodspeed discussed the latest vulnerabilities in the wireless radio networking hardware. Informal hardware hacking tutorials have abounded, so I decided to take a closer look.

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1) NIST Industrial Control Security Testbed

2) Smart Grid

 
     

2009-07-31

Apple keyboard firmware hack demonstrated Semi-Related
Apple needs to patch it ASAP

Defcon iconAPPLE KEYBOARDS ARE vulnerable to a hack that puts keyloggers and malware directly into the keyboard. This could be a serious problem, and now that the presentation and code is out there, the bad guys will surely be exploiting it.

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1) Rotten Apple

2) Black Hat

3) Different types

 
     
Defcon 1 memorabelia shown off Semi-Related
Dead Addict cleans the closet

Defcon logoIN A BLAST from the past, a hacker named Dead Addict dragged out a bunch of his memorabilia from Defcon 1. It pulled into focus exactly how far the show has come in the 16 years since that first gathering.

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1) SCI saves

2) Primitive art

3) More modern

4) Really modern

 
     

2009-07-26

It's time for Black Hat once again Semi-Related
Corporate security in the high desert

Black Hat logoTHIS WEEK WE celebrated the 40th anniversary of putting people on the moon. Next week we'll hear how San Francisco's parking meters are hackable, have we really moved forward technologically?

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1) Wrong hat

2) Security card

3) The other

4) Old sk00l

 
     

2009-07-14

Seagate gets bigger and SASsy-2 Semi-Related
Cheetah 15K.7s arrive in 9 flavors

Seagate logo iconSEAGATE IS NOT ready to throw in the towel on high performance magnetic drives yet, and to show they are serious, Seagate just launched a line of 600GB SAS-6 drives. Take that SSDs, your puny SATA interface is no match for SAS-6 or Fiber Channel.

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1) Control this

2) Competition MKII

3) Bigger yet

4) More cores

5) Won't fit

 
     

2009-07-13

IBM Fights Identity Theft With Biometric Passport. Semi-Related
Try to change your eye color or height!

BEING A VICTIM of identity theft is no fun, but it is still possible to change your account numbers, it is a whole lot more difficult to change your eye color or height! Because of this, protecting biometric data is a particularly serious issue. Biometrics (physical measurements, voice or image and more) are used by many entities to improve authentication of the identity of passport and other ID holders.

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1) IBM TIVOLI

2) IBM SECURITY

 
     

2009-07-09

Intel and AMD threatended by Chrome OS Semi-Related
Part 2: Collateral damage when Microsoft falls

Google logo iconGOOGLE IS FINALLY launching an operating system called Chrome OS. The big loser in all of this is Microsoft, but there are two others that will also take a huge hit, Intel and AMD.

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1) Moblin 2.0

2) Atomic power

3) Llano party

4) Good software

 
     

2009-07-08

Microsoft hands the victory to Chrome OS Semi-Related
Part 1: Because of Windows, Google doesn't have to try

Google Chrome iconHANDS UP ANYONE who didn't see the Google Chrome OS coming, no points if you are an MS CxO? MS has only itself to blame for the nuclear missile that may very well have ended the company, they simply produced crap for way too long.

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1) Inflection point

2) Damn weasels

3) Cheaper, better

4) Netcraft says

5) Progress!

 
     

2009-07-02

Hoopla over Chinese "Green Dam"... Semi-Related
an exercise in rhetoric and the bottom line

IN ORDER TO GAIN access to the Chinese market, US companies have co-operated in one way or another with government requests to restrict freedom of access to the Internet. Why are those companies pushing back now because of China's new Green Dam web filter?

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1) Nannying software

 
     

2009-06-30

A look at the TJ Maxx Data Security Fiasco Semi-Related
The banks win.

TJ Maxx iconThe TJX retail chain has agreed to pay $9.75 million to the states after a huge data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of cardholders to identity thieves. They have also agreed to implement and maintain a “comprehensive information security program”, supposedly designed to safeguard consumer data at TJX. Since they already attested that they were complying with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards, why should consumers believe them now?

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Firefox 3.5 is now out Semi-Related
Better, faster, stronger than before

Browser statistics iconFIREFOX 3.5 IS OUT. Not much more to say, the browser that more than half of you use to read this with is now much better.

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2009-06-24

Intel Research shows off next-generation crypto technology Semi-Related
TLS variant in silicon

Intel logoINTEL HELD RESEARCH@INTEL DAY at the Computer Museum in MountainView, California last week. They presented a TLS replacement technology that could make it easier to deploy very large numbers of secure connections across the internet.

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IBM releases new Tivoli identity manager Semi-Related
A step backwards?

IDENTITY MANAGEMENT and role-based access management have traditionally required several separate software tools, but now, IBM is blurring that line. They've just announced the release of the latest version of Tivoli Identity Manager, which includes an integrated role management system and embedded provisioning system. The question is: Is this really an improvement?

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