DATA SERVICES
EDS Is There To Serve EDS, a data services provider, is increasing their services at a most opportune time. Just when companies are cinching their belts due to a recession, EDS is making their EDS Managed Web Hosting Services available. EDS Managed Web Hosting Services uses Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. This Datacenter Server offers 99.999 percent service availability to deliver scalability on Intel–architecture–based solutions with Compaq as their hardware integration partner. EDS aims to assist in building scalable solutions for customers at a critical time when budgets are being tightened with the use of EDS’ infrastructure outsourcing.
PRODUCT WATCH
Thin & Powerful Is Good Sun and Fujitsu are ramping up their server production. Expected next month is Sun’s Flapjack 2 server that offers a 1.75–inch thick design and two 700MHz processors. Fujitsu Technology’s currently available new rack–mountable server, the PrimePower 1, is of the same thickness as the Sun product and packs a single UltraSparc II processor pumping at 500MHz.
PRODUCT WATCH
VA Linux Family Adds Three
There are three new servers from VA Linux Systems. All use VACM, which is the company’s opoen source advanced remote management technology. Part of the VA Linux 200 family, offered are the VA Linux 2231, the VA Linux 2241 and the VA Linux 2251, featuring dual–processor 2U Linux servers, 133MHz font–side bus, plus two 64–bit (66MHz) PCI expansion slots. Ultra 160 RAID and as much as 4GB of RM, as well as dual GHz Intel P3 processors, are supported. For those running telco operations, these servers can be ordered with a DC power supply. More info.
SECURITY
Skill Required To Hurt Networks
A lot of skill is required for hackers to take advantage of a new program that can crack through corporate nets. Designed by a hacker who calls himself "K2", this new threat actually disguises the apps hackers use to bust through network security protocols. This info was unveiled during the CanSecWest conference last week in Vancouver, B.C. Most systems that detect intrusions use a pattern–recognition system. This code actually foils such a system through what is called polymorphic coding that alters the code structure of the invading program. Some security pros believe this technique will be difficult to quickly spread, due to the complexity of ensuring all of the pieces work correctly. Others indicated that such a program is but a temporary setback — hacker and security pros are now even, again.
SECURITY
Lumeta To Make CFO/I’s Happy Campers Lumeta has launched with their portfolio of security services and various enterprise network management offerings. This is the spinoff from Lucent Technologies that was initiated last year and their goal is to provide tech execs and network administrators with all of the technology they need to control their networks. Additional, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Goth Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund have plonked down nearly $5 million in first–round financing to the new company. The company website.
SECURITY
Bug Buster Needed — Again
Appears as though users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer v.5.0 have just one more worry to concern themselves with when using this browser. According to Georgi Guninski, bug detective extraordinary, his security advisory #40, 2001 reports there’s a bug in the browser that could find your emails and even some of your computer files grist for hacker eyeballs. The alleged problem arises when you access a "malicious" web page at the same time your network is also running Microsoft’s Exchange 2000 server. For fellow bug watchers, Guninski’s website is a great repository of security concerns and you can read about his latest alert via this link.
SECURITY
Email Attachments Attack Warning
Once again, another flaw has been uncovered within Internet Explorer v.5.01 and 5.5. This time, email that’s HTML encoded using the MIME standard can be opened and then used by less–than–ethical folk to execute destructive code. The security problem finds the browser automatically launching an email attachment which opens your computer up to attack. There is a patch now available at this Microsoft URL, and IE Service Pack 2 already contains the fix. Users can also head over to IE’s "Security Zone" and disable the setting. Leaving the default setting intact could find hackers running their own programs on your machine. However, Microsoft indicated in their alert bulletin that a hacker would need to persuade the target user to either browse to a web site the hacker controlled or open an HTML email that had been sent to them by the hacker.
TECHNOLOGY
Cisco Serves Up Initiative and Product Cisco Systems has rolled–out their new Cisco Storage Networking initiative as well as their SN 5420 Storage Router. With ports for Fibre Channel systems and Gigabit Ethernet, the company’s new foray is actually a combo of various companies and technologies that incorporate into their networks an enterprise’s storage system. The Cisco router, which will debut this month, is based on the iSCSI open protocol and they are basing their initiative on the AVVID program. This enables data storage plans using the aforementioned network infrastructures for NAS and SANs deployment.
