Segmentation in virtual environments was the topic of a call I was on this morning. It reminded me that virtualization gets a hard time for something that exists in many other areas of “emerging” technology. Take wireless, for example, which now includes co-tenancy multi-mode configurations on devices like the RFS 7000 Wireless RF Switch from Motorola. Although not mentioned in their list of security options, it can support up to 256 WLANs using multi-ESS/BSSID traffic segmentation:
Exceptional level of data and network protection without sacrificing fast roaming, including: WPA2-CCMP (with 802.11i fast roaming options); Stateful Firewall at Layer 2 and Layer 3 for the wired and wireless network with role based configurations; Geofencing, integrated RADIUS Server; IPSec VPN Gateway; Secure Guest Access Provisioning; 802.11w for management frame protection, and 24×7 dedicated security via Motorola’s Wireless IPS, providing the advanced technology required to detect any rogue network, including 802.11n
It seems to me that wireless (and network in general) segmentation is pressing ahead; it will be deployed with little resistance from the standards council other than what has already been said. Cisco will not be asked for guidance. Meanwhile, security professionals and managers are hotly debating whether mixed-mode virtualization should be allowed and some are even asking virtualization vendors to provide guidance.
Britain has a long history of deforestation and almost ran out of timber during World War I. A commission was established to make the country more self-reliant after the war, but this still led to a decline in native woods. The Scottish Highlands are a good example as more than 90% of the trees are gone. Many lands were never replanted and today still lay barren. Now they may be reforested by war planes.
Forests are to be created by dropping millions of trees out of aircraft. Equipment installed in the huge C-130 transport aircraft used by the military for laying carpets of landmines across combat zones has been adapted to deposit the trees in remote areas including parts of Scotland.
Flying 1,000 feet above the ground at 130 knots allows 3,000 cones to be planted in one minute. Interesting to read a real-world version of swords-to-plowshares.
Update 2019:
1) The fashion brand Timberland has announced “we’ve made a bold commitment to plant 50 million trees around the world over the next 5 years”.
These drones scout a burned area, mapping it down to as high as centimeter accuracy, including objects and plant species, fumigate it efficiently and autonomously, identify where trees would grow best, then deploy painstakingly designed seed-nutrient packages to those locations. It’s cheaper than people, less wasteful and dangerous than helicopters and smart enough to scale to national forests currently at risk of permanent damage.
Internet Eyes says it offers up to £1,000 to online subscribers who can spot crimes as they happen and click an alert button to notify the business owner.
I can see why people are upset about the privacy implications but I also wonder about crime. Could someone planning a crime hire out the camera for the time when they will attack?
The grant, for “trustworthy interaction in the cloud”, was awarded to BU, Brown and UC Irvine
The project supported by the NSF grant will address these [privacy] concerns by examining the feasibility of extending cloud service-level agreements to cover aspects such as integrity of outsourced services, information leakage control, and fair market pricing. The project also will explore mechanisms that verify trust-enhancing service-level agreements are being followed and develop “trustworthiness” guarantees and tradeoffs to cloud customers and system integrators that are both practical and useable.
It looks like an interesting project but I have to scratch my head and wonder about hyperbole in security when the “lead principal investigator” claims “significant benefit to our economy and society”. How will that be measured?