Sean Michael Kerner

From the ‘Time Flies‘ files: It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I sat down with Asterisk creator Mark Spencer in Toronto, to talk about the Asterisk 1.0 release. Asterisk is one of the most popular open source VoIP PBX applications out there and it is now celebrating its 10th anniversary. So let’s do […]

From the “People’s Republic‘ files: TORONTO. Who was behind the massive GhostNet botnet that comprised nearly 1,300 government computers around the world? The short answer is : we still don’t know. That’s the word from researcher Nart Villeneuve who gave a talk about his GhostNet experiences at the SecTor security conference. I wrote about GhostNet […]

TORONTO — As next-generation gaming consoles go online, some of the same problems that have faced consumer and enterprise IT networks are surfacing. At a session during the SecTor security conference, Chris Boyd, director of research at Facetime security labs, detailed the myriad methods by which gamers — and in particular, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox […]

From the “My Eyeballs Are My Passwords‘ files: TORONTO. Security researcher Adam Laurie, aka Major Malfunction is well known in the hacker community as an RFID hardware hacker.  At the SecTor conference today, the Major gave a gory keynote talk telling the Canadian audience all that’s wrong with biometrics and RFID. I’ve seen Laurie speak […]

From the ‘They Told Us So‘ files: Back in February, Microsoft and Red Hat announced a somewhat unlikely deal to validate each others virtualization interoperability. Now eight months later,the two ‘partners’ have announced that the testing and validation is now complete. That means that Microsoft Hyper-V is now validated by Microsoft and Red Hat to […]

TORONTO — The global movement toward a more secure DNS infrastructure has gained another convert. The dot ca (.ca) country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) now has an open public DNSSEC testbed to help secure the more than 1.2 million domains it manages. The move was formally announced at the SecTor security conference underway in […]

From the ‘No Surprise’ files: Networking vendor Juniper Networks is currently listed on the NASDAQ as JNPR. That’s soon about to change as Juniper to set to be on the NYSE by October 29th. Surprisingly though Juniper will still be traded under the JNPR symbol. I’m not surprised that Juniper is moving to the NYSE.  […]

Why is Linux vendor Red Hat successful during the current recession? It was a question put to company executives during Red Hat’s (NYSE: RHT) Analyst Day event Webcast live from New York today. The executives explained that open source leadership is key to Red Hat’s success, but that the firm is also branching out into […]

From the ‘Wall of Sheep‘ files: TORONTO. One of the standard tables at the DefCon security conference is the Wall of Sheep, where unsecured user log-ins and passwords are displayed for all to see. I never thought I’d see the same thing in Toronto, but I just did. I’m at the SecTor security conference and […]

Beleaguered networking vendor Nortel is nearing the final stages of its break-up, with its last major operating division now up for sale and at least one interested bidder. Maryland based networking vendor Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) has put in a bid for Nortel’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets. Both Nortel and Ciena are active in […]

From the ‘No Worries It’s Apache‘ files: The Apache Software Foundation is out this week with a new update to its popular open source Apache HTTP server. Apache HTTP Server 2.2.14  fixes three security vulnerabilities which could potentially have left users at risk, albeit a small risk. One of the fixes is for a NULL […]

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal today, networking vendor Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) is putting itself up for sale. Word of the potential deal was met with little surprise from analysts contacted by InternetNews.com, who see continued networking industry consolidation in the months ahead. A potential sale of Brocade to IBM (NYSE: IBM), […]