Sean Michael Kerner

P>High-performance carrier networks are about more than just moving high volumes of data; they’re also about control of the services and protocols the data relies upon. Yet, for the most part, data and control have been combined in routing platforms often resulting in a performance trade-off. Juniper Networks is taking a different tact with its […]

February isn’t yet done and depending on where you are there is still a definite winter chill in the air.  The fact that it’s still winter isn’t stopping Google though from helping us to think of warmer days ahead. Today Google officially launched the kick off for their Google Summer of Code 2008 initiative. I’ve […]

Though virtualization deals with “virtual” bits, the business of virtualization is certainly real for Novell. Today Novell announced it will acquire PlateSpin, a maker of data center virtualization management products, for $205 million in cash. Novell expects the deal to close by the end of its second fiscal quarter, which is April 30. The deal […]

So Microsoft now has a ‘new’ open strategy to open its applications up wider for interoperability. Is it a good thing for Open Source developers and users? In my humble opinion it all depends on how you look at the massive pie that is the Microsoft product ecosystem. It’s great news for Microsoft and Microsoft […]

Alright I promise this will be my last post about the Black Hat DC 2008 event (honest!).  Sure it was a smaller event than the big Vegas event but I found no shortage of really interesting topics and speakers at the DC event (many of which I wrote/blogged on). As every good geek should when […]

Application back doors aren’t just the stuff of Hollywood films, they’re real and they could be a threat if undetected. In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Washington DC, security researcher Chris Wysopal from Veracode discussed in gory detail where back doors have been in applications in the past and where they […]

Washington, DC.  While there may well be some very smart people that are profiting from phishing, a pair of security researchers at Black Hat have argued that most aren’t all that bright. In a presentation titled, “Bad Sushi Beating Phishers at Their Own Game” researchers Nitesh Dhanjani and Billy Rios demonstrated (sometimes with hilarious detail) […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. Sun’s Dtrace application was developed primarily as a tool to help monitor functions on Solaris. According to a pair of security researchers at the Black Hat conference, you can also use Dtrace as the basis for a rootkit-like tool for offensive and defensive security operations. At the conference, Security researcher Tiller Beauchamp noted […]

WASHINGTON, DC.  There are alot of different ways to trick browsers into letting hackers do things that they should not be allowed to do. Some of them have to do with URIs.  In a presentation at Black Hat, security researchers Nathan McFeters and Rob Carter argued that URI exploitation is an area that is still […]

Standards are important for Linux, especially when they define the base operating components both Linux distributions and software vendors can develop against. The goal of the Linux Standards Base (LSB) has long been to be the base that helps to prevent Linux fragmentation and promote inter-Linux vendor interoperability. The LSB defines a core set of […]

WASHINGTON — At the heart of the U.S. Government’s ability to raise funds is the Internal Revenue Service. It stands to reason that hackers find it a useful target. During a keynote address before a capacity crowd at the Black Hat security conference here, Treasury Department Special Agent Andy Fried discussed in general terms how […]

WASHINGTON, DC.  While Barack Obama may be leading Hillary Clinton in some measures, he’s actually fallen behind Clinton in at least one interesting computer security related metric. According to Oliver Friedrichs Director of emerging technologies at Symantec, typo squatting on Hillary Clinton related domain names has outpaced typo squatting on Barack Obama domain names over […]