look around

This week, we'll take a look at part 4 of our series on application high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) for SQL Server: replication.

Part 1: Application High Availability and Disaster Recovery for SQL Server
Part 2: Poor Man's Disaster Recovery: Use Log Shipping for SQL Server (at Your Own Risk)
Part 3: Database, Database on My Server, Do I Mirror Thee, Sync, or Async?!

SQL replication is a publication-subscription model. The publishers (source servers) define the data or database objects (i.e., articles/publications) to publish and the subscribers (target servers) decide any or all data (i.e., subscriptions) to receive.

SQL Server supports three types of replications:

Snapshot – generated and applied immediately after a subscription is created, or according to a schedule set at the time the publication is created.Transactional – committed transactions made at the publisher can be distributed and applied immediately at the subscriber or at scheduled intervals. Near real-time data availability can be achieved.Merge – bi-directional replication where incremental updates at both subscriber and publisher are synchronized and merged.

To configure replications, you can use the following references:

Selecting the Appropriate Type of ReplicationDesigning and Implementing: Walkthroughs (Replication)

There are many advantages and disadvantages with using replication compared to other HA/DR solutions. Let's take a closer look at some considerations:

Depending on your appetite. You decide what database objects to publish and subscribe. The dataset (i.e., article) can be as small as a single row in a table or as big as all the tables, views, stored procedures, user functions, etc. in the database.Whenever you want. You decide when the data should be published and applied to the target servers. For near real-time replicated data, you can use transactional replication to push out the changes to target servers. If it's one way replicated data, you can periodically do a snapshot of the data and push it to the target servers.Push or pull. Unlike other HA/DR solutions, replication can be configured to either push or pull changes from the publisher to subscribers. A pull topology is best when bandwidth is limited and you have a fixed maintenance window. You only pull changes on a per-need basis.Big fan (subscriber) base. You can have as many as subscribers as you'd like. As long as your network bandwidth is capable of handling reasonable data transfer rates between the servers, you can have yourself all the fans in the enterprise.No automatic failover. There is no coordination for an automatic failover or failback. Each server in the replication model is an independent server with its own set of users. If you use merge replication or transactional replication with updating subscriptions then the replicated data can be made consistent across all servers. It is still a manual process to switch the connection between servers.Data loss or corruption. Depending on when the changes are replicated or synchronized on the servers, data loss can occur. Also, there is no protection for the replicated data. Every change made at the publisher is logged in the form of a DDL or DML command in the distribution database, to be delivered to the subscribers. If proper rules and filters are not in place, you could certainly corrupt your data on the subscribers (i.e., invalid updates, inserts, or deletes).Real-time, really. Replication is never really real-time. The Log Reader Agent monitors the transaction log for the articles defined for your publication, and when it finds changes it translates them into appropriate insert, update, delete commands and logs them in the distribution database. These commands are then applied at the subscribers to make the data consistent. There is a cost in this lookup, command translation, and delivery; thus, replication is never real-time.Bloated distributor. Old commands logged in the distribution database can bloat the distributor. You should consider setting rules to clean up these old commands. It is really a challenge to keep the distributor lean and mean.Publishers and subscribers can be any HW/SW class. The servers are completely independent of each other and do not need to be hosting the same applications, even if they share the same replicated data. The publisher and subscriber can even be running different database software. For example, a SQL Server publisher and Oracle subscriber (or vice versa).Servers can be anywhere. Your mileage varies depending on the amount of data to be replicated. As with any OLTP system, WAN or latency always has major impact on performance. You may consider creating and publishing many small publications instead of some large ones.

Replication is probably one of the most flexible HA/DR solutions in term of defining and synchronizing data between servers. You can basically decide what to publish and what to subscribe to. Any objects within a database system (SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, etc.) is fair game for replication. But without the built-in page fault recovery, conflict resolution rules and policies, and automatic failover, you have to take extra special care to ensure data validity and consistency across your systems. Also, if you need protection at the instance or server level, replication is not the answer and you will have to check out other HA/DR solutions.

I hope you find the replication information above useful and will join me again in the next installment of the Application High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) for SQL Server series, where I will discuss another HA/DR solution.

Do you have a specific question about HA/DR solutions? If so, please let me know and I'll try to provide insight and solutions. Cheers!

View the original article here

If you value your privacy when messaging or chatting with friends, Jappix.org is one of many solutions for you. It is a social platform that connects its users together through XMPP(Jabber) protocol. You can use a Jappix with other XMPP software like Pidgin.

Jappix is open source meaning that users can download the code and modify it. It allows users to host their data on their computer or any other trusted server. You can access to your data with any XMPP client with your Jappix ID. Your data can be downloaded in standard format that can be used on the go.

Jappix features a desktop, a mobile, and a mini version. With Jappix Desktop, all you have to do is download the software and login using your ID.

With Jappix Mobile, all you have to do is connect to your Jappix node via your mobile web browser.

Jappix Mini allows you to put an html code on your webpage so that people may contact you when you are unavailable.

Jappix is managed by two French developers, Valerian Saliou and Julien Barrier.

I contacted Valérian Saliou, the man that had the idea to create Jappix, and I asked him a few questions about Jappix. Here is what he had to say:

> How did the jappix.org name come to be?

Jappix.org is just the non-profit website for the Jappix project (we also have jappix.com, jappix.net and jappix.pro). So I’ll answer about the Jappix name (not “jappix.org”). Jappix comes from Jabber, which is the legacy name for XMPP (Jabber has been renamed to XMPP a few years ago) - on the top of which we added the “pix” suffix, thus meaning the importance of design and client look to us.

> What can current (and future) jappix.org users expect from the app in the future?

Current users expect the freedom of having an access to their XMPP account wherever they are, without the need to setup a native XMPP desktop client. Jappix, being web-based, is accessible on any compatible Web browser and provide them the most advanced chat features possible (as Gajim does in the native clients world), groupchat, privacy controls, message archiving, file sharing and basic social networking.

In the future, users can expect Jappix to support both OTR (Off-The-Record, to encrypt their chats end-to-end, making the 2 servers unaware of what’s being exchanged) and Jingle (audio/video chat, 1-to-1, using peer-to-peer encrypted media streams).

> What made you develop jappix.org?

Simply the lack of a quality and usable XMPP Web-client. There was JSJaC and iJab but those clients were mostly experiments or proof-of-concept. I envisioned Jappix to be fully usable by “real people”.

> How do you feel about peoples online privacy?

People maybe don’t feel concerned enough, but since PRISM lately, some of them are getting interested in protecting their online privacy (and I noticed that feeling/behavior looking at our increasing number of active Jappix.com XMPP service users).

Here is the main site where you can get started with Jappix.

jappix jabber privacy mobile android social media social media private media p2p

View the original article here

An Austrian court has given Facebook four weeks to respond to a class action that claims Facebook Ireland is in breach of European law on the use of personal data.

The class action, led by Austrian privacy activist and law student Max Schrems, claims Facebook violates user rights by tracking internet use on external sites, including the use of “like” buttons.

The class action, which has attracted the support of more than 60,0000 users of the social network, also attacks Facebook’s analysis of users through what it calls “big data” systems.

Schrems believes Facebook supports the US Prism surveillance programme revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Vienna Regional Court issued the deadline to Facebook after reviewing the class action, according to an update on the Europe vs Facebook campaign website.

“The first step in the legal procedure is hereby taken,” the update said.

According to the campaign led by Schrems, Facebook Ireland could apply for an extension, but if it fails to submit a counterstatement, the court will be able to make a judgment based on the lawsuit.

More than 25,000 Facebook users from outside the US and Canada have signed up as part of the class action, and a further 35,000 have registered their support on the campaign website.

A week after launching the class action, Schrems announced he would limit the number official claimants to 25,000 because every claim had to be verified.

In June, another case brought by Schrems to force data protection authorities to investigate allegations that Facebook passes personal data to the US National Security Agency was  referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg by the high court in Dublin.

On launching the class action in Austria, Schrems said: “Our aim is to make Facebook finally operate lawfully in the area of data protection.”

The class action applies to injunctions under EU data protection law and seeks damages of a token amount of €500 per user.

“We are only claiming a small amount as our primary objective is to ensure correct data protection,” said Schrems.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

Virtualisation and cloud provider VMware has rebranded its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering vCloud Hybrid Service (vCHS) – popularly referred to as “vCheese” – to VMware vCloud Air.

The platform, built on VMware hypervisor vSphere, will remain the same IaaS hybrid cloud it has always been, but the name change illustrates VMware’s commitment to delivering value-added as-a-service systems, according to Geoffrey Waters, vice-president for channel partners at VMware.

The rebrand comes ahead of VMware’s annual virtualisation and cloud conference, VMworld 2014.

Launched in 2013, VMware vCHS is an IaaS offering featuring three cloud services – dedicated cloud, virtual-private cloud and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). It allows customers to extend applications, networking, management, operations and tools, over on and off-premise environments.

The hybrid service is aimed at enterprises' large cloud projects with resource-intensive workloads and provides 120GB of vRAM, 30GHz of vCPU and 6TB of storage. It also allocates a 50Mbps network by default and can burst up to 1Gbps during peak demand.

“We continue to see tremendous momentum for vCloud Air, as more and more businesses look to capitalise on the undeniable operational and economic benefits of hybrid cloud,” said Bill Fathers, executive vice-president and general manager of the hybrid cloud services business unit at VMware.

A study earlier in 2014, on VMware’s UK customers, found 65% of the respondents said hybrid cloud could help meet business demands more quickly. Another 81% said they needed a system that makes their public cloud as easy to manage as their own infrastructure.

However, commenting on the rebrand on Twitter, Gartner analyst Kyle Hilgendorf said: “It’s just a name, but clearly vCHS was messy, will vCloud Air resonate more?”

VMware launched vCHS in Europe in February 2014. Since its launch in the UK, more than 800 individuals at partner organisations have been accredited in Europe, according to the company. In July 2014, VMware opened its second UK datacentre in London’s Chessington to expand vCHS in Europe.

“Hybrid cloud is, in many respects, the most important part of our strategy,” said VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, at the time of its launch in London.

Fathers said vCHS was formulated based on customer feedback that suggested third-party clouds were proprietary, hard to migrate to and disengage from, and eroded customer investments in skills and technology.

In addition to rebranding vCHS, VMware has also launched vCloud Air Network, the extension of its channel partner programme – VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) – with more cloud service options.

“VCloud Air Network represents another key element of our cloud strategy – enabling customer choice and flexibility to find the ideal, local cloud service based on industry-leading VMware technology,” Fathers said.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

South Korea has arrested 16 suspects in connection with a multi-million-dollar fraud enabled by the theft of online gaming credentials from 72% of the country’s adult population.

The cyber criminals are believed to have used the data to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of online game currency and commit fraud worth millions of dollars, according to reports.

Authorities said one 24-year-old suspect, identified only by the surname Kim, is believed to have obtained the online gaming credentials of 27 million South Koreans from a Chinese hacker he met in an online game in 2011.

Kim allegedly used the data to break into six online games in South Korea to steal online game currency.

He is believed to have gained nearly $400,000 worth of online currency and shared just under $130,000 with his Chinese partner.

Kim is also believed to have used the credentials to break into several online services to extract personal information about users, including bank details.

This stolen data was then sold to mortgage fraudsters and illegal gambling advertisers, who in turn caused $2m worth of losses.

The mortgage fraudsters appear to have used Kim’s information to deceive hundreds of South Koreans for over a year from 2012 to 2013.

This is the third major breach of personal data to be reported in South Korea.

In 2011, hackers broke into two of the country’s most popular social networking sites, stealing data from 35 million users of Nate and Cyworld.

And in January 2014, an IT contractor for the Korea Credit Bureau was arrested for copying and selling the personal credit card information of almost 20 million Koreans.

Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at security firm Imperva, said the latest case proves that personal data has monetary value.

“One way or another, it seems that personal information is still relatively easy to monetise and is therefore a valuable target for hackers,” he said.

Independent security analyst Graham Cluley said none of the six Korean gaming platforms had provided any real details of how the personal data was leaked.

“While security professionals love to write about password security and how individuals can protect themselves, the onus is on the company to provide a safe and secure online environment for their gamers,” he wrote in a blog post.

In the US, the value of personal data has driven a series of data breaches at large retailers in recent months.

Data breaches have been reported by Target, Neiman Marcus, Sears and Michaels, affecting millions of US cardholders.

Earlier this month, US hospital group Community Health Systems revealed that hackers had gained access to 4.5 million patient records in a cyber attack from April to June 2014.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

A study from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently reported that app developers are asking for too much personal information. But is it all necessary?

The study, which examined 1,200 mobile apps globally, reported that one in three apps appeared to request an excessive number of permissions to access additional personal information.

The study found that 32% of apps requested location information, 15% asked for access to other accounts, while 10% wanted access to the smartphone's camera.

In a guide published last year for app developers, the ICO stated: "You should only collect and process the minimum data necessary for the tasks that you want your app to perform. 

"Collecting data just in case you may need it in future is bad practice, even when the user has consented to provide that information. 

"It's also in your interest not to hold data you don't need because this automatically reduces the risk that you might accidentally lose or mishandle it."

Jon Holttum, a founding member of the Open Mobile Security Alliance (OMSA) and founder of software company Spaggetti, said the collection of so much personal information was unnecessary.

"If you download a social media app, it may ask for access to your camera and contacts. But there is no need for app developers to collect all this information," he said.

Clearly, companies regard an app as a one-stop-shop to collect as much information as possible when the user downloads and installs it. 

The ICO guidelines go against the trend among apps developers and marketing departments, which gather demographics information, age and location, among other things, to cross-sell additional products to the user and, increasingly, target the user’s contacts.

For Holttum, the issue is that when a user downloads an app, there appears to be a blasé attitude to data collection.

By installing an app, the user accepts the app’s terms and conditions, which the app’s developer then assumes, giving them carte blanche to use all the features on the smartphone that the user has unwittingly given them access to.

"In the mobile apps market it is easier to collect information, especially if this requires user input," said Jose Talavera, solution consultant at testing company Keynote. "But this has meant users share a lot of information that they are not always aware of."

Privacy is one of the areas highlighted in a paper from Aqua, the app quality alliance, which is funded by AT&T, Sony, LG, Samsung, Nokia and Oracle. Aqua's Best Practice Guidelines for producing high-quality mobile applications stated: "Active consent must be obtained separately from approval of service terms or privacy notice/policy."

App developers should enable users to unsubscribe from marketing messages and to request that the developer stops using their personal data for direct marketing or market research purposes, according to Aqua's guidelines.

The alliance urged app developers to seek active consent from users to use their data for purposes that are outside the main scope of the app, such as targeted advertising or analytics.

The guide also recommended that app developers periodically remind users or provide a visual indicator when location data – GPS, IP address, cell tower, Wi-Fi-based location data – or user information is being sent to any other service.

From a user’s perspective, it is far too easy, for instance, to connect accidentally to LinkedIn or Facebook contacts, thereby giving the app access to everyone on their social networks.

Some people would argue that the app has no right to this information. It certainly opens up potential security risks, especially if access is inadvertently given to the contacts and the calendar, which happen to be linked to the corporate Microsoft Exchange server.

"The reason the app wants to access your contacts is never explained," said Holttum. "And when you try to remove the access, you have to go deep into the company’s website and app privacy settings."

Users share a lot of information that they are not always aware of

Jose Talavera, Keynote

Rather than attempting to collect all information up front, Holttum recommended app developers start small by explaining why they want the information. 

At a later date, the app developer could then collect some additional information, such as the user’s mobile number to provide SMS-based track-and-trace for an e-commerce order. 

"You give people the ability to move on, to get more benefits based on what they sign up to," he said.

Holttum suggested it would be more beneficial for the app developer to ask users to drip-feed personal information over a protracted period of time, in exchange for greater functionality. 

"You hope people will use the app, but if you go back to users with an update, and capture a bit more data then you are back in contact with them, this makes the app more sticky, in terms of keeping customers engaged," he said.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

Anglian Water hopes to engage employees by crowdsourcing ideas through the cloud to improve the business.

The largest water and water recycling company in England and Wales is using the cloud-based Wazoku Idea Spotlight software-as-a-service platform to enable the company to encourage its 4,000 employees to share their ideas.

The platform, called Think Space, allows Anglian Water to create internal or external communities to discuss ideas, feedback and insight. The company said it intends to extend the platform to customers and supply chain partners.

Head of innovation at Anglian Water, Steve Kaye, said he believes open innovation is an “untapped source”,

“The Think Space platform provides a platform for colleagues to post challenges and ideas, post feedback and create communities across the company,” he said.

Thirty ideas were submitted through Think Space in the first month, while the company sets employees challenges which address specific issues, through the platform. The first issue was how to achieve zero waste, sent to selected ‘champions’ in the business who were asked to spread the word among colleagues. 

Over the next year, Anglian Water hopes to gain four key outcomes from Think Space, with at least 10% of staff contributing.

 “If we meet those targets then we will take Think Space to our customers too, as I am sure they will also be a rich source of ideas,” said Kaye.

The success of Think Space will be measured by return on investment, levels of engagement, benefits to the reputation of Anglian Water and other non-financial benefits, such as serviceability.

Kaye also said he hopes the platform will help retain employees, while attracting the best talent from across the globe.

“There is a mass of talent in our organisation and, to unlock that potential, we need to develop a true culture of innovation across the business,” said Kaye. “People will know their input and contributions are valued and we can all grow our skills and knowledge from open innovation.” 

Earlier this month, Anglian Water created a process for testing to improve code quality developed across multi-sourced outsourcing contracts.

Software quality has become a significant area of investment for the company, accounting for as much as 30% of IT project budget costs. Yet a software error could lead to customers receiving an incorrect bill.

Anglian Water prefers not to measure itself against other water companies, preferring to compare its technology against companies such as Amazon.

Anglian Water is an advocate for sharing information with third parties, such as councils, engineering contractors, industry partners, suppliers and customers. The company collaborates with regulators.

It takes the view that being open with data creates opportunities to make processes more efficient, and helps to drive down project costs and timeframes.

By tracking social data created by customers, Anglian Water said it can spot water consumption and other trends and solve leakage and drainage problems more quickly.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

KPMG is targeting the 350 biggest businesses by working with Oracle to provide services through the software giant’s cloud offering.

Through what is known as KPMG Powered Finance, the accountancy firm will use Oracle Cloud to deliver its expertise, financial processing, analytics and reporting to customers.

The collaboration will begin by offering core finance processes in the Oracle Cloud.

The service can be used by businesses to transform finance functions, as well as for collating data and sorting it in the cloud. The collaboration will also enable KPMG's clients to benchmark against high-performing businesses in their own sector.

KPMG said businesses need to be able to change their tax and finance systems as they grow, and while traditional software contracts make this difficult, the cloud offers a solution.

“Far too often we hear stories about fast-growing firms being constrained by their financial capability, or because the software they bought into during their embryonic years is no longer able to support their needs,” said Patrick Fenton, head of financial management at KPMG. 

“This demonstrates our commitment to technology-driven change, with the crucial recognition that cloud-based tools and programs give organisations the freedom they need to adapt and grow,” he added.

In its most recent financial results, Oracle’s overall cloud services business – for the latest three-month period – grew by more than 30% to $475m in sales. Total cloud services revenue amounted to 5.5% of total takings, compared with 3% of sales for the previous quarter.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

Wikipedia co-founder and Cameron government advisor Jimmy Wales lashes out against plan to censor UK Internet, including porn and esoteric websites

I wonder how many times it has been said, but censorship does not work

2 notes privacy censorship uk

View the original article here

var __pbpa = true;var translated_warning_string = 'Warning: Never enter your Tumblr password unless \u201chttps://www.tumblr.com/login\u201d\x0ais the address in your web browser.\x0a\x0aYou should also see a green \u201cTumblr, Inc.\u201d identification in the address bar.\x0a\x0aSpammers and other bad guys use fake forms to steal passwords.\x0a\x0aTumblr will never ask you to log in from a user\u2019s blog.\x0a\x0aAre you absolutely sure you want to continue?'; School of Privacy - Your encrypted files are 'exponentially easier' to crack, warn MIT boffins • The Register >/* ########## MAIN PAGE CSS ########## */html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { background: transparent; outline: 0; vertical-align: baseline;-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; }html{ min-width:100%; min-height:100%; } body{ margin:0; padding:0; height:100%; font-family:"Arial"; line-height:24px; font-size:16px; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/wn0cr0d/Nlclzwkcz/background-header.png); background-repeat:repeat-x; background-color: #FbFbFb; }div.wrap{ margin:auto auto; padding:40px 0 0 0; width:1000px; min-height:100%;}a {color:#900000; text-decoration:none; } a:hover{ color:#111; }h1{ color:#333; letter-spacing:-3px;} h1.h1title{ color:#111; font-size:64px; text-shadow:#fff 0px 1px 0, #000 0 -1px 0; letter-spacing:-5px; margin: 24px 0 -17px 0; max-width:670px; display:inline;} h1.h1title:hover{ text-decoration:none; color:#900000;}a.titlelink{ display:inline; text-decoration:none;}h2{ color:#900000; letter-spacing:-1px; } h2 p{ margin:0; padding:0; } /* ########## TITLE, ICONS & SEARCH ########## */iframe#tumblr_controls{ position: absolute; z-index: 1337; top: 0px; right: 89px !important; border: 0px; background-color: transparent; overflow: hidden; }div#instaltheme{ background-image: url('http://static.tumblr.com/wn0cr0d/XGtlzy8ze/install.png'); background-repeat:no-repeat; width: 86px;height: 20px;position: absolute;top: 3px;right: 3px;z-index: 99; opacity:0.6; filter:alpha(opacity=60); /* For IE8 and earlier */} div.titlebox{ float:left; max-width:670px; line-height:50px; margin-bottom:-80px;} div.icons{ float:right; height:67px; margin-top: 15px; clear:left;} div.icons a{ float:right;} div.icons .twitter{ height:67px; width:102px; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/wn0cr0d/8Cjlzhn8a/twitter-sprite.png); } div.icons .twitter:hover{ background-position:0 67px; } div.icons .rss{ height:67px; width:82px; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/wn0cr0d/dl2lzhnq6/rss-sprite.png); margin:0 5px 0 0;} div.icons .rss:hover{ background-position:0 67px; } div.icons .add{ height:66px; width:70px; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/wn0cr0d/KvRlzhnhf/add-sprite.png); margin:1px 20px 0 0;} div.icons .add:hover{ background-position:0 66px; } div#titlehover{ clear:both; width:1000px; height:0px; border-style:solid none solid none; border-width:3px;} div.twitterhover{ border-color:#5dd7fc; } div#navigation a.twitterhover{ background-color:#5dd7fc!important; } div.rsshover{ border-color:#f87301; } div#navigation a.rsshover{ background-color:#f87301!important; } div.addhover{ border-color:#900000;} div#navigation a.addhover{ background-color:#900000!important; }div.searchbox{ margin: -30px 0 25px 0; }input.search{ float:left; border-width:1px; border-color:#e1e1e1; } input.gosearch{ margin:3px; width:17px; height:17px} /* ########## NAVIGATION CSS ########## */div#navigation{ width:900px; min-height:25px; margin:0 0 55px 0;} div#navigation a{ background-color:black; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold; color:#FFFFFF; letter-spacing:-1px; text-transform:uppercase; margin:0 5px 0 0; padding:5px 15px 7px 15px; font-size:14px;} div#navigation a:hover{ color:black; background-color:white; border-style:solid; border-color:#000; border-width:1px; margin:0 3px 0 0;}/* ########## PROFILE AND FOLLOWING BAR CSS ########## */ div.profile{ clear:both; float:right; width:307px; margin: -25px 0 40px 0; } img.profileimage{ margin-left:145px; border-style:solid; border-width:5px; border-color:black; -webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 3px 0px #999; -moz-box-shadow: 2px 2px 3px 0px #999; box-shadow: 2px 2px 3px 0px #999; z-index:10; margin-bottom: -50px; position:relative;} div.profileinner{ width:275px; padding: 35px 15px 15px 15px; border-style:solid; border-color:#ccc; border-width:1px; background-color:white; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0px 0px 60px 10px #EEE; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0px 0px 60px 10px #EEE; box-shadow: inset 0px 0px 60px 10px #EEE; z-index:-1; overflow:hidden; } div.profileinner div#profiledescription img{ width:273px; height:auto; border-style:solid; border-width:1px;} div.profileinner h2{ margin:30px 0 15px 0; color:#333; text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #e1e1e8; border-style: none none solid none; border-width: 1px; border-color: #666; padding-bottom: 7px;} img.followedpic{ border-style:solid; border-color:black; border-width:1px; margin-right:1px;} img.followedpic:hover{ border-color:#900000; } /* ########## DATE & ICON CSS ########## */a.datetag{ color:white; background-color:#222; font-size:12px; padding:5px 10px 6px 12px; display:inline; border-style:solid; border-width:2px; border-color:#000; margin:0; height:40px;} a.datetag:hover{ color:white; text-decoration:underline;} div.datetab{ float:right; height:42px; position:relative; left:35px; bottom:5px; display:inline; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/54yyynm/VZPlze0lb/datetab.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:right bottom; } div.posticon{ float:left; margin:-43px 10px 0 -50px; z-index:10;}div.posticon img{ width:65px; height:72px;} /* ########## ALL POSTS CSS ########## */ div#allposts{ width:610px; float:left; position:relative; bottom: 20px;} div.postouter{ width:610px; padding:0 40px 42px 45px; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/54yyynm/esnlzf8fp/shadow.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:left bottom; margin:10px 0 25px -45px; } div.photopostouter{ width:610px; padding:0 40px 37px 45px; background-image:url(http://static.tumblr.com/54yyynm/esnlzf8fp/shadow.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:left bottom; margin:10px 0 20px -45px; }div.photopostouter .datetab {position:relative; left:15px; top:27px; } div.photopostouter .posticon { float:left; margin:0 0 0 0; position:relative; right:30px; bottom:16px;} div.photopostouter iframe{ width:600px; margin:-75px 0 0 0; border-style:solid; border-color:black; border-width:5px;} div#photoset{ margin-left:36px; padding: 0 0 28px 0;} div.post{ width:570px; border-style:solid; border-color:#000; border-width:5px; padding:20px 15px 10px 15px; background-color:white; } div.post img{ max-width:570px; } div.post h2{ color:#900000; margin:0; padding:0; letter-spacing:-2px; font-size:24px; max-width:430px; display:inline; } div.post a.posttitle{ text-decoration:none; } div.post h2:hover { color:#111;} div.post .audio_player{ margin: 20px 0 0 0; min-height: 110px;} img.photopost{ border-style:solid; border-color:black; border-width:5px; width:600px; height:auto; margin:-75px 0 0 0} div.videowrap{ z-index:-999; } div#photonote{ margin: -50px 0 0 20px; } div#photonote a.notecount:hover { color:white; } h2#quote{ font-size:36px; line-height:32px; } div#quotesource{ margin: 5px 0 20px 0; font-size:26px;} a.quotesource{ font-weight:bold; letter-spacing:-1px; color:#111; font-size:26px;} a.quotesource a{ font-weight:bold; letter-spacing:-1px; color:#111; font-size:26px;} p.chatline{ border-style: none none solid none; border-color: #CCC; border-width: 1px; padding: 7px 0 7px 0; margin: 0px;} span#answer p:first-child { margin-top:0; padding-top:0; }div#answerpost{ min-height:125px; }div#answerpost img{ margin:0 10px 10px 0; border-style:solid; border-color:black; border-width:3px; float:left; clear:left;} div#answerpost div#questionbreak{ width:568px; height:10px; margin:0px; padding:0px; border-style:solid none none none; border-width:1px; border-color:#555; clear:left;}div.photopostouter div.notes{ margin: 35px 0 26px 0; } img.albumart{ width: 100px; float: left; margin: 19px 10px 15px 0; } /* ########## SOURCE, NOTES & TAGS CSS ########## */div#photometa{ width: 590px; position:relative; bottom:55px;} div#photometa div#photonote{ margin:0 } div#photometa div#source { margin:0; } div#photometa h2{ color:#900000; margin: 30px 0 10px 0;} div#photometa h2:hover{ color:#111111; }div#source{ clear:left; font-size: 12px; margin: 0 0 10px 0; }div.notes {font-size:12px; font-weight:bold;} div.notes a{ text-decoration:none; color:#900000; } div.notes a:hover{ color:#333; text-decoration:underline;} div.notes ol{ list-style-type:none; padding:0; border-style:solid none none none; border-color:#CCC; border-width:1px; width: 570px;} div.notes li{ padding:7px 0 10px 0; border-style:none none solid none; border-color:#CCC; border-width:1px; width: 570px;} div.notes .avatar{ padding:1px; border-style:solid; border-width:1px; position: relative; top: 6px; margin: 0 5px 0 0;} div.notes blockquote{ margin: 10px 0 0 28px; background-color: #F6F6F6; padding: 5px;} div.notes blockquote a{ font-weight:normal; color:#555; } div.notes blockquote a:hover{ text-decoration:none; color:#900000;} a.notecount{ font-size:15px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; color:black; margin-right:15px; }a.notecount:hover{ color:#900000; }a.notecount img{ height: 22px; position: relative; top: 5px; margin: 0 5px 0 0; } div#reblogged { display: inline; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 10px; }div#reblogged img { position: relative; top: 5px; margin-right: 5px; width: 23px; } span.tags { font-size:14px; font-weight:bold; }span.tags a { background-color: black; color: white; padding: 3px 6px 3px 3px; font-size: 12px; margin-right:2px;} span.tags a:hover{ background-color:#900000;}/* ########## DISQUS CSS ########## */div#disqus_thread { width: 570px; padding: 0 15px 0 15px; border-style: solid; border-color: black; border-width:5px; background-color: white; margin-top: -35px; margin-bottom: 25px; overflow:hidden;} ul#dsq-footer { display:none; }/* ########## PAGINATION & FOOTER CSS ########## */div.pagination{ font-size:16px; font-weight:bold; letter-spacing:-1px; width: 595px; margin: 0 0 30px 0;} div.pagination a{ margin-right:10px;} div.pagination a:hover{ color:#111} div.footer{ width:1000px; border-style:solid none none none; border-width:5px; border-color:#000; clear:both; padding:0 0 25px 0;}div.footer span{ background-color:black; color:white; font-size:12px; font-weight:bold; padding:8px 12px 8px 12px;} div.footer span a{ text-decoration:none; color:white;}div.footer span a:hover{ text-decoration:underline;}.oval-thought { position:absolute; width:50px;padding:8px 10px;margin:1px margin-left:auto;text-align:center;color:#fff; background:#000;/* css3 *//*NOTES:-webkit-border-radius:220px 120px; // produces oval in safari 4 and chrome 4-webkit-border-radius:220px / 120px; // produces oval in chrome 4 (again!) but not supported in safari 4Not correct application of the current spec, therefore, using longhand to avoid future problems with webkit corrects this*/-webkit-border-top-left-radius:100px 50px;-webkit-border-top-right-radius:100px 50px;-webkit-border-bottom-right-radius:100px 50px;-webkit-border-bottom-left-radius:100px 50px;-moz-border-radius:100px / 50px;border-radius:100px / 50px;}.oval-thought p {font-size:0.80em;}.oval-thought a {color:#fff;}.oval-thought a:hover {color:#C0C0C0}/* creates the larger circle */.oval-thought:before {content:"";position:absolute;bottom:-20px;left:50px;width:30px;height:30px;background:#000;/* css3 */-webkit-border-radius:30px;-moz-border-radius:30px;border-radius:30px;}/* creates the smaller circle */.oval-thought:after {content:"";position:absolute;bottom:-30px;left:30px;width:15px;height:15px;background:#000;/* css3 */-webkit-border-radius:15px;-moz-border-radius:15px;border-radius:15px;}$(document).ready(function(){ $('.icons a').hover(function(){ var icon = $(this).children('div').attr('class'); $('#titlehover').addClass(icon+'hover'); $('#navigation a').addClass(icon+'hover'); },function(){ $('#titlehover').removeClass(); $('#navigation a').removeClass(); });});#s3slider {background:#000000;border:1px solid #818e8f;width: 610px;height: 200px;position: relative;overflow: hidden;}#s3sliderContent {width: 550px;position: absolute;top:0px;padding: 0px;margin: 0px;}.s3sliderImage {float: left;position: relative;display: none;}.s3sliderImage span {position: absolute;left: 0;font: 20px Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;padding: 10px 0px;width: 610px;background-color: #000;filter: alpha(opacity=80);-moz-opacity: 0.8;-khtml-opacity: 0.8;opacity: 0.8;color: #fff;display: none;bottom: 0;text-align:center;}.clear {clear: both;} pre.prettyprint { overflow-x: auto; margin: 5px 20px 20px; }

Ask Us

School of Privacy Home Self D0x Proxies VPNs projects Interviews seedboxes ReviewsArchive About Guide on How To be Safe, Secure and Protect Your Online Anonymity.
By Team WeAreHidden DonateMore...NewsIRC (External) IRC (Internal)LinksAffiliatesGiveaways!Our WebappBitcoin Wall Of FameSubmit an ArticleClicks for Charity IP Checker(Not Logged)Video of the weekschool of privacys librarypiratebay proxyschool of privacy mobileour Hosting pageour anonymous pastebinask us for hostingfree security tools
Search our Site
Follow Us!

School of Privacy Newsletter
Enter your email address:

Visitors Contact UsContact Us to suggest tips, leave comments, submit links or have any concerns. If you would like to submit an article please check Here. Thank you and enjoy your stay. (Legal)

Want to Support Us?
Or you can donate a click
Why LibertyReserve is down and what this means.Our Bitcoin Wall of FameCryptoCloud ReviewAttackVector LinuxCheckout Our VPN Listing

Posted 13 hours ago Link: Your encrypted files are 'exponentially easier' to crack, warn MIT boffins • The Register
5 notes theinfogiver reblogged this from wearehidden kylalala11 likes this nicospitsjive likes this climate-changing likes this oldparasitesingle reblogged this from wearehidden and added:

I self-studied this stuff in graduate school. Unfortunately I was never very good at it, although I was able to...

oldparasitesingle likes this wearehidden posted this Privacy encryption var COMSCORE = true; window.setTimeout(function() { var analytics_frame = document.getElementById('ga_target'); analytics_frame.contentWindow.postMessage('enable_comscore;' + window.location, analytics_frame.src.split('/analytics.html')[0]); }, 1000);

View the original article here

Oracle’s Larry Ellison has resigned as chief executive after 35 years at the helm of the company he co-founded in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates.

But Ellison will remain as executive chairman and chief technology officer. Jeff Henley, who has served as Oracle's chairman for the past 10 years, will become Oracle's vice chairman.

Under his leadership, the company has become the world’s largest database supplier and one of the biggest enterprise software businesses, currently valued at $182.7bn.

Oracle co-presidents Safra Catz and Mark Hurd are to become joint CEOs to replace Ellison.

Catz will remain chief financial officer and oversee legal and manufacturing operations, while Hurd will run sales, marketing and strategy.

Ellison, whose fortune is estimated at $51.4bn, remains Oracle’s largest shareholder, holding 1.1bn shares, or 25%, of the company.

Catz has been instrumental in many of Oracle’s biggest acquisitions including its $10.3bn takeover of PeopleSoft and the $7.4bn deal for Sun Microsystems.

Hurd joined Oracle as president in 2010 when he left Hewlett-Packard after an internal investigation revealed that irregularities in his expenses claims were used to cover up a “close personal relationship”.

At the time, Ellison came out in strong support for Hurd, criticising the HP board for forcing him to quit. In the four years that Hurd was HP CEO, the company’s shares doubled in value.

“Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle board rather than to me. All other reporting  relationships will remain unchanged,” Ellison said in a statement.

“The three of us have been working well together for the last several years, and we plan to continue working together for the foreseeable future. Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine,” he said.

Oracle board president Michael Boskin said: "Larry has made it very clear that he wants to keep working full time and focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy."

The charismatic Ellison has also used his Oracle wealth to branch outside the IT world. His yachting team won the America's Cup in a dramatic finish in 2013, and he made a cameo appearance in the super-hero movie Iron Man 2. 

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

Telecity’s chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Tobin will step down from the helm at the FTSE 250 datacentre provider on 31 October, after 10 years in the role. 

Tobin told shareholders on 26 August he will stand down and hand over control to John Hughes, Telecity’s chairman. Tobin will receive a "termination payment" of £753,000 and an additional £70,000 compensation payout and share awards, according to a report in The Telegraph.

Tobin’s abrupt resignation saw Telecity’s shares fall by more than 6% during the day's trading session. Telecity has not yet announced Tobin’s successor, with Hughes taking charge of executive responsibilities from October.

For the first half of 2014, Telecity reported a growth in revenue of 9.3% to £174.1m.

At that time, Tobin said: “Demand across the European datacentre market is strong and our order wins continue to be encouraging. 

“We are focused on creating value for our customers by building a highly-connected datacentre infrastructure in Europe, and for our shareholders through delivering sustainable growth with good returns on capital.”

Telecity will welcome its new chief financial officer (CFO) Eric Hageman in September.

Tobin will remain a significant shareholder of the business, but will move on to explore other opportunities and make way for a new chief to lead Telecity on its next phase of growth, he told the shareholders.

“Having led the company for over a decade – through the merger of Telecity and Redbus, the successful initial public offering (IPO) of TelecityGroup, the significant growth of the business and the recruitment of an outstanding CFO – the board and I agree that, with the business in excellent health, now is the time for me to move on," he said.

With more than 25 years of experience in telecommunications and IT, Tobin was the CEO of RedBus before its merger with Telecity in 2006. Prior to that, he was heading Fujitsu’s e-commerce operations in Germany.

He was awarded an OBE for his services to the digital economy in the 2014 New Year Honours list.

Telecity operates 37 datacentres in Europe, with as many as eight in London and four in Manchester.

The London-based carrier-neutral datacentre provider, with a revenue of £325.6m in 2013, is one of the big four datacentre operators – alongside Equinix, Digital Realty and Interxion. Its customers include Atos, Walkers, Spotify, Think London, Transport for London (TfL), Toys R Us and T-Systems.

TfL uses Telecity’s services to power its popular journey planner site. “The performance of the site has been noticeably improved and the user experience is excellent. Feedback from customers has been very positive,” said David Coppins, technical manager for TfL.

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here

Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive of Dell, has outlined the company’s datacentre and cloud strategies which are dictated by four customer imperatives – transform, connect, inform and protect.

At its Solutions Summit in Brussels on 18 September, Dell said the company is steering its efforts to enable customers to deal with IT challenges around security, software-defined infrastructures, big data analytics and the internet of things (IoT).

The transform imperative is all about the vision of a future-ready, software-defined datacentre and about moving to the cloud, he said.

Dell pledged that the company can help customers build their next-generation datacentre with its wide range of industry partnerships and platform-agnostic strategies. 

“We have no legacy architecture to protect, so we are all about new ways of doing things – microprocessor-based, cloud-based infrastructures,” he said.

Supplier lock-in is a huge issue, particularly for customers looking to see the best return from their IT budget, and Dell wants to offer a flexible system for their needs, explained Dell enterprise vice-president Tony Parkinson.

“We have been in the server business for about 20 years and our newest, 13th-generation PowerEdge server family is inspired by customers’ needs,” said Dell. 

The r730-xd – the flagship product in the PowerEdge portfolio – features 36 microprocessor cores, 100TB capacity in a 2U platform, and has near-field communication (NFC) capabilities. 

“It has huge RAM capabilities and users can run Oracle, VMware, Hadoop – anything they want,” Dell explained.

“Datacentres are changing quickly to converged infrastructure because of the enormous improvements in microprocessors.

“Virtualisation is running across the entire datacentre – so all layers of storage, network and servers are becoming virtualised. All elements in the datacentre are becoming applications running in virtual machines,” Dell said in his keynote address. 

“Everything is going to the cloud. We’re seeing this idea of the integrated appliance taking hold,” he added.

Dell emphasised how its datacentre products such as VRTX and PowerEdge, as well as its datacentre management strategies and the company’s acquisitions – including Quest Software – are helping businesses shape their IT plans.

The connect imperative is all about mobility and the company is investing in products to help enterprises provide the technologies and devices their users need to be productive. 

“We are continuing to invest and grow product lines in the connectivity space – take our Wyse acquisition for instance,” said Dell. “We absolutely believe in the PC business – we are consolidating and growing.”

He also emphasised that big data and IoT are beginning to change the IT landscape. 

The inform imperative involves enterprises storing important data and gaining insights to increase business competence, said Dell. 

Lastly, referring to the protect imperative, he said security is at the heart of Dell’s datacentre and cloud strategies.

“Security is a top concern for CIOs all over the world,” said Dell. “When we ask customers what is keeping them up at night, they say security. We see about 80 billion security events every day.” 

Dell is providing services to enable enterprises to secure data, not just in datacentres but also in cloud services such as Dropbox.

In 2013, Dell became a private company in a $24bn deal, with founder Michael Dell as a majority stakeholder. Significantly, Microsoft invested $2bn in Dell’s buyback bid.

“Going private has helped us,” said Dell while speaking in Brussels. “It has enabled us to put our focus 100% on our customers. We have invested more in research, development, innovation and in channels in the past year.”

International Data Corporation (IDC) analyst Nick Sundby told Computer Weekly, “Dell’s ability to adapt to business changes quicker than its competitors and its attitude of listening to the customers are its biggest strengths.

“I speak to a lot of its enterprise customers and they are all happy,” he said.

Dell is heavily focused on the datacentre infrastructure, compute, network, storage and server markets. It has recently refreshed its datacentre platform services with features more tuned to the converged architecture, flash storage, managed services and so on.

Traditionally known as a PC manufacturer, Dell is proving to customers that it also offers a full enterprise product portfolio to create a fully virtualised environment, said experts.

By being an end-to-end supplier, we can give our customers what they need, when they need it

Tony Parkinson, Dell

The company’s business is 85% government and enterprises, meaning the remaining 15% is consumer business – such as PCs.

It is offering a flexible, service-centered IT model, matching technology to support business processes.

For example, the British visual effects company Framestore has deployed end-to-end Dell services to support big-budget projects at its Montreal site. The company was able to construct an IT infrastructure, from scratch, in less than 12 months – allowing it to undertake significant upcoming projects.

“Just over 12 months ago, we began planning our expansion into Montreal and quickly realised the challenge of building the site infrastructure after it had opened for business,” said Steve MacPherson, CTO of Framestore. 

“Our entire infrastructure is based on Dell – racks, cooling, storage and rendering – all this combined to make the planning process straightforward, while the execution and delivery were both efficient and cost-effective," he added.

Another customer, hotel.de in Germany, has virtualised 100% of its datacentre with Dell. The deployment allowed the customer to significantly reduce energy costs, respond quickly to changes and better support ongoing growth. 

“With the introduction of Dell systems, we were able to achieve the greatest possible degree of automation in IT administration, simplifying our operations immensely while reducing energy costs,” said Michael Kalb, IT director at hotel.de. 

“We’re seeing an increasing trend with companies looking to source from one supplier when they update their IT architectures,” said Dell's Parkinson. “By being an end-to-end supplier, we can give our customers what they need, when they need it."

Register now to receive ComputerWeekly.com IT-related news, guides and more, delivered to your inbox.By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy$("a#eproductLogin").attr('href', function(i) { return $(this).attr('href') + '?fromURL=' + regFromUrl; });

View the original article here