Fahmida Y. Rashid

As federal agencies consolidate data centers, both government IT managers and service providers are increasingly looking at open source software stacks to ease the transition, according to the IDC Government Insights report released on Dec. 6. Data Center consolidation also involves “migrating to new platforms, improving IT economics, eliminating unnecessary software licensing fees and reducing […]

The anonymous group of hackers that launch denial-of-service attacks against the entertainment industry refocused their campaign to target companies perceived to be anti-WikiLeaks. In response, the same group is also currently under a DoS attack for supporting the whistle-blowing site. “We fight for the same reasons,” such as more transparency and stopping censorship, and will […]

While organizations are beginning to adopt DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) to secure their Websites, many of them are not correctly implemented or maintained according to specifications, according to a survey released by Infoblox on Dec. 6. The sixth annual survey of domain name server infrastructure on the Internet is a “census of name […]

StorSimple unveiled a line of cloud storage appliances that are optimized for Microsoft applications, file servers and virtual machine libraries, the company said Dec. 6. The appliances are deployed on premises within the data center and stores data locally on SSDs (solid-state drives) and in the cloud to offer hybrid storage while maintaining or improving […]

Pushing ahead with its mainframe strategy, CA Technologies said on Dec. 6 that the first CA Mainframe Chorus workspace is available to customers. Originally announced in May, CA Mainframe Chorus provides management capabilities and improvements designed to make mainframe management simpler and more efficient for administrators, CA said. Part of the Mainframe 2.0 initiative introduced […]

With government pressure squeezing the WikiLeaks site off U.S.-based Web hosting services, federal officials are turning their attention to preventing future embarrassing leaks. U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman issued a statement on Dec. 2 that he will ask what “Web service providers will do in the future to ensure that their services are not used to […]

As governments around the world moved to shut down WikiLeaks, the site struggled to remain online, as its American-based domain name service provider pulled the plug on the site on Dec 2 and Dec. 3. WikiLeaks also was hit by another DoS (Denial of Service) attack late Dec. 2, the third such incident since Nov […]

While there are several potential methods to implementing the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed “Do Not Track” mechanism, the most effective method is to have the browser append “Do Not Track” to its header messages, according to several software developers. The consensus seems to be to require browsers to append a string to the HTTP header. […]

After federal regulators proposed a “Do Not Track” mechanism to give control over what consumer data companies can collect and share, a lot of confusion remains about what the proposal really means. In a 122-page preliminary report issued Dec. 1, the Federal Trade Commission suggested that users need a way to universally opt-out of having […]

The Federal Communications Commission’s new net neutrality framework clarified some points from its 2009 plan, but the latest proposal still is receiving scant support in Congress and from Internet service providers. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski offered a sneak peek at the draft net neutrality proposal on Dec. 1. More details will be available when the […]

Amazon.com is no longer hosting WikiLeaks, the controversial site that posted thousands of classified government documents this week. “WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free-fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe,” WikiLeaks tweeted on Dec. 1. According to the latest WHOIS information and data from the […]

Cisco will acquire network management software company LineSider, strengthening its cloud capabilities, the company said on Dec. 1. LineSider’s technology will strengthen Cisco’s cloud computing services by integrating cloud infrastructure with customers’ existing IT systems, Cisco said. IT administrators have the challenge of managing the ever-changing network state as virtual devices are added, moved or […]