Search Appliances Developing to Fit Expanding Enterprise Needs
October 15, 2012
Google has recently launched two new plug and play appliances with the Google Search Appliance Version 7.0 boxes. According to the article “Google Launches New Enterprise Search Appliances” on eWeek, these new tools will help users search content in large stores of data to find specific information within their enterprise. The appliances offer features such as document preview, language translation, and a smaller physical footprint and can search information from over one billion documents.
Google explains the necessity for these types of search tools in the article:
“‘You might be searching for last quarter’s sales goals, product launch materials or your colleague’s telephone number—but there isn’t one simple search box to help you find all the information you need,’ Matthew Eichner, general manager of Google’s enterprise search unit wrote in an Oct. 9 post on the Google Enterprise blog. ‘When 60 percent of corporate workers say that it’s hard to find information within their organization, something needs to change.’”
Google is attempting to make that necessary change for enterprises, but they are not the only ones making an impact on the industry. One example is Intrafind, which offers enhanced search features that include secure expert identification and semantic associations within an organization’s data repositories. With these types of high-performance enterprise search features, organizations can be sure that information is secure as well as accessible.
Andrea Hayden, October 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Centrifuge Releases Latest Version of Visual Networks Analytics Platform
September 24, 2012
Centrifuge recently published “Centrifuge Delivers Scalable Big Data Analytics With Visual Networks Analytics Version 2.7” which discusses a new solution that minimizes the need for data scientists while accelerating discovery across disparate data points. Sounds pretty cool…and complicated.
According to the news release, Centrifuge, a provider of Big Data analytics and visualization solutions for fraud, security and risk, announced the availability of the latest version of its Visual Networks Analytics platform. It addresses the need to derive context intelligence and pattern discovery in big data by delivering powerful technology that addresses the growing need to quickly filter, sift and understand large amounts of data.
Renee Lorton, Centrifuge CEO, explains:
“Corporate Information security is a big data analytics challenge that cannot be addressed with traditional data mining, BI, or legacy analytics approaches. The sheer volume and complexity requires a powerful investigative discovery approach that is easy enough for a non-data scientist to use. Machine data, for example, is one of the fastest growing segments of big data, generated by websites, applications, servers, networks, mobile devices and other sources. Now, discovering patterns in Big Data is both easy and cost effective with Centrifuge’s powerful interactive data visualization.”
With an increasing number of organizations being hacked, information security is becoming a higher priority. A variety of industries would benefit from this technology.
Jasmine Ashton, September 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
HP Security Believes Stability is Overrated
September 13, 2012
The likely assumption for those working in information technology systems is that stability is an ultimate goal. However, according to HP Software Security Evangelist Rafal Los in the article “Three Steps for Introducing More Chaos Into Systems (Yes, That’s a Good Thing),” on ZDNet, too much stability is a bad thing. Los warns that too much stability would cause IT departments to lose their edge by encouraging complacency and resistance to change. Los argues that in smoothly running departments, if something goes wrong, it will be more difficult to recover.
The article reads:
“‘Every organization I’ve ever been a part of has spent countless dollars and immeasurable energy striving for stability in which everything is predictable,’ [Los] says. ‘Unfortunately, these are the organizations that recover slowest when the inevitable, unpredictable catastrophe hits.’ An apt comparison may be ‘a search-and-rescue team that sits idle for too long can become rusty under pressure without constant drilling and practice.’
Instead of striving for stability, IT executives should strive for more resiliency, Los says. In essence, be a little more of a ‘chaotic’ enterprise.”
His suggestions for “chaos?” Allowing some components to fail on purpose and not building completely unbreakable systems. We disagree with his thinking that chaos should be a goal. A strong and steady flow in an organization is something we think should be strived for as opposed to a chaotic environment.
Andrea Hayden, September 13, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Reuters Blog and Twitter Hacked
September 2, 2012
The Next Web recently reported on the recent hacking of the blogging platform of the Reuters website after a false posting appeared in the article, “Reuters Hacked, Again.”
According to the article, not only is this the second time that the blog has been hacked in recent weeks, but the news sites Twitter account was also recently infiltrated. The content of the Tweets were changed from technology news to focusing on the Middle East and pro-Syrian government. Similarly, the recent blog hacking included a false posting saying Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had died.
Despite still not knowing the identity of the hackers, Reuters commented:
“Although the identity of those hackers is not known either, there is an intensifying conflict in cyberspace between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Saudi Arabia has emerged as a staunch opponent of Assad.”
It is difficult to determine whether or not the hacking was a practical joke or part of a political overtaking. Regardless, we hope that Reuters gets its story straight and puts in some security measures.”
Jasmine Ashton, September 02, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Baidu Employees Caught Deleting Posts
August 28, 2012
Oh, my. Objective information has just taken a new turn on its winding path. TechWorld reports, “Baidu Workers ‘Found to be Deleting Posts for Cash’.” Apparently, the practice of illegally deleting controversial or negative posts for pay is common in China, where Baidu is the dominant Web search engine. Writer Sophie Curtis reports:
“Chinese search giant Baidu has fired four employees after it emerged that they may have accepted bribes to delete posts from its website.
“Three of the former employees have also been arrested for accepting cash to delete forum posts. Baidu’s spokeswoman Betty Tian told BBC News that the sums involved amounted to ‘tens of thousands of yuan’ (thousands of pounds).”
Baidu asserts that they have always taken a firm hand with such behavior, promptly reporting it to authorities. This breech has been discovered less than a year after the search firm pledged to ramp up self-regulation efforts. Baidu, along with 38 other top Chinese IT firms, made that pledge in response to government pressure; China is determined to control the evolution of the Internet within its borders.
Baidu, founded in 2000 and headquartered in Beijing, is by far the largest Chinese-language search engine. It also boasts of hosting the largest blog system in China, Baidu Space. Their name, which literally means “hundreds of times,” comes from a poem written during the Song Dynasty describing the persistent search for the ideal within chaos. An apt name for a Web search engine, I think.
Cynthia Murrell, August 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
DataStax Taps Gazzang for Encryption Needs
August 27, 2012
Protecting data in the cloud is the goal of this partnership: Sys-Con Media tells us, “Gazzang and DataStax Partner to Deliver Robust Data Security for Big Data.” Now Gazzang’s zNcrypt encryption and security software is an integrated part of DataStax’ Enterprise Edition. A mighty good idea. Writer David Tishgart reports:
“Within DataStax Enterprise, Gazzang zNcrypt works as a last line of defense for protecting data, by transparently encrypting and securing information as it gets written to disk, ensuring minimal performance lag in the encryption or decryption process. The solution also includes robust key management and process-based access controls that meet compliance regulations and allow users to store their cryptographic keys separate from the encrypted data.”
DataStax build products around three Apache open source components: Cassandra database, Hadoop analytics, and Solr enterprise search. Their enterprise level software ties the three together under one management solution. Prominent customers include Netflix, Disney, and Cisco, but the company also delves into the specialized verticals market.
Operating out of Austin, Texas, Gazzang works to make this whole cloud thing efficient and secure. Their products secure anything, big data or otherwise, that runs on Linux; they also offer monitoring, alerting, and analysis solutions for cloud environments.
Cynthia Murrell, August 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft Issues Exchange Sharepoint Related Security Advisory
August 24, 2012
Possible a first in the industry, Microsoft Security Research Center published Microsoft Security Advisory (2737111), which describes how possible vulnerabilities in Oracle Outside In libraries affect the WebReady Document Viewing functionality of Microsoft Exchange and FAST Search Server. Oracle also released their own Critical Patch Update Advisory. Here are more details about the security risk:
“The vulnerabilities exist due to the way that files are parsed by the third-party, Oracle Outside In libraries. In the most severe case of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, it is possible under certain conditions for the vulnerabilities to allow an attacker to take control of the server process that is parsing a specially crafted file. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or take any other action that the server process has access to do.”
If you think you may be affected by this, look at this blog post that recommends the workarounds to be done.
Take note that there are 24 other companies – some of them industry giants – that also make use of the said Oracle library. Some of them are IBM, Cisco, Symantec, and McAfee. Hopefully, these companies will soon be able to assess the impact of the said vulnerability on their platforms and issue a security update soon.
Lauren Llamanzares, August 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Cloud Security Problems? No Big Problems. Just Hiccups
August 7, 2012
I was included to dismiss the blues sung by Steve Wozniak. You can get the gist of his concern about the cloud in “Apple Co Founder Wozniak Sees Trouble in the Cloud.” I mean the fellow is a genius, but he does have a handful of idiosyncrasies. I have sipped the cloud nectar from Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and sundry others. Then I read “How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking.” If true, cloud security can be fiddled with a phone call. Here’s the segment I noted:
But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s. Apple tech support gave the hackers access to my iCloud account. Amazon tech support gave them the ability to see a piece of information — a partial credit card number — that Apple used to release information. In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same ones that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification. The disconnect exposes flaws in data management policies endemic to the entire technology industry, and points to a looming nightmare as we enter the era of cloud computing and connected devices.
Maybe Mr. Wozniak is correct? Is clear thinking enabled with Segway polo and conversations among the Aftershocks’ team mates?
Stephen E Arnold, August 7, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
Inteltrax: Top Stories, July 23 to July 27
July 30, 2012
The growing availability of cloud based and open source analytics and the resulting beefed-up security demands surrounding such easily accessible software are the topics pervasive in this week’s posts on Inteltrax. As usual the nature and existence of ‘big data’ was discussed and the post, “Big Data is Analytics for Dummies”, accurately gets to the heart of the matter using text from the Tech Week Europe article as evidence.
“The author is probably spot-on with his analysis of the ‘big data’ hype invading industries around the world. Being right doesn’t change the fact that thanks to open source and cloud technologies more companies than ever before now have access to analytics. If the sage analysts need to dumb down their definitions then so be it. Thankfully, there are analytics providers committed to the industries and companies previously not invited into the analytics club.”
All that talk of openness among comrades came to a point with the announcement that Datameer was offering their analytics free of charge to academics mired in the muck of unstructured data. As the post, “Datameer Offers Free License to Academic Researchers”, quotes Market Watch,
“Academic researchers are particularly challenged by the massive amounts of data needed for their research. Collecting and analyzing data requires enormous computational effort and has typically been slow and tedious, often requiring a computer science background. Datameer offers an end-user focused tool that enables researchers themselves to integrate large quantities of data, do complex analysis in a familiar spreadsheet-like interface, and then visualize their results to easily understand, communicate and share their findings.”
Open and free are great especially in the world of costly analytics but both come with a price – heightened security risks. Inteltrax author Catherine Lamsfuss tackled security concerns with the post, “Security Top Concern for Cloud Based Software”. Live Mint compared cloud breaches to a door lock – it’s not a question of if the door will be broken down, but when. The article summarizes the state of security surrounding today’s cloud.
“These security issues should be at the forefront of companies’ decision making process when it comes to choosing a cloud based analytics provider. All cloud based software is protected to some degree but if protecting sensitive information is important than a thorough investigation into a provider’s security background is due.”
Whether one’s company is struggling with finding affordable cloud based analytics, applying open-source to existing systems or trying to strengthen security Digital Reasoning is a solid analytics provider more than capable of helping. With an extensive relationship with the intelligence community they understand the need for security but also are realistic about budgets, especially those of small and midsized businesses.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
July 30, 2012
Washington Hires Researchers to Spot Leakers Through Search
July 13, 2012
Wired’s Danger Room recently reported on “Fog Computing,” a spin off term from the cloud computing craze in the article “Feds Look to Fight Leaks With Fog of Disinformation.”
Gripped by a frenzy to capture insider leaks, in addition to going through the traditional methods of tapping phone lines and emails, Washington has hired researchers to come up with a plan to spot leakers by how they search. Darpa,the pentagon’s research arm, has also created prototype that will create decoy documents of believable misinformation to trap leakers in the act.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of faith in the effectiveness of this system. One of the tactics is to bury potentially useful information in worthless data which makes it more difficult for the leaker to know what to disclose.
Steven Aftergood, who studies classification policies for the Federation of American Scientists, wrote in an email:
“If only researchers devoted as much ingenuity to combating spurious secrecy and needless classification. Shrinking the universe of secret information would be a better way to simplify the task of securing the remainder. The Darpa approach seems to be based on an assumption that whatever is classified is properly classified and that leaks may occur randomly throughout the system. But neither of those assumptions is likely to be true.”
While the system still has some bugs, it does seem like this new technology has the potential to prevent another Wikileaks.
Jasmine Ashton, July 13, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
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