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The Telecom Digest for March 21, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 72 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:56:17 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Security firm falls prey to breach / Attack considered 'persistent threat'
Message-ID: <p06240815c9ab43568d6a@[10.0.1.3]>
Security firm falls prey to breach
Attack considered 'persistent threat'
By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff / March 19, 2011
RSA, a Bedford security systems maker whose products guard vital
computer networks worldwide, was scrambling yesterday to recover from
a security breach that could expose its customers to hacker attacks.
The attack, revealed on Thursday, compromised products RSA sells
under the SecurID brand name. RSA, a division of data storage giant
EMC Corp. of Hopkinton, called the attack an ''advanced persistent
threat,'' industry jargon for a relentless campaign by criminals or
foreign governments to break into a high-value computer system.
SecurID uses a technique called ''two-factor authentication,''
requiring users to enter two different passwords to gain access to a
network. The first password is memorized by the user. The second is a
set of random numbers that appear on a SecurID ''token,'' a small
electronic device carried by the user.
The token's random numbers change roughly once a minute based on a
unique digital ''seed'' assigned to each token. A SecurID computer
with a copy of each token's seed generates the same random number as
the token. A user gets into the network by typing this number.
SecurID is used by an estimated 40 million people at 30,000
organizations worldwide, including banking firm Wells Fargo & Co.,
Rolls Royce Motor Cars Ltd., the French Ministry of Education,
Lockheed Martin Corp., and The New York Times Co., including The
Boston Globe.
A successful breach of RSA's own network could allow a criminal to
compromise customer networks. Gunter Ollmann, vice president of
research at Atlanta network security firm Damballa Inc., said that
RSA analysts were probably scouring their computers yesterday to make
sure the intruders didn't tamper with the SecurID software. One
threat: Hackers could have introduced ''back doors'' to the system
that could grant them easy access to the token numbers, and then to
customer networks. They might also have tried to steal the seeds for
the SecurID tokens, which would let them generate their own passwords
and break into networks.
...
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/03/19/security_firm_falls_prey_to_breach/
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 9:26:22 -0700
From: "Martin Bose" <martyb@sonic.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Information on small scale optical systems
Message-ID: <06754748C6752BD66B1F5E3E42066EBA8@sonic.net>
I work in a shipyard that is 19th century as far as telecom goes. It's
served by a couple of 50 pair cables with a couple of T-1 lines for
data. They need over a hundred phone lines and better data service,
plus the ability to provide customers with short-term phone and data
service to ships that are pierside or in our drydock. Some of the
customers want Gigabit-level data service, along with the ability to
have a block of phone lines with a call director for a secretary.
When I worked in Telecom 10 years ago it was fairly common to put a
compact OC-48 box on a customer premise and lease them whatever
bandwidth and configuration they wanted. I'm guessing the technolgy
has progressed a lot since then.
What I imagine is a redundant fiber ring around the complex, with
terminals in the main buildings and the shops where our CNC equipment
is, and additional weather-proof terminals in several locations in our
Syncrolift area, our drydock and our pier space. We have a
climate-controlled server room in our main building that would be
termination point for the incoming fiber link. On one hand it would be
nice to be able to run fiber to a remote box onboard the ship and
break everything out at that point, but I'm not so sure that running
exposed fiber is a good idea in a shipyard environment. Everything
would probably have to be AC-powered.
There have been discussions with our carrier about bringing fiber in,
so that part is probably doable. I'd like to get some pointers on what
kind of equipment is available that might meet our needs, as well as
an idea of the cost. I'm thinking that an OC-12 might be enough, but
would consider an OC-48 if the equipment wasn't much more expensive.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Marty
Date: 20 Mar 2011 15:54:11 -0400
From: "John R. Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: AT&T buys T-Mobile USA
Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1103201549400.24982@joyce.lan>
In a deal that makes a lot more sense than the ones that have been
rumored, AT&T is buying T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, or slightly more
than $100 per customer. The two networks both use the same GSM
technology, which makes the integration relatively straightforward.
Comments that this will increase prices are almost certainly true, since
T-Mo has some of the best prices around.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:30:58 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Teaching to the Text Message
Message-ID: <p06240826c9ac142d804d@[10.0.1.3]>
Teaching to the Text Message
By ANDY SELSBERG
March 19, 2011
I'VE been teaching college freshmen to write the five-paragraph essay
and its bully of a cousin, the research paper, for years. But these
forms invite font-size manipulation, plagiarism and clichéé. We need
to set our sights not lower, but shorter.
I don't expect all my graduates to go on to Twitter-based careers,
but learning how to write concisely, to express one key detail
succinctly and eloquently, is an incredibly useful skill, and more in
tune with most students' daily chatter, as well as the world's
conversation. The photo caption has never been more vital.
So a few years ago, I started slipping my classes short writing
assignments alongside the required papers. Once, I asked them, "Come
up with two lines of copy to sell something you're wearing now on
eBay." The mix of commerce and fashion stirred interest, and despite
having 30 students in each class, I could give everyone serious
individual attention. For another project, I asked them to describe
the essence of the chalkboard in one or two sentences. One student
wrote, "A chalkboard is a lot like memory: often jumbled, unorganized
and sloppy. Even after it's erased, there are traces of everything
that's been written on it."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/opinion/20selsberg.html
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:44:13 -0400
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: bye, bye T-Mobile (fwd)
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1103201643200.16005@panix5.panix.com>
[press release]
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110320005040/en/ATT-Acquire-T-Mobile-USA-Deutsche-Telekom
Dallas and Bonn, Germany (Business Wire)- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Deutsche
Telekom AG (FWB: DTE) today announced that they have entered into a definitive
agreement under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a
cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approximately $39 billion. The
agreement has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.
[snip]
------
disclosure: I'm both a subscriber and shareholder
in T-Mobile (for a long, long, time).
I'm not happy.
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
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