CHINA'S 18 MIN INTERNET "HIJACK";HOW?,WHY? WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Recent proofs have been uncovered that shows that Sometime in April, a government owned telecoms company(China Telecoms)  for 18 minutes successfully routed 15% of the world's internet traffic via their routers and servers. These included communications to and from Government agencies(especially U.S), internet shopping traffic,  ...
The alleged "theft" of internet traffic was discovered by a communications company outside Washington, D.C. where computer network engineers monitor Internet traffic.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN
The internet operates on a trust-based system both in infrastuctural architechture and in terms of usage.Electronic routers direct the traffic flow, insuring the shortest path between any two computers anywhere in the world that hope to exchange information.
A little illustration here;lets say i have 3 uncles in the federal  ministry and i want to send a letter directly to the President of Nigeria.i would mentally calculate which of my 3 uncles is closest to the President by the number of people between them and the President,then i "forward" my letter to that uncle.That uncle in turn also calculates his distance to the president by the ranks of those he knows and forwards my letter to the next person he thinks is closer to the president....this continues until my letter is safely in the hands of the president.
Thats how routers "forward" information on the internet, only this happens in microseconds.

so essentially, the 18MIN hijack happened when computer routers in China belonging to China Telecom began signaling to other computer routers on the Internet that they could provide the quickest path between different computers. 
For 18 minutes, the traffic on 35,000 to 50,000 computer networks elsewhere in the world began flowing toward China, before getting routed to their final destinations. China Telecom had created a massive detour.

 Rodney Joffe, Senior Vice-president and Senior technologist at Neustar Inc said "They, all of a sudden, began announcing the fact that they were an optimal path to about 15 percent of the destinations on the Internet, that, in fact, they were a way to get to a large number of destinations on the Internet, when, in fact, they were not. We have never seen that before on this scale ever."

WHY DID IT HAPPEN
 The mere fact that the incident didn't severe all communications during the time it lasted suggests a calculated attempt to intercept, capure and later examine/inspect information.

Security expert Dmitri Alperovitch—VP of threat research at McAfee—says that this happens "accidentally" a few times a year, but this time it was different: The China Telecom network absorbed all the data and returned it without any significant delay. Before, this kind of accident would have resulted in communication problems, which lead experts to believe this wasn't an accident but a deliberated attempt to capture as much data as possible.

WHAT DOES THIS SAY 

A lot can be captured in 18 minutes. When all the communications from tens of thousand of computer networks was routed to China, that included all the Web traffic, e-mail, and instant messages to and from dot.mil -- that's the Department of Defense -- and dot.gov -- those are U.S. governments departments. The U.S. Senate and NASA also had all their traffic diverted.

Companies like Dell, Yahoo!, Microsoft and IBM had their data diverted by China Telecom, too. On that day in April, officers logging into a Pentagon Web site ended up looking at an image that came to their screen via China.


Information could have been gathered, which after much examination could be used to craft a virus to be released in such huge networks.The fact that traffic could be intentionally diverted to where it is "MALICIOUSLY WANTED" opens the eyes to possibilities such as the data actually being altered(man-in-the-middle attack) before being forwarded to its destination,fabricated rogue mails could be concocted to seem as being  sent from someone/somewhere....usernames could be masqueraded... the possibilities are just limitless!!

WHAT CAN BE DONE

Private networks and networks that provide essential services ;from life- essential services such as power grids,water, traffic, product mixing networks.. to those trusted services  such as internal government mail,military, Organizational services should be hosted on servers distant from the internet.worst case scenario;if these servers have to have a connection to the internet whatsoever, DMZ's (De-militarized zones) should be used as a sort of buffer.

Network administrators and security experts have to harden their organizations' networks.
 Wider proliferation of use of network security software, such as Microsoft's Forefront Threat management gateway 

The most efficient solution i see is for stakeholders and computer professionals around the world to;
 Greater Policize the internet trust system or all-together just fashion another network of networks that is just not as trust-based as the present standards.It might be  a longtime coming, but maybe we just go back to the base,how it all began, a revolution might just be underway.   


 

Windows Azure and the "Cloud Computing" story(Part1)

I first heard the phrase "cloud computing" on one of my visits to my friend and mentor, Yinka (i visit him from time to time and we discuss information technology generally,we also argue on certain issues. Yinka works with a top notch IT solutions provider in Nigeria). at that time even He didnt have a clear-cut idea of what "cloud computing" was all about.

If you'v had your IT ear to the ground in the last 2 years, you would have heard the phrase "cloud computing" used in  place/collaboration with SAAS(Software-as-a-service), PAAS(Platform-as-a-service), IAAS(Infrastructure-as-a-service), and more recently, Windows Azure.

The concept of cloud computing is this;consider a company  XYZ( irrespective of size),XYZ can have their applications, databases, security/certificate servers located OUTSIDE XYZ complex/group of complexs.

let me paint a clearer picture, if a user in XYZ wants to use a spreadsheet /word processing software, he can simply connect to XYZ's "cloud", use the application, save changes back to the "cloud". now the cloud here represents an internet-facing  datacenter managed by IT solutions providers that specialise in rendering such a service. 

As for the origin of the term “cloud computing”, there are a few possibilities…

In May 1997, NetCentric tried to trademark the “cloud computing” but later abandoned it in April 1999. Patent serial number 75291765.

In April 2001, the New York Times ran an article by John Markoff about Dave Winer’s negative reaction to Microsoft’s then new .Net services platform called Hailstorm (if you want a laugh sometime, ask a Microsoft Azure person about Hailstorm). It used the phrase “‘cloud’ of computers”. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/09/technology/09HAIL.htmlex=1230872400&en=5d156fc75d409335&ei=5070

In August 2006, where Eric Schmidt of Google described there approach to SaaS as cloud computing at a search engine conference. I think this was the first high profile usage of the term, where not just “cloud” but “cloud computing” was used to refer to SaaS and since it was in the context Google, the term picked up the PaaS/IaaS connotations associated with the Google way of managing data centers and infrastructure. http://www.google.com/press/podium/ses2006.html



Much like “Web 2.0″, cloud computing was a collection of related concepts that people recognized, but didn’t really have a good descriptor for, a definition in search of a term, you could say. When Schmidt Google used it in 2006 to describe their own stuff and then Amazon included the word “cloud” in EC2 when it was launched a few weeks later (August 24), the term became mainstream. People couldn’t definite it exactly, but they roughly knew it meant SaaS apps and infrastructure like Google was doing and S3/EC2 services like Amazon was offering.

On my next post we'l explore the relationships between cloud computing,SAAS,PAAS,IAAS,windows Azure.watchout for  WINDOWS AZURE and the CLOUD COMPUTING STORY(PART2).

LINUX PUPPY is really a puppy!!

Ever heard of the product linux puppy? its really a lifesaver.i'v had friends, relatives, co-workers, .. get into the "handstied" dilemma. now let me describe the "handstied" dilemma: "your system refuses to boot, occasionally it boots up completely but seems to freeze,you try a system restore(like my friend Kay always would), still d same thing, u cant get hold of your operating system CD/DVD,or maybe you even have your OS CD/DVD but a repair(in the case of windows XP) doesn't solve the problem,you'v had it up to "here" with trying, you just want a way to get your important files out and do a clean format/install. Now thats the "handstied" dilemma.LINUX PUPPY to the rescue..
Now heres the procedure for getting and using linux puppy:


A.) Please take the opportunity now to bring your back up/archive/copy of all your important stuff 100% up to date, check that it's accurate, reproducible and held securely on removable media (not your hard drive)......

the idea here is to ensure that all your important data, files, spreadsheets, work, music, emails, log in details, user names, address book, drivers, letters, invoices, videos etc....in fact everything that is important to you (stuff that you would not like to permanently lose) is kept safe on external media. I recommend the use of a USB external hard drive for this.

Whilst you are doing this, collect together all your application installation discs (or downloaded installation executables) serial numbers, product licence keys (including the one for Windows itself and the Microsoft Windows installation disc and or Manufacturer's Restore and Driver/utilities discs.

If you have made a "disc image" using Paragon, Acronis, Ghost or one of the free disc imaging alternatives then keep this image safe also on removable media, verify it for correctness and reproducibility and ensure you have made a bootable CD/DVD for use in the event that Windows will not start.



Now here's the detailed instructions on how to download Puppy and burn it as an image.

B.) Download Linux Puppy from here:

http://puppylinux.org/main/index.phpfile=DownloadLatestRelease.htm://http://puppylinux.org/main/index.ph...estRelease.htm

Its a download of only about 100MB, so a broadband connection is advisable for the download... Puppy is an alternative operating system..... it does not need Windows to run, and the licence to use it is free of charge and comes included automatically. It is different in its interface from Windows, but sufficiently intuitive for most folks to use it successfully without problem.

C.) Burn the iso (that you have downloaded) to CD ROM as an "image"...it must be as an image, a copy will not work!........Imgburn is good for this, available from here:

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

NOTE by following this procedure you will have created a "self contained" operating system" (Linux Puppy and a bootable CD ROM all in one!

D.) Switch on your "original" computer and Set Bios to Boot from CD as first priority...on most Dells it's F2 to enter the Bios (set up) otherwise try F12, Esc or Delete.On some older Compaqs and HP's try F1, for Acers try F1 or F2 or Ctrl +Alt+Esc (the first screen on boot up usually gives the keys to press to enter "Set Up"..BIOS)

NOTE you will need to press the appropriate key (to enter the Bios) immediately after power on.

Your hard drive should be next in priority followed by USB/network if the settings provide these options. Remember to save your altered settings in the Bios before exiting

E.) With your external back up media plugged in to a USB port I.E. External USB hard drive, flash drive etc and the Linux Puppy CD ROM inserted into the CD drive, close down your machine and:

F.) Boot from the CD, you may get a message to "press any key to continue booting from CD" so allow this, Now follow the on-screen Linux Puppy prompts (remember don't install it) let it run in memory, it will be quite happy doing so, and will allow you access to your Hard drive so you can copy off to your external media anything you need. You will soon get used to Puppy and you'll find that you will be able to use the Internet and do most things that you want to do. However as you need to back up your files, I suggest you concentrate on copying off your important stuff first.If you are not experienced with using Linux then an easy way to copy files is to open windows of both the C drive from which you want to copy stuff and also your flash/USB drive, and then just use "drag and drop"/"copy and paste. Puppy will provide full support for USB drives and you should soon find you get the hang of things/i]

Wheww!! now that was easy aint it? so now you are ready to for a clean install.after installation copy your files back in place. Good luck with PUPPY.