Play Ball!

...Oh Wait, Let Me Check the Stat-Cloud First!
It is like a SAT question: Cincinnati Reds Billy Hamilton has a 10.83 foot lead off first base, can hit a top speed of 21.51 mph and clocked a jump of 0.49 seconds. If the Milwaukee Brewers catcher took 0.667 seconds to to get the ball out of his glove to throw to second and the ball is travelling at 78.81 mph, is Hamilton safe or out?
A few weeks ago I wrote about the Internet of Sports, and can't believe I missed this one. But with the MLB playoffs in full gear, I didn't want this to slip through the IoT cracks. Sports analytics has been around for a while but never to this degree.
Just like the NFL, Major League Baseball is equipping stadiums with technologies that can track moving players, flying baseballs and accurate throws. More than the RBIs, hits and stolen bases that appear on the back of trading cards, new technology (and software) also gathers stats like pop-fly pursuit range or average ground ball response time. Professional sports teams have always tracked their players' performance and often such milestones are included in the player's contract. Bonus for so many games played, or home runs hit or some other goal. With all this new detailed data, teams can adjust how they train, prepare for games and even player value for personnel moves like trades.
For the 2014 season, only 3 stadiums (Mets, Brewers, Twins) had the new Field f/x (Sportvision Inc.) system but the league plans to have all 30 parks complete for the 2015 season. Field f/x can show data such as the angle of elevation of a batted ball, the highest point in its trajectory and the distance covered and top speed attained by a player attempting to field a ball. Of course all this can then be crunched for cool graphics during a replay. Cameras, sensors and software are all now part of the game.
So are data centers, clouds and high speed links.
All this data needs to be crunched somewhere and more often it is in a cloud environment. Add to that, the connection(s) to the fans and with the fans at the stadium. Levi's Stadium, for instance, has 1200 access points and an app that allows you to order food, watch instant replays and know which bathroom line is the shortest. Our sport stadiums are becoming data centers.
Announcer: Welcome to Exclusive Sponsor Data Center Field! Home of the Hypertext Transfer Protocols. Undefeated at home this year, the Prots look to extend their record and secure home field throughout the playoffs.
And of you were wondering, Hamilton was Safe.
ps
Related:

• New Baseball Season Brings Tech to Track Player Skills
• Major League Baseball brings new tech to the plate
• Baseball All-Stars’ Data Gets More Sophisticated With Field F/X
• The Internet of Sports
• Are You Ready For Some...Technology!!
• Is IoT Hype For Real?

Technorati Tags: iot,things,baseball,sports,sensors,stats,big data,mlb,nfl,f5,silva,stadiums

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The Reach of a Breach

It comes as no surprise that the CEO of Target has resigned in the wake of their massive data breach. The 2nd executive, if I remember correctly, to resign due to the mishap. Data breaches are costly according to the most recent Ponemon 2014 Cost of Data Breach Study: United States and the main reason for the steep increase in costs is 'the loss of customers following the data breach due to additional expenses required to preserve the organization's brand and reputation.' The cost of each lost or stolen record, on average, increased from $188 to $201 per record from 2012 to 2013 - a 9% increase.

But that's not all, In 2013, there appeared to be 'an abnormal churn rate' of 15% of customers abandoning companies, especially those in financial services, hit by a breach says Ponemon. I'm always curious about that. I usually avoid stores that have been recently compromised wondering if something is lingering yet think, they gotta be on high alert, especially with law enforcement involved. Maybe it's as safe as it ever will be.

A recent Courion survey of IT security executives showed that 78% of respondents say they're anxious about the possibility of a data breach at their organization. If there were a massive security breach at these companies, 58.8% said 'protecting the privacy of our customers' would be top priority and 62.7% would lament about 'negative publicity affecting the company brand' due to the breach. Maybe that's the problem. They're more worried about their image than they are of protecting our info. It's the 58.8% you want to shop at.

Reaching for more, Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume 19, shows a big change in cybercriminal habits, revealing the bad guys are plotting for months before pulling off the huge heists – instead of popping quick hits with smaller bounty. One big is worth fifty small. In 2013, there was a 62% uptick in the number of data breaches exposing more than 552 million identities. That's about 10% of the planet's population, give-or-take.

And finally, there have been a few companies that have gone out of business due to a leakage but a few months ago a data breach also closed some Seattle area Catholic schools. According to the Seattle Archdiocese, at least three Roman Catholic parishes and the Archdiocese’s chancery offices had been targeted by a tax-fraud scheme. In order to allow those who were victims time to contact the appropriate institutions during school hours, they cancelled classes. How's that for reach.

ps

Related:

• 2014 Cost of Data Breach Study (pdf)
• A Decade of Breaches
• Breaches expose 552 million identities in 2013
• Data Breaches 9% More Costly in 2013 Than Year Before
• Why the Target Data Breach May Have Been a Great Thing, According to Wells Fargo & Co and Bank of America Corp
• Data Breaches: Worse for Your Image than a Dead Body in the Parking Lot
• 78 Percent of IT Security Execs Worry About Data Breaches
• Data breach to close some area Catholic schools Friday

 

Technorati Tags: breach,target,data_loss,ponemon,security,identity theft,f5,silva

 

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Interop 2014: F5 Interop NOC Stats

We visit with Ken Bocchino and Joe Wojcik of F5 Professional Services again to get some insight on the Interop.net network stats for the week. We talk DNS (15 million DNS lookups, half via BIG-IP recursion), SPDY and IPv6 along with a little insight on some of the overall traffic and the attack mitigation that occurred for the World’s Largest Temporary Network.

ps
Related

• Interop 2014: Find F5 Pop Up Edition
• Interop 2014: F5 in the NOC (feat Bocchino & Wojcik)
• Interop 2014: F5 Synthesis Whiteboard (feat Wagner)
• F5 executive Sangeeta Anand on Cisco ACI
• F5 at Interop
• F5 YouTube Channel

Technorati Tags: f5,Interop,vegas,synthesis,security,silva,video,noc,dns,spdy,ipv6,big-ip

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You Got a Minute?

Like most of us, I try to read the entire internet on a daily basis but for some reason, these slipped through.  They both came out in 2011 and I am sure the numbers have changed in many cases.  For instance, the graphic shows 70+ domains registered every minute and for Sept 3 (thus far for today), on average 78 per minute have been registered.  Yet for twitter, the chart indicates 320 new accounts per minute but my look up today, if my math is correct, shows 94 new twitter accounts every minute but with 546,000 (vs. 98,000+) tweets per minute today.

Regardless, the somewhat, slightly dated info is still mind boggling and it is always fun to see historical data.

Things that happen on the Internet every 60 Seconds circa 2011.

And the products we use:

ps

Related:

60 Seconds – Things That Happen On Internet Every Sixty Seconds [Infographic]

Technorati Tags: data,60 seconds,stats,internet,web,social media,application delivery,silva

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Interop2013: DDoS'ing Interop Follow Up

I grab F5ers Ken Bocchino and Sam Richman to talk about DDoS’ing the Interop Infrastructure, the F5 gear used to protect the network and some of the mind blowing stats gathered over the last couple days of running Interop Net.

 

ps

Related:

• Interop2013: Find F5
• Interop2013: DDoS'ing the Interop Network
• Interop2013: F5 Certification Program
• Interop2013: BIG-IQ Cloud
• Interop2013: Partner Spotlight - Big Switch Networks
• Interop2013: Partner Spotlight – ICSA Labs
• F5's YouTube Channel
• In 5 Minutes or Less Series (23 videos – over 2 hours of In 5 Fun)
• Inside Look Series
• Life@F5

Technorati Tags: f5,interop,ddos,interop NOC,stats,firewall,security,big-ip,silva,video,vegas,2013,afm

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Targets of Opportunity

#dbir

...Is one of the findings in #Verizon's 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report, which is chuck full of interesting data.  75% of the attack victims were selected because they had a weakness that an attacker knew how to exploit rather than being specifically chosen.  The difficulty of the initial compromise was low for 68% of the breaches meaning the attackers used basic methods or automated tools and scripts.  It also means that there are sloppy configurations, needless services and exposed vulnerabilities that are bringing this attention.

Overall, the report covers 47,000 reported security incidents, of which, there were 621 confirmed data breaches.  This is important since they focus on the 621 confirmed data loss incidents rather than the 47,000 reports.  There will probably be a ton of articles reporting the results but a good place to start is securosis.com with their How to Use the 2013 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report.  This is a great primer for the document.

There is a pretty even distribution of industries hit from financial to retail and restaurants to manufacturing, transportation and utilities to government and defense contractors.  The overwhelming majority of attacks are perpetrated by outsiders at 92% of the confirmed data breaches with insiders at 14%.  Interestingly, for all reports (the 47,000 not just the 621 confirmed) insiders accounted for 69% of the incidents.  Typically this was due to carelessness rather than criminal misuse.  76% of the network intrusions exploited weak or stolen credentials and most often, the attack was driven by financial motives at 75%.

Some other interesting data for me was that 66% of the breaches remained undiscovered for months or more and 69% of those were discovered by outside entities.  So organizations are in the dark about their intrusions, and it takes an outsider to point it out.  It's like those people who drive away with the gas hose still hooked to their tank. 

I was also curious about breaches as a result of BYOD.  Not many.  In 2011 they only saw 1 breach that involved personally owned devices and only a couple more in 2012.  They will keep watching and do expect that it may increase but for now, so far so good.  Could be because while BYOD is a hot topic, most surveys indicate that only around half the organizations are digging in.

There is a ton more valuable data in the report and it is an easy, fun read for 63 pages of stats.  Right on page 2 they say, 'Some organizations will be a target regardless of what they do, but most become a target because of what they do.  If your organization is indeed a target of choice, understand as much as you can about what your opponent is likely to do and how far they are willing to go.'  Put it on your list.

ps

Related:

• 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report
• How to Use the 2013 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report
• Verizon's 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report: Highlights
• OBSERVATIONS ON THE 2013 VERIZON DATA BREACH INVESTIGATIONS REPORT
• Hacktivists Change Tactics From Data Breaches to Disruption: Verizon

Technorati Tags: breach,data breach,verizon,dbir,malware,hacks,malicious,stats,2012,silva,security,information,f5

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Ride The Crime Coaster

Now that would be a fun amusement park ride - the Crime Coaster - with the hills and valleys designed based on crime statistic charts.  You can even get a digital photo of yourself as you fly thru the Tunnel of Turmoil.  Muuhahahahahahahahahah! 

With all the dire warnings of how cybercrime is the nation's top priority, I was wondering how other crimes have been faring.  And NO, this is not a for/against 'gun control' rant but for instance, is burglary loosing its luster to smashing a server's window?  Since cyber crime is a billion dollar business will the door-to-door thief change tactics?  Probably not for now but as physical, non-cyber crimes drop, does digital crime go up?  Or, since 'stealing something' is the ultimate goal, as more available methods (like cyber) to accomplish the goal become available, does all crime go up?  I should also note that crime stats should be taken with a grain of salt since law enforcement can only comment on the crimes that have been reported to them.  Crimes like car theft are often reported due to insurance claims while other crimes, like domestic disputes, are under reported due to embarrassment or other hindering factors.  Add to that, different jurisdictions have various scales of classification, penalties and measurement. Plus, the recent report that says few companies report that cybercrime results in big losses only adds to the confusion.

According to the FBI, violent crimes in the US are down for the 5th year in a row.  Granted, for now, cybercrime is probably more property related than violent but that could change.  Cities like Los Angeles, are reporting that crime - violent and property- is down significantly even though, overall, LA is much higher than the rest of California and violent crime in LA occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America, according to neighborhoodscout.com.  Most criminologists agree that several factors are contributing to the decline.  We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world; there has been an increased police presence; there are security cameras everywhere; the aging population; and programs to help both the youngsters and those in need can all be attributed to the decline.

So while our physical bodies and personal property in the material world are safer, our identity, privacy, passwords, infrastructure, and other digital collateral are more at risk than ever.  On a daily basis, companies are getting probed and breached yet might not know or simply might not report it.  I bet, however, if someone threw a rock smashing their lobby window, a couple Five-O's will be on the scene taking statements.  The company, local employees and the police will have a BOLO issued and everyone will be on heightened alert.  There might also be additional security measures taken, tempered glass, CCTV, key card entry and other physical protection mechanisms.

We readily deploy layered security for our physical property with locks, alarms, dogs, cameras, window bars, weapons, panic rooms, etc all within the context of what we are trying to protect.  We should do the same for our digital assets.  Imagine if we took the same safeguards (or paranoia in this case), albeit with different technologies, to protect our bits and bytes.  Yes, there will still be breaches but maybe things like D/DoS, SQLi and other well known vulnerabilities can be greatly reduced since we do have the technology to protect against such attacks.  It just has to be deployed. 

We thwart criminals and protect our personal physical property with a vast array of mechanisms and we feel/are secure...maybe we should take that same focus, fear and fever in protecting our digital self.  Then, as you peel off the pixilated mask you'll hear, '...and I would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling firewalls!'

ps

Related:

• Why Cyber Crime Is Now the Top Threat Facing U.S.
• FBI Uniform Crime Report
• Violent crimes in U.S. down fifth year in a row, says FBI
• Cyberattacks Abound Yet Companies Tell SEC Losses Are Few
• Crime in Los Angeles is down so far in 2013, report says
• Hackers Are Multiplying and Targeting the U.S.
• Crime Rates Are Down -- But Why?
• The 5 biggest online privacy threats of 2013

Technorati Tags: crime,cyber security,risk,safety,ddos,breach,attacks,digital,physical,personal,police,law enforcement,afm,silva,security

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RSA2013: F5 RSA Security Trends Survey

I review the key findings from the F5 RSA Security Trends Survey. On Tuesday, February 26, F5 conducted a survey on the exhibit show floor during RSA 2013. Conference attendees were asked two initial qualifying questions about their role within their organization and how much their job involves the management and implementation of security to ensure the validity of the survey results. More than 150 qualified respondents were then asked a total of four questions surrounding security trends.

The survey revealed that organizations are struggling to keep pace with the changing face of security. Virtualization, BYOD and shifts in IT infrastructures and applications along with the complexity of attack types are driving new threats. IT admits that these threats are beyond the scope of traditional safeguards. As such, IT reports that their general security readiness is subpar.

 

ps

Related:

• RSA2013: Aloha from RSA
• RSA2013: Find F5
• RSA2013: Gimme 90 Seconds Security Edition
• RSA2013: Partner Spotlight – Websense
• RSA2013: Partner Spotlight – Quarri
• F5′s YouTube Channel
• In 5 Minutes or Less Series (23 videos – over 2 hours of In 5 Fun)
• Inside Look Series
• Life@F5
• Also this week, check out: Mobile World Congress – Day 1 & Mobile World Congress – Day 2

Technorati Tags: f5,rsac,rsa,rsa2013,psilva,video,survey

Interop 2012 - F5 in the Interop NOC Statistics

I meet with F5's Professional Services Consultant Sam Richman to review some of the stats from the World’s Largest Portable Network.  Highlights  included:  BIG-IP Data Center Firewall pushed a Terabyte of data; BIG-IP Web Accelerator delivered 100 gigabytes of content from cache; almost 70% of the Interop website was delivered thru cache; 16 million syslog messages and the Nerf N-Strikes had a peak of 12 Nerf darts per second.

Interop 2012 - F5 in the Interop NOC Statistics

ps

Related

• F5@INTEROP
• Interop 2012
• Interop 2012 - Find F5 Networks Booth 2137
• Interop 2012 - F5 in the Interop NOC
• Interop 2012 - Application Delivery Optimization with F5's Lori MacVittie
• Interop 2012 - F5 Technical Certification Program with Ken Salchow
• Interop 2012 - The F5 & HP Partnership with Jeff Stathatos
• Interop 2012 - Splunk Reports for BIG-IP Data Center Firewall with Danny Luedke
• Interop 2012 - Interview with Brian Monkman of ICSA Labs
• Interop 2012 - F5 in the Interop NOC Statistics
• Interop Las Vegas 2012 - "F5: Pick the Right Tool for the Job"
• F5 Secures and Optimizes Application and Network Services for the Interop 2012 Las Vegas Network Operations Center
• F5 Helps Organizations Improve User Experience and Simplify Management with First Integrated SPDY Gateway
• F5’s New Technical Certification Program Helps Define and Measure the Skills Required for Today’s IT Complexities
• F5 YouTube Channel

Technorati Tags: F5, interop, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, internet, big-ip, nerf, statistics, NOC

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