Cisco backs down on cloud control of routers

The Register reports about the uproar of Cisco's Linksys EA4500, EA3500, and EA2700 routers customers. An automated update installed new firmware so that they could be fully configured using only its Connect Cloud service rather than via local management software, excluding functions such as parental controls and USB storage. This Cloud connect thing raised some security concerns about the cloud service and others pointing out that the terms and conditions of the Connect Cloud service seemed rather broad, granting Cisco the right to monitor traffic and internet usage and share it with third-parties as it liked, as well as the right to disconnect service.

Cisco responded quite quickly they reversed the update and made it a choice for the customer to use Cloud connect or not. They will also change their terms of services: "The Cisco Connect Cloud service has never monitored customers’ internet usage, nor was it designed to do so, and we will clarify this in an update to the terms of service".

Either it was designed to do so or not we will never know but quite some large and small businesses were not pleased so it was a bad move which costs them credibility. Not good for a company which delivers routers and firewalls and other networking stuff.

Half the team at the heart of the RBS disaster WERE in India

Outsourcing has its own limits as reported by
The Register. Mishandling of batch schedule data while backing out of an update to CA-7 batch processing software last week caused the disruption that led to 16.9 million customers at RBS, Natwest and Ulsterbank being frozen out of their accounts for days, and ongoing issues in some cases. The formerly 60 man team who where seated in the UK had been cut in two and replaced with workers in India in a attempt to cut costs. This did not work out very well as noted by the bank customers. The problem has not been that there are not competent people in India but to hire the right people is. Lesson learned: you certainly should reconsider before outsourcing of critical parts of your main dataprocessing.

Scientists crack RSA SecurID 800 tokens

Ars Technica reports about scientists cracking the RSA SecurID 800 token in under 15 minutes. After the notion that internet, intranet and networking in general can not be secured completely by any means now we know that securitytokens are not safe either. Of course there several classes of security devices but more then one layer security is for sure something you should consider.

Office printers spew reams of garbage as 2-year-old Trojan runs wild

The Register reports about the unplanned side effect of malware Milicenso Trojan which make printers spewing reams of garbage. Of course this is not intended by the malware maker but a side effect of using the Windows printerspooler as a attack vector. Next time you get garbage documents by your manager you now know it is caused by malware but probably not at his computer.

3.3″ HDMI-dongle Android Pocket TV funded within 1 week on Kickstarter

Ars Technica has a report about yet another small ARM-computer. This time it is a HDMI-dongle sized Pocket TV with Android 4 as OS. Quite impressive specs for such a small form factor: 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage, built-in microSD slot, a USB 2.0 port, and WiFi. Earlier this year the FXI Cotton Candy has been announced which is sligthly more expensive: $199 against $160 but has more RAM and a somewhat faster CPU.

With a lot of this small sized gadgets the number of ARM based computing devices are growing at a rapid pace. This partly explains the big dollars Intel is spending to create a serious competitor for ARM chips. It is quite ironic they already did have Xscale ARM processors but saled it a few years ago as "not interesting for making profits".

Intel partners prep 20 Clover Trail Windows 8 tablets

The Register reports about the Computex trade show in Taipei. Intel keynote revealed the plans of delivering 20 new tablets for Windows 8 by partners based on the next generation powerfriendly Atom. Main advantage for users seems to be the ability to run apps on native X86 hardware in contrast to Window RT on ARM-processors. Big question is do users want those native apps? Apple and Android seems to prove they do not.

Magnetic medicines hit the cancerous spot

Not ICT related but a very interesting piece at The Register about drug delivery using gold-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for enhanced tumour targeting with external magnetic fields. By guiding these particles to a tumour with external magnetic fields they reduce the sideeffects to other bodyparts. A other mechanism that could be used is placing a magnetic core into a tumour to pull the magnetic medicines to the cancerous spot. Of course preventing cancer remains the best remedy but a better cure is still very welcome because the still expected rise of cancer patients in the near future.