The Web Malware Pandemic

Just as the Internet, the Web, and the information age have revolutionized our businesses and our lives, these developments have also radically changed the face of crime. Computer and Internet crime are no exception. Today, computers factor in nearly every form of crime – from crimes facilitated by computers (credit card theft, for example), to crimes, which are specifically computer-to-computer (malware, for example), and to crimes in which computers play an incidental supporting role (i.e. an illegal gambling bookie that keeps computerized records). This paper addresses one single facet of cybercrime – the manipulation of Web content and Web technologies for criminal and/or for illicit gains

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THE WORLD’S LARGEST SECURITY ANALYSIS OF REAL-WORLD WEB TRAFFIC
By Cisco Systems

The ScanSafe Global Threat Report is an analysis of more than a trillion Web requests processed in 2009 by the ScanSafe Threat Center on behalf of the company’s corporate clients in over 80 countries across five continents. Our leading position of providing security in-the-cloud provides unparalleled insight in the real-world Web threats faced by the today’s enterprise; this report represents the world’s largest security analysis of real- world Web traffic.

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by Cisco Systems

Every manager faces the prospect of an operations breakdown. That is the risk of doing business in an uncertain world. But business resiliency implies more than successfully coping with disasters and disruptions when they occur. Managers need to give their employees the knowledge, means and confidence to overcome, and even take advantage of, the potential risks that pervade the business environment. A successful business resiliency program involves anticipating and preparing for the major disruptive threat exposures that any company faces, while taking a risk-adjusted, capital-allocation-based approach to managing risks. With foresight and proper planning, organizations can develop a level of resilience that allows them to withstand any emergency that could put their people and business in jeopardy.
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Unified Communications (UC) as an integrated launch point to multiple communications applications will swiftly fade as UC is integrated into corporate social networking and collaboration applications. This is the impression I walked away with after the Orlando VoiceCon industry event. The implication of this is systemic, sending change throughout the industry from suppliers, buyers, and even industry event organizers. What I mean is that UC as a standalone desktop application has limited value. IT and business leaders are pressing suppliers to improve user experience and in the process productivity.

It wasn’t too long ago that UC was touted as a better way to access a broad range of communication applications such as voice, IM, video, email, etc. Vendors such as Microsoft’s Office Communicator, Cisco’s Unified Personal Communicator, Avaya’s One-X, Siemens OpenScape Desktop Client et al., will be of increasingly little use as standalone products. Even as these UC clients go mobile they will fall short of user experience expectations. As communications is now firmly in the grips of Moore’s Law and software economics, the rate of change and level of integration is accelerating at a frantic pace.

There are multiple trends building upon each other with such force as to morph UC into social networking and collaboration Web 2.0 applications. Social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter have jumped from consumer internet services to business tools. There is a cottage industry of start-ups that are creating innovative approaches to capturing an individual’s social grid and interface it into contact centers so as to better up- and cross-sell. Yes there are interesting Facebook, Google and/or LinkedIn pop-ups that extend caller ID to a screen pop, complete with a caller’s profile and even search your email for relevant past exchanges with the caller, all aimed at increasing user experience.

Then there are corporate-based social networking platforms such as SocialText which add security and journaling to social media tools. Whether UC is added to consumer social and collaboration tools or to enterprise grade applications is irrelevant; both are occurring and both activities will only accelerate. The growth and level of communications enabled by social networking and collaboration tools is unparalleled and represents a new approach to human interaction that needs to be captured and put to work within enterprises. We are in the midst of a great experimental phase of how best to achieve this integration. The meeting at VoiceCon offered only a glimpse of this progress.

Collaboration platforms such as IBM Lotus Sametime is very popular and its growth has not waned during the economic downturn. In fact IBM’s LotusLive cloud collaboration for inter-company collaboration is one of the fastest growing IBM products. Sametime is a great example of how a UC has been integrated into a collaboration suite and improves the user experience. IBM’s mash-up hub application lets users create their own mash-ups with a Sametime call widget, again increasing the user experience and control over that experience.

Siemens is in an interesting position as its OpenScape is an integral part of IBM’s Sametime. Siemens introduced its Cloud UC service built upon Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to offer the SMB market UC in a SaaS model. One can imagine that with OpenScape and Sametime in the Amazon cloud a SMB would have access to the same tools and user experience that only large firms could once afford. Therein lies the beauty of UC being integrated into collaboration suites and offered as a cloud service. Price points are smashed along with a total disruption of the SMB channel to market.

Cisco has been busy integrating UC into a wide range of collaboration tools too. It has integrated its unified personal communicator client into its Unified MeetingPlace and WebEx platforms. I expect to see UC integrated into its recently acquired Jabber IM service and Telepresence platform too.

Avaya introduced its Aura™ platform, which seeks to clean up and rationalize legacy voice and VoIP communications into a SIP platform. Two important aspects of Aura™ are that 1) it’s a new design that takes cost out of communications by reducing WAN, equipment and operational spend; and 2) it offers a UC integration into applications platforms. In short Aura™ should pay for itself within twelve months and pay dividends as communications is embedded into applications, especially social networking and collaboration applications.

But the above examples are just snapshots of a broader and bigger vision of how UC will be integrated into Web 2.0-based social and collaboration tools.

Envision a corporate Facebook-like user interface that is self populated with an employee’s profile, complete with past and current projects, their skills and relationships to both internal and external resources. Employees can join groups modeled after traditional organizational lines of command such as finance, HR, manufacturing, engineering, sales, etc. But more importantly, imagine these groups being cross-functional and based upon projects or product development where sales, engineering, marketing, manufacturing, etc., collaborate to move a product through its phase review process. Employees would populate the groups with work product, placing a huge body of work or information into the collaboration space. So imagine that over time three entities would emerge: people, groups and information, all cross-referenced through TAGs. All IT offers is the collaboration and social networking platform; profiles, group membership and information are populated by employees. The collaboration between these entities of people, information and groups would enable work to move faster throughout an organization and employees to self-organize around projects. Now inject real-time UC and video into this platform and you have the basis for a new approach to how work gets done.

The above scenario is not just my vision; it’s the direction our industry is heading after numerous NDA briefings with a wide range of IT suppliers. The intersection between social networking, collaboration and UC, thanks to Web 2.0 techniques will usher in a new model for productivity improvement through improved user experience and in its wake will change the IT industry and IT organizational design. This new collaboration model will emerge as the global economy recovers. As capital spending recovers it’s becoming clear that IT and business leaders will not fund the same old projects but will invest their capital spend into new innovative approaches to corporate productivity such as the UC and social collaboration platform discussed above.

For IT organizations a re-design is needed. UC has been sold to networking and telecom professionals while social networking and collaboration tools are sold to those who manage applications. These two groups are clearly stakeholders in the solution they eventually deploy and thus need to work together. Here too the economic downturn has a positive effect in that many of the past organizational barriers have fallen as IT is focused on operational cost reduction and project delivery.

As the application and networking groups seek a new working relationship so too do IT suppliers. For example, Adobe, Citrix, HP, et al who have for the most part been absent in social networking, collaboration or UC will partner up or acquire others to engage in this new industry sector. Look for one of the above to make a huge announcement at Interop.

Just as IT organizations and suppliers re-align and position for the Web 2.0-enabled collaboration market so too will the industry venues. VoiceCon for example attracts the telecom manager, but not the networking, application, or collaboration buyer. At the same time VoiceCon was taking place so too was Web 2.0 expo. Look for a new venue to emerge that is virtual and uses the tools of social, collaboration and UC to address this new market.

UC as a standalone desktop application has limited value. IT and business leaders should focus on collaboration platforms that are Web 2.0-based, and incorporate social media and UC as the path toward greater use experience and productivity.

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By Siemens Enterprise Communications

This paper defines different telecommuting models and shows how companies are telecommuting across the globe. Lastly, it will demonstrate how Siemens Enterprise Communications Group has significantly cut expenses by adopting green telecommuting and how you can do the same.

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By Foundry Networks

Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) as a technology has been around for over a decade and has been used extensively in several service provider networks world-wide. Over the last few years, the standardization of applications such as VPN technologies over MPLS has opened the door for this technology to be used in an enterprise network. This paper explores the use of MPLS in an enterprise network and its associated benefits of lower cost and increased security.

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By Ruckus Wireless

Faced with a population of over 16,000 students, limited resources and WiFi-enabled devices of all shapes and sizes, the Delta School District (Delta) recognized it was time to take action in finding a simple, streamlined solution to their growing wireless needs. Delta needed to deploy a reliable wireless infrastructure in each of its schools to accommodate a variety of applications, such as supporting small-footprint laptops provided to special need students, video surveillance, tablet computers, mobile computing carts equipped with laptops, back-office applications and even the ability to control school heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

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By Cisco Systems and The City of Dublin, Ohio

The city of Dublin, Ohio is home to more than 3,000 businesses, and continually strives to create an attractive economic environment. Information technology plays an important role in Dublin's efforts to bring the best and most promising businesses to the city, and it was important to provide access anytime, anywhere. "œA major emphasis has always been enhancing economic development and establishing a significant tax base that will take us into the future," says Mayor Marilee Chinnici-Zuercher. "œAccess to technology is a key element of our strategy, because we have a lot of small businesses that are global in their missions and purposes." Adds Jane Brautigam, City Manager, "œWe believe that providing better access to the Internet, via our network infrastructure, will bring companies to the city, and encourage them to grow their business here."

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The Cisco mobility group has always had the broadest view and product portfolio for mobility solutions. Their definition of mobility expands beyond wireless LANs to include cellular, VPNs, and location services. But last week the Cisco mobility group elevated their value proposition beyond physical and geographic independent networked computing with the launch of Cisco Motion. Cisco Motion offers the broadest technical and business architecture for mobile networks and communications positioning Cisco far from its smaller WLAN competitors such as Aruba, Meru, Trapeze, et al.

Cisco Motion is yet another example of how Cisco is pivoting its value position to compete for a larger share of IT budgets. With the Network as a Business Platform initiative Cisco is blurring the boundary between computing, communications and networking. Cisco now offers Linux and Windows platforms within its Integrated Services Router (ISR) and Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) products. In the ISR its Application eXtension Platform offers a technical and business architecture for partners creating an ecosystem and value creation around its branch office offerings. The Workspace Ready Networks initiative from its unified communications group links communications and networks together so that collaboration takes place independent of workspace. Its Vframe and Nexus data center orchestration and switch products offer a new approach to data center design that eliminates the old boundaries between computing, applications, networking and storage. Cisco Motion offers a new organizing principal for mobile computing and communications, which connects disparate mobile technologies while offering developers both a technical architecture to build value and business architecture to generate revenues.

There is no doubt that Cisco is increasingly going head-to-head with Microsoft and HP in particular as they seek to gain a larger share of IT budgets. Clearly Cisco has in-segment competitors, which it focuses on, but the real initiatives are engaging business and IT leaders to demonstrate the power of value creation through the network as a core business platform. To that end, Cisco Motion sets Cisco apart from its in-segment competitors such as Aruba, Meru, Trapeze, etc., and engages business and IT leaders with an approach to mobility that includes the following.
The Cisco Motion initiative seeks to:

Unify disparate networks thus allowing mobile applications to be extended to end-points.

Enable end-point choice by being agnostic to various mobile clients while in the process securing and managing devices via centralized client provisioning.

Facilitate Collaboration by using the network to select the appropriate communications media (voice, IM, Video, or a combination thereof) to deliver end-point appropriate collaboration services.

Open Mobility Applications by delivering an open API for ISVs to inject innovation and value creation addressing line of business and/or corporate requirements.

To deliver on the above goals Cisco Motion needs a deep technical architecture. It delivers on that by providing common access to disparate wireless networks and clients through a set of open source protocols, an open API (XML/SOAP) and its Mobility Services Engine (MSE). Cisco Motion includes all versions of 802.11 as well as cellular/WiMax, Zigbee for wireless control of everyday devices and instrumentation, Ultra-Wideband

(UWB) for short wireless gigabit links and Radio-frequency identification (RFID) for supply chain management and senior network applications. Access to these networks is via unified wireless network controllers, which in turn connect disparate wireless networks via a set of open source protocols.
Applications such as conferencing, presence, inventory management, assembly line monitoring, CRM, email, search, et al are presented with a set of mobility services, which increase their access to the above mentioned wireless networks. Mobility services provided in MSE such as context aware, adaptive wireless IPS, secure client manager, mobile intelligent roaming, voice, guest access, spectrum intelligence, et al, are delivered to applications via Cisco's MSE. MSE provides an open API (XML/SOAP based) for developers, which is Cisco's innovation injection and value creation point of entry for partners.

Central to Cisco Mobility is the Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE). The 3300 Series MSE is an appliance-based platform that integrates with WLAN Controller and Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS). The 3300 Series MSE provides a common framework for multiple services easing deployment and efficient allocation of capital spend. An abstraction layer based upon Network Mobility Services Protocol (NMSP) and the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) allows transport and applications to evolve at their own separate pace.

As MSE is central to Cisco Mobility it is the basis for the Cisco ecosystem of application partners where Cisco hopes to accelerate development and deployment of customized solutions for customers. As mentioned above MSE provides a range of mobility services to applications. Today MSE provides four services in its software suite. These include: 1) Context Aware which optimizes business process with context such as location and telemetry; 2) Adaptive Wireless IPS to mitigate wireless threats with integrated intrusion protection; 3) Secure Client Manger to simplify device provisioning and management for the wave of new mobile devices; and 4) Mobile Intelligent Roaming to deliver handoff for mobility applications across public and private networks.

Delivering a platform is only 10% of a solution; the other 90% comes from an ecosystem of partners. The Cisco Motion ecosystem includes business application partners such as Oracle, Philips, AeroScout, PanGo, airetrak, Intellidot, Oat, et al. Client or end-point partners include AeroScout, Nokea, PanGo, Intel and airetrak.

Cisco gets credit for delivering the most comprehensive vision plus technical and business architecture for mobility services in Cisco Motion. MSE offers a great rallying point for Cisco partners and the creation of an ecosystem, but it needs to expand both the number of partners and services delivered to applications via MSE. Cisco also has to remain competitive with its in-segment competitors while offering great application integration value to business and IT leaders. As the WLAN market transitions to 802.11n and meshing, network technology will gain the spotlight, and Cisco needs to keep up with that while increasing its application value proposition through Cisco Motion. This is a tricky balance, but it's a task Cisco has done so well with previous initiatives.
While Cisco continues to put the technical pieces together to deliver the network as the business platform, it needs to do a better job at organizing, growing and galvanizing its Cisco Developers Network (CDN) to offer business and IT leaders thought-leading networked-based application solutions. Cisco Motion is a good step in that direction.

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By Ruckus Wireless

Businesses are struggling with the complexity and cost of installing and managing large-scale WLANs. Wi-Fi meshing is a solution to this problem. An enterprise mesh WLAN is made up of a group of cooperating APs, only some of which are directly attached to Ethernet. The APs form a wireless topology to route client traffic between any member of the mesh and the wired network. Meshing greatly reduces, if not eliminates, WLAN cabling costs and delays as well as AP placement constraints. But despite these compelling benefits, most enterprises have not overcome their concerns over the performance, reliability and complexity of mesh WLANs to take advantage of it on a broad scale.

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By Ruckus Wireless

With physical data rates up to 600Mbps, many believe that 802.11n will replace wired networks within the enterprise and at home. But there's significant disparity between the 802.11n promise and the actual throughput experienced by users of the current generation of 802.11n systems. The most overlooked and under-optimized aspect of commercial 802.11n systems is the control over radio frequency (RF) variability. A robust, responsive RF layer is central to wireless network performance, particularly for Wi-Fi which operates in the open spectrum. It is ironic that most of the system products based on 802.11n, designed to make maximum use of the RF domain, do little in this regard beyond integrating more radio chains and antennas.

Ruckus Wireless Smart Wi-Fi technology combines advances in miniaturized multi-element antenna design and sophisticated RF routing software to direct signals onto the best paths in real time to deliver the highest possible performance and reliability in ever changing RF conditions. It also features client- and media-intelligent QoS to optimize multimedia transmissions. With 802.11n, Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi has been extended to optimize antenna operations with multiple radios and intelligent channel utilization software to overcome many of the challenges in realizing 802.11n's true potential.

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