Jabablog

Press Coverage – February 2010

Jabs — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:07:32 +0000

BCS Industry News – 02 February 2010 – Fraud Rises

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Sunny Side Up 25/01/2010

Jabs — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:25:11 +0000

A fresh mix for you all – Happy New Year!

Track List:

01. Albin Myers – Time Like These

02. Robbie Rivera – New Direction

03. Oliver Twizt – Yo’re Not Alone

04. John Dahlback – More than I Wanted

05. Chris Lake – If You Knew

06. Doman & Gooding Feat Dru & Lincoln – Runnin

07. Guetta Angello Gerraud Ingrosso Willis – Everytime We Touch

08. Steve Angello & Laifdback Luke Feat Robin S – Show Me Love

09. Planet Funk – Lemonade

10. Kurd Maverick – Blue Monday

11. Nari & Milani Feat Max C – Disco Nuff

12. Kevin Bryant – Who You Wanna Be

13. Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream

Tags: electro, mixing, music, Progressive, Progressive House, Summer House, xponent

Christmas Messin Around 21/12/2009

Jabs — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:44:32 +0000

Just messing around with some choonage, only 30 minutes or so long but some interesting choons and it doesn’t sound too bad.

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Tags: electro, House, mixing, music, techno

Press Coverage – January 2010

Jabs — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:14:16 +0000

Sunday Times – 17th January 2010 – Dark Pools / Hacking

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Tags: InfoSec, press

Cloud Computing

Jabs — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:31 +0000

I am getting a little annoyed with hearing people wax lyrical about “the cloud” and how its going to revolutionise the world. I have a news flash for you all, its not new and its not revolutionary!

First of all, lets define what we are talking about. There is a simple definition for Cloud Computing, and three models of operation as held by NIST, these are:

Definition:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

Models of Operation:

Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Now, I am pretty sure that during my long career, I have seen a lot of companies doing IaaS and PaaS as a “Business as Usual” activity, haven’t you? In my experience, IaaS is nothing more than a traditional infrastructure outsourcing arrangement, as undertaken with IBM, HP/EDS or BT, while PaaS is just a simple hosting service offered by most ISP’s (I accept I am simplifying here). So what are we really talking about when the press pickup and pedal the term “cloud computing”. Looks to me like they are talking about SaaS, which again, has been around for a while, Hotmail anyone?, but not really taken off in the enterprise until it became “cloud computing”. So is this just a media spin to pedal Hotmail to the enterprise or just a natural progression from outsourcing boxes to apps? What is revolutionary here, I am yet to see.

Tags: cloud, InfoSec

Investment Complete!

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:05:29 +0000

Well, despite wanting to spend thousands of pounds on the perfect setup, I decided I had to transition away from Vinyl completely first and get used to the fully digital interfaces. So, in my usual, straight out of left field way, I bought myself an M-Audio Xponent and some new speakers

The Xponent is an awesome tool, it is the perfect transition medium for anyone thinking of moving into digital and is very well featured. Its a little on the plastic side, and the faders feel like they are fisher price, but it works like a dream and is portable enough to follow me around the country!

I now have two primary setups, home & away.

Home is the Xponent, married to my main desktop feeding a pair of KRK RP6G2 Active Studio Monitors, and it sounds awesome!

Away is the Xponent. married to my X200s Laptop & feeding a pair of M-Audio AV20 portable studio monitors, although it lacks base, it has punch, power and clarity and lets face it, we don’t want to piss off the neighbours in the hotel now do we

I still suffer from the age old problem of not actually having time to use this lot, but the away kit helps with that problem a fair bit, so once I get fully transitioned, expect a flurry of new mixes on the way!

Tags: gadgets, KRK, m-audio, mixing, production, RP6G2, xponent

Press Coverage – August 2009

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:48:22 +0000

Open post to see coverage:

Accountancy Age – August 2009 – Dark Pools of Talent

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Tags: press

Press Coverage – July 2009

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:47:55 +0000

Open post to see coverage:

Sheffield Star Business Monthly – July 2009 – Hacking

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Tags: press

Press Coverage – April 2009

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:47:28 +0000

Open post to see coverage:

computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Malware
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Risk in the recession
pcauthority.com.au – April 2009 – Microsoft
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Microsoft
crn.com.au – April 2009 – Risk in the recession
whatpc.co.uk – April 2009 – Security
computing.co.uk – April 2009 – Malware
Searchsecurity.co.uk – April 2009 – Conficker & Patching

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Tags: press

Press Coverage – March 2009

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:46:58 +0000

Open post to see coverage:

Insurance Times – March 2009 – Data Loss Issues

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Tags: press

Press Coverage – February 2009

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:46:25 +0000

Open post to see coverage:

Computer Fraud and Security – February 2009 – Ethics & Hacking

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Tags: press

Press Coverage –

Jabs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:45:48 +0000

Open post to see coverage:

North West Insider – August 2007 – IT Security
North West Insider – August 2008 – BERR Survey

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Tags: press

Rolling House Beats – 15/08/2009

Jabs — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 22:37:29 +0000

Its been a long time coming, but here it is… a fresh mix on a totally new rig, so excuse the flaky mixing

Tags: electro, House, mixing

A new solution

Jabs — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:53:40 +0000

I have decided to plan my new musical platform in advance this time, rather than the usual method of buy something, expand on it, realise its not up to the job and then replace it. This essentially means that I am going to spend a great deal of time on google deciding something, then finding a better version of something and so one, until I eventually bite the bullet and invest.

What I have at this stage is a premise and an outline set of requirements. The premise is simple, go fully digital, but retain analogue controls. The outline components are as follows:

A powerful PC/MAC + Essential Apps such as Ableton Live
A High Quality Multi-channel sound card
A midi trigger device
A Good quality Mixer
A Sampler/Effects Unit

Now, its actually possible to have all of the above in a single box, and in fact, many solutions exist for sub £250, but to be honest, its just not going to give me the flexibility and expandability that I desire. What I want is complete fluidity in the solution so that I can expand upon for many years, giving me not only multi-channel mixing, but the real-time remix capability that I desire

So where next?

Well, I already have a decent mixer (DJM600), a powerful PC (Multi-Xeon Monster) and Ableton, so the most important piece and crux of the system is what I need to acquire first. This would be the multi-channel sound card! I have had a look around and found many options, but this one seems to be the best by a mile:

Motu Ultralite MK3

This unit has all the features I could need, from 192Khz sample rates, through to 6 channels of input and 10 channels of output to give me as many feeds as I could possibly deal with! The spec list goes on forever on this thing, which is why it can command a £500+ price tag. But if I am going to invest, this is the way forward.

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Tags: gadgets, music, production, thoughts

A simple truth

Jabs — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:33:54 +0000

Its a strange thing when you suddenly realise the simple truth about something.

The fact of the matter is, I am bored with mixing! What I mean is, simply firing up the 1210’s and spinning a few tracks just doesnt do it for me anymore. I think this is a trend that is also reflected in the current dance music scene. Consider a true talent in the scene today, such as Deadmou5, vs an old skool DJ like Dougal or Vibes? The once, “studio only” production techniques are being utilised on the fly to bring dynamic, real time remixes to the clubs. This is something that really interests me, something I want to pursue further. MP3’s are part of the equation, but so are real-time sequencers like Ableton Live, sample pads, real-time effects processors and a lot of time spent creating, dissecting and amassing lots of custom loops. Put all this together, and you have what the scene now desires, and what I personally want to give.

Watch this space….

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Tags: mixing, music, producer, production

The Asymmetry of Security

Jabs — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:24:14 +0000

Personally, I think this is one of the most important concepts of today. Its simple enough to grasp and illustrates the point very well.

Consider these examples:

From an effort perspective, the effort required to secure a system is significantly less than that required to exploit it.
From a cost perspective, it is less expensive to prevent a serious data breach than it is to clean up and recover from one.

Point 1 above was illustrated very clearly to me on the IISP’s TopGun event I attended recently, and is a scenario that you have to step back from to fully appreciate. Eg. If you have a smallish network, with most modern services such as web, email, mobile, databases, websites etc, then the effort to secure that is quite mammoth. You have to consider the perimeter, the information, how its stored and used, what services are on offer and the impacts etc. Then you have to consider every conceivable vulnerability, patching strategies and stay on top and at least up to speed with the curve of change. All of these efforts equate to a team of people, but all it takes to break in, is 1 person with a brain, motive, and a few freely available tools.

Point 2 of course, was illustrated very well by a study by the Pnemon Instutue LLC in conjunction with PGP and Vontu (Symantec), this study evaluated the true cost of a breach of data security and considered factors such as direct and indirect costs, and has trended the data over the last few years with enlightening results.

Despite both of these points clearly illustrating that the best way to tackle the security conundrum is head on and proactively, those of us in the industry will all surely testify that getting the right backing, funding, and often, even the right audience with the business, is still a hard task. From my perspective, I will keep on trying, and keep on flying the flag in the hope that one day reality sets in and my job / life gets easier!

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Tags: IISP, InfoSec, thoughts, Vulnerabilities

Security as a Career

Jabs — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:08:10 +0000

People often ask me whats the best way to get into security as a career. There are of course many views on this subject, but I don’t believe there is a clear answer. So rather than try and map out a path, lets look at some of the elements involved and some options.

The first thing I want to say on the subject is that Security is more of a state of mind than anything else. I have a saying, to be good in security you need to be sceptical with a healthy dose of paranoia! This point of view will serve you well when it comes to security as it will allow you to be objective and not accept things at face value. Secondly, you need an inquisitive nature and a thirst for knowledge, To be the best at security you simply need to be able to hunt out the truth and learn the latest concepts and techniques very quickly. Finally, you need to be a good generalist, I realise this point is contentious, but I truly believe that you need to have a good general grasp of everything technology related as well as your preferred specialism in order to cover the breadth of security. Of course you can be an expert in your chosen specialism, but you must have a grasp of how “everything” fits together in order to be good.

OK, so where do you begin? Well, for starters, you need to have a long hard think about what you want out of life. What I mean by this is, are you a “techy” or are you a “manager”? I realise you can be both (as I am), but when your starting out, the subject is so broad you need a direction to head. If your a techy, then you probably heading down the threat, vulnerability and controls path, with topics such as ethical hacking, intrusion detection and firewalls on your learning list. if however, your more of a manager, your probably heading down the opposite path towards topics such as strategy, assurance and governance. Once you have figured this out, you can start to look at the material, courses and support networks available for each road to help you get going.

One important factor that should always be included however is your own personal growth and development. What I mean by this are the softer skills such as communication, empathy, leadership, coaching etc. All of these skills are fundamental to your success and should be developed in equal measure with your chosen subject specialisms. The biggest issues I face as an employer in this sector is finding good security people with excellent soft skills. Its too easy in this game to get trapped in a world of regulations or bits ‘n’ bytes, and forget that all your knowledge is pointless if you cannot make use of it and educate the world.

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Tags: InfoSec

ACME Supercomputing Inc – Roadrunner Beware

Jabs — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:15:42 +0000

I read an interesting article the other day about the fact that Cray have toppled IBM of the top spot in the super computer race with a staggering 1.64 Petaflops of processing grunt from its XT Jaguar supercomputer. Of course, I expect this will be short lived given the Roadrunner has a theoretical 1.7 Petaflop capacity.

So what I hear you cry!

Well think of this, Cloud computing is here to stay and can yield some massive processing potential, but its still quite young and clouds tend to be privately owned and sold to the highest bidder. But what if we could all club together and build a cloud so big, so powerful it blew the Crays and IBMs of this world out of the water?

Again, I hear the crys of yeah right!

Well, ask yourself this, do I own a PS3? if the answer is yes, welcome to the “PSCloud”

The concept is simple, in a PS3 there is an IBM Cell Processor with 8 CPU cores, a very powerful CPU indeed! and guess what, IBM’s Roadrunner uses them too, yes, the Roadrunner has just short of 13,000 Cell Processors in it, of course it has quite a few AMD’s as well (6.4K), but the cells are the bulk of it.

So lets look at the facts, the same basic architecture used for the supercomputer market is in our homes, and cloud computing is here to stay, well I’m no rocket scientist but I reckon if we put these two concepts together, Roadrunner and Jaguar have a problem on their hands.

As of November 2008, over 16 million PS3’s have been sold around the world, of which we can assume by the design and nature of the unit, that nearly all of them are connected to the internet, so if we were able to join them into a single cloud, what sort of processing power could we achieve?

I ask you this….. If 13,000 Cells and 6K AMD’s get you 1.6 Petaflops, what would 16million Cells get you?

All we need to make this happen is a software/firmware update to turn the PS3 into a cloud member and a peer based command and control mechanism, any programmers out there?

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Tags: InfoSec, thoughts

Anything that can be engineered by mankind…..

Jabs — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:31:06 +0000

……can be reverse engineered by mankind.

Its a simple mantra, but one that has served me well in security.

Think of of this way, it doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, someone, somewhere is more intelligent! When it comes to security this is never more true. As we all know, security is asymmetric, in so much that the effort required to secure something is significantly more than that required to break into it. Given this point, it makes the mantra even more relevant! If security was symetrical, you would have a 1:1 effort relationship, however, as its not, (we will for the purposes of this article assume its 2:1, i.e. double the effort required to secure), it would theoretically take less brain power than it took to create the control to break it.

Obviously I accept that this is a very simplistic representation of the point, but one I think is valid.

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Tags: InfoSec, thoughts

Electro-Fied – 04/08/2008

Jabs — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:31:38 +0000

Well, this one is definatley better quality, on all fronts!! Music, mix & production. Let me know if you like it!

Tags: electro, House, mixing

Jabablog

Press Coverage – February 2010

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