Cisco Router Sent Into Space Aboard Intelsat Satellite

Cisco Router Sent Into Space Aboard Intelsat Satellite

IRIS Technology Could Enhance Military Communications

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Nov. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A space-tolerant router designed by Cisco, the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet, flew into orbit today aboard a satellite of Intelsat, Ltd., the world's leading provider of fixed satellite services. The payload, on the Intelsat 14 satellite, is a demonstration of Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) for the U.S. military, which is expected to open up a number of commercial and military opportunities to improve communications connectivity around the globe.

The Department of Defense Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) of IRIS will be managed by Cisco and Intelsat General Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Intelsat. The Cisco IRIS payload will convert to commercial use following the three-month technology demonstration, set to begin in January 2010. The IRIS team expects to show that the payload will directly route an incoming signal on one of the satellite's C- or Ku-band transponders to a number of ground receivers in either band while avoiding the time delay and cost of double-hopping the traffic through multiple teleports.

"We expect IRIS to connect the Internet with satellites in space for the warfighters who need seamless communication between ground-based networks and satellites used for communications," said Kay Sears, president of Intelsat General. "Once the capabilities of IRIS are demonstrated, there could be a great deal of interest in this technology from a wide range of end users, both inside and outside of government."

Cisco used the commercial Cisco IOS(R) Software for the on-board router, which is not unlike the routers used in Earth-based computer networks; however, it required radiation shielding for the harsh environment of space.

"Just as satellites transformed the global reach of communications and led to significant innovation, so too will the delivery of global IP-based communications services via satellite drive major cost efficiencies and flexibility to entities around the globe," said Steven Boutelle, vice president, Cisco Global Government Solutions Group. "IRIS has the potential to transform how government agencies and commercial organizations are able to buy and use IP-based network services to accomplish their missions."

The JCTD grant for the project from the DoD to Intelsat General is the first such funding ever awarded to a commercial satellite operator.

IRIS offers several distinct advantages over conventional satellite technology. IRIS can route data to multiple ground receivers in a single step, increasing transponder utilization. Because the payload regenerates the signal, its power is increased slightly, allowing a reduction in the size of sending and receiving terminals, particularly important for mobile applications.

Finally, the software on the Cisco router and onboard modem can be upgraded from the ground, which increases the flexibility of the system and the return on investment for the operator.

With IRIS, users will be able to experience a true mobile network, one that enables them to connect and communicate how, when and where they want, and that continuously adapts to their needs without reliance on a predefined, fixed infrastructure. Cisco intends to partner with satellite manufacturers, system integrators and end users to deliver services globally to points currently prohibitive to traditional ground-based networks.

The IRIS payload will support network services for voice, video and data communications, enabling government agencies, military units or allied forces to communicate with one another using Internet Protocol and existing ground equipment.

"IRIS is another example of how hosted payloads allow rapid demonstrations and introductions of powerful new space technologies," said Don Brown, vice president of Hosted Payloads at Intelsat General. "This project took less than three years from JCTD start to launch, showing that the government can evaluate a pivotal new technology in space within a very short period."

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will have overall responsibility for coordinating the demonstration of the IRIS technology among the government user community and for developing means of using the IRIS capability once the satellite is in space.

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Cisco SIO iPhone application to hit the App Store soon

Cisco SIO iPhone application to hit the App Store soon

iPhone owners can now access global security information from anywhere by means of the latest Cisco SIO To Go app. The app also allows users to personalize alerts and show only those security threats which could impact their network.

The new Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application presents IT staff with efficient means to obtain alerts and reply to threats that can affect their operations. The app is driven by Cisco Security IntelliShield Alert Manager
Service and delivers early warning intelligence, threat vulnerability and proven Cisco mitigation solutions to users’ iPhones as they arise. The Cisco application also provides unique IP and URL address, e-mail and Web reputation look-up powered by the Cisco IronPort SenderBase Security Network and the Cisco SIO.

“Enabling borderless networks is critical for today’s business success. A key component of enabling individuals to connect to their business networks from anywhere is working to ensure that the network is protected regardless of the device used. Our new Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application is another important step in making this vision a reality. It improves the means by which IT departments are alerted to threats, and it provides added confidence and device flexibility as Cisco customers are shielded from these breaches”, remarked Marie Hattar, vice president, Network Systems Solutions Marketing, Cisco,

Cisco SIO is inclusive of Cisco SensorBase, Cisco Threat Operations Center and Dynamic Updates. The SensorBase, a threat-monitoring network captures global threat telemetry data from an extensive footprint of Cisco devices and services. The alerts delivered include Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) alerts, Cisco Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) Signatures, Cisco Applied Mitigation Bulletins, Cisco Threat Outbreak Alerts and others.

The Cisco SIO iPhone application will be made available for free at the Apple iTunes Store shortly.



Would this be a helpful application..




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New Contract signed by Cisco with New Ingram to expand global opputunites

New Ingram Micro contract with Cisco expands global opportunities

Distributor Ingram Micro Inc. has signed a global contract with Cisco Systems Inc. that standardizes terms and conditions across all regions. As Cisco's largest global distributor, Ingram Micro will now be able to offer its resellers international access to Cisco products and related services with consistent terms, processes and support.

"Ingram Micro is committed to helping our vendors and customers grow their businesses, whether it be selling solutions across the street or across the globe," said Ken Bast, vice president, vendor management, Ingram Micro Inc. "Ingram Micro's new global contract with Cisco allows our resale partners to take full advantage of business opportunities on a worldwide scale. Now, our customers will be able to expand into new markets, as well as support their existing global clients with quicker product availability, which will ultimately shorten their sell cycle and positively impact their balance sheets."

Through these new terms, Ingram Micro's reseller partners can take advantage of Ingram Micro's worldwide footprint and gain entry into countries in which they currently do not have a presence. The contract applies to the more than 150 countries in which Ingram Micro supports Cisco sales. In addition, customers receive dedicated worldwide Cisco support through the Ingram Micro Global Order Desk, which will help customers fulfill orders all over the world. The Global Order Desk ensures that all parties comply with all legal, tax and trade requirements that are typical in cross-border deployments.

"Cisco is on the forefront of evolving traditional business models and programs to support globalization, and of operating as 'one Cisco,'" said Dave O'Callaghan, vice president distribution for Cisco. "This new global contract is another example of how our solid partnership with Ingram Micro can benefit not only our two companies, but also any solution provider looking to expand its global footprint."

Most people buy from ebay there are still available items there for a great value and price..XOXO

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Cisco a trademarked iPhone!!!

Cisco a trademarked iPhone!!!

When Apple launched their smartphone and branded it the iPhone there was just one problem. The iPhone was already trademarked by Cisco which led to a lawsuit  and an eventual settlement of the trademark back in 2007.

Earlier this year Apple announced their breakthrough tablet called the iPad. Again, there was just one problem. As we previously reported, the iPad trademark was already owned by Fujitsu. Once again, as part of some strange business plan, Apple has now acquired the trademark from Fujitsu according to the PatentAuthority.com website.

You’d think at some point Apple would pay someone to do a little research and get any trademark rights before launching a landmark product. Mind you, I’m starting to think that it’s Apple’s game plan to get a previously owned trademark by pressuring the owner into selling it by stealing the association of a trademark with their own product.


Did Steve Jobs new about anything about CISCO?

Cisco Acquisition of Tandberg a Major Step in Unified Communications

Cisco Acquisition of Tandberg a Major Step in Unified Communications

Cisco, the Major Player in the Unified Communication World,as the convergence of technology continues to progress, we are truly seeing Voice, Video, email, and Wireless platforms merge into a cohesive singular solution.
Everyday, the worlds population embraces the internet for all forms of Communication; utilizing email, voice, video, and the combination of them, in online presentations, Movies, advertisements; such various interactions of people to people, B to B, and business to people.

Cisco is a 40 billion dollar International Corporation,with a Business Plan that calls for it to be the Leading Provider of "Unified Communications". The Convergence of Technologies has allowed for the growth of many new solutions and communication platforms to be brought forward over the past 20 years.

Cisco realized that its platform of products has been the prime foundation for the transmission of data, voice,video, etc, but relized long ago that it needed to acquire certain technology solutions which had already progressed in development over many, many years and had become leaders in pieces of the overall "Unified Communications" Solution. Cisco has surely made some great acquisitions that have helped to grow them to a 40 Billion Company and a Leader in the World.

In Cisco's attempt to build a True "telepresence" or Glorified Video Conferencing Solution, they had taken on a "Bear" of a task.

Video Conferencing, although out on the market for many years, has had it large share of difficulty in use. The standardization of platforms for one system to "speak" with others has been one of the large issues, as well as, utilization of presentation software within the Video Conference Presentation (as a PowerPoint presentation).

Users would find that voice and video and presentations did not always flow in a smooth and connected fashion, as transmitted in different timing modes, making it difficult to have a cohesive life like meeting.

The overriding benefit of Video Conferencing or "telepresence" is the ability to have gatherings, meetings, conferences; without the need to travel long distances, or take people out of their normal work day for excessive time beyond the scope of normal time alloted for a meeting, presentation, conference, training session, or any of the the other reasons to gather together for a single presentation. The Time savings, Travel Cost savings and ability to host such a meeting with short notice are just a few of the Return of Investment from utilizing such technology.

Tandberg has been a long term leader in the Video Conferencing World, since the inception of the technology and has the talent an process on Board to continue to evolve the Solution. It is a Continued multi year process for Cisco to Complete their present 'Telepresence" solution and build a reseller base capable of designing and implementing the "Grand" solution for such Companies that will spent $250,000 and more for a single Room that services 8-10 people.

Tandberg will fill the gap in both providing solutions that will fill the price points from $7500 to $249,000 and provide a wealth of Technological assistance to Cisco in the development of a dependable and evolving Video Conferencing and "telepresence" solutions for the growing "Unified Communication" clients emerging each day; based on the ROI of cost savings in owning such solutions or using a "Managed Cisco Solution" as an alternative to owning their own Solution.

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Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks

Like a ghost ship, a rogue software program that glided onto the Internet last November has confounded the efforts of top security experts to eradicate the program and trace its origins and purpose, exposing serious weaknesses in the world’s digital infrastructure.

The program, known as Conficker, uses flaws in Windows software to co-opt machines and link them into a virtual computer that can be commanded remotely by its authors. With more than five million of these zombies now under its control — government, business and home computers in more than 200 countries — this shadowy computer has power that dwarfs that of the world’s largest data centers.

Alarmed by the program’s quick spread after its debut in November, computer security experts from industry, academia and government joined forces in a highly unusual collaboration. They decoded the program and developed antivirus software that erased it from millions of the computers. But Conficker’s persistence and sophistication has squelched the belief of many experts that such global computer infections are a thing of the past.

“It’s using the best current practices and state of the art to communicate and to protect itself,” Rodney Joffe, director of the Conficker Working Group, said of the malicious program. “We have not found the trick to take control back from the malware in any way.”

Researchers speculate that the computer could be employed to generate vast amounts of spam; it could steal information like passwords and logins by capturing keystrokes on infected computers; it could deliver fake antivirus warnings to trick naïve users into believing their computers are infected and persuading them to pay by credit card to have the infection removed.

There is also a different possibility that concerns the researchers: That the program was not designed by a criminal gang, but instead by an intelligence agency or the military of some country to monitor or disable an enemy’s computers. Networks of infected computers, or botnets, were used widely as weapons in conflicts in Estonia in 2007 and in Georgia last year, and in more recent attacks against South Korean and United States government agencies. Recent attacks that temporarily crippled Twitter and Facebook were believed to have had political overtones.

Yet for the most part Conficker has done little more than to extend its reach to more and more computers. Though there had been speculation that the computer might be activated to do something malicious on April 1, the date passed without incident, and some security experts wonder if the program has been abandoned.

The experts have only tiny clues about the location of the program’s authors. The first version included software that stopped the program if it infected a machine with a Ukrainian language keyboard. There may have been two initial infections — in Buenos Aires and in Kiev.

Wherever the authors are, the experts say, they are clearly professionals using the most advanced technology available. The program is protected by internal defense mechanisms that make it hard to erase, and even kills or hides from programs designed to look for botnets.

A member of the security team said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had suspects, but was moving slowly because it needed to build a relationship with “noncorrupt” law enforcement agencies in the countries where the suspects are located.

An F.B.I. spokesman in Washington declined to comment, saying that the Conficker investigation was an open case.

The first infections, last Nov. 20, set off an intense battle between the hidden authors and the volunteer group that formed to counter them. The group, which first called itself the “Conficker Cabal,” changed its name when Microsoft, Symantec and several other companies objected to the unprofessional connotation.

Eventually, university researchers and law enforcement officials joined forces with computer experts at more than two dozen Internet, software and computer security firms.

The group won some battles, but lost others. The Conficker authors kept distributing new, more intricate versions of the program, at one point using code that had been devised in academia only months before. At another point, a single technical slip by the working group allowed the program’s authors to convert a huge number of the infected machines to an advanced peer-to-peer communications scheme that the industry group has not been able to defeat. Where before all the infected computers would have to phone home to a single source for instructions, the authors could now use any infected computer to instruct all the others.

In early April, Patrick Peterson, a research fellow at Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif., gained some intelligence about the authors’ interests. He studies nasty computer programs by keeping a set of quarantined computers that capture and observe them — his “digital zoo.”

He discovered that the Conficker authors had begun distributing software that tricks Internet users into buying fake antivirus software with their credit cards. “We turned off the lights in the zoo one day and came back the next day,” Mr. Peterson said, noting that in the “cage” reserved for Conficker, the infection had been joined by a program distributing an antivirus software scam.

It was the most recent sign of life from the program, and its silence has set off a debate among computer security experts. Some researchers think Conficker is an empty shell, or that the authors of the program were scared away in the spring. Others argue that they are simply biding their time.

If the misbegotten computer were reactivated, it would not have the problem-solving ability of supercomputers used to design nuclear weapons or simulate climate change. But because it has commandeered so many machines, it could draw on an amount of computing power greater than that from any single computing facility run by governments or Google. It is a dark reflection of the “cloud computing” sweeping the commercial Internet, in which data is stored on the Internet rather than on a personal computer.

The industry group continues to try to find ways to kill Conficker, meeting as recently as Tuesday. Mr. Joffe said he, for one, was not prepared to declare victory. But he said that the group’s work proved that government and private industry could cooperate to counter cyberthreats.

“Even if we lose against Conficker,” he said, “there are things we’ve learned that will benefit us in the future.”

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