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Showing posts from April, 2018

Using OPENDNS on a Mikrotik

At the office we use a Mikrotik which is connected via fibre to Cool Ideas. We use OpenDNS as a Information Security tool. It prevents ransomware and bots from becoming major incidents within the office.

The router is scheduled to do a daily update via script of the OpenDNS settings. Below is the example:

:local opendnsuser "user@domain.co.za";
:local opendnspass "itsprivate";
:local opendnshost "office";

:log info "OpenDNS Update";
:local url "https://updates.opendns.com/nic/update";
/tool fetch url=($url . "\3Fhostname=$opendnshost") user=("$opendnsuser") password=("$opendnspass") mode=https dst-path=opendnsupdate.txt
:local opendnsresult [/file get opendnsupdate.txt contents];
:log info "OpenDNS: Host $opendnshost - $opendnsresult";

The importance of the major incident process

ITIL mentions the Major Incident process as a special case of the incident management process as well its close relationship to problem management. However, the Major Incident process requires greater clarity and specification as in many large enterprises the process is crucial for overcoming a crisis. A Major Incident typically defined as an incident with severe negative business consequences and an important duty of any designated Information Technology (IT) resources is to deal with Major Incidents in a structured manner. We will address this important topic in a series of articles that specifically addresses the process and crisis management in general.

Read the full article here.

On board PowaINFRA gateway deployment

DS has an on board version of the PowaINFRA gateway that can be deployed on a vehicle. The gateway is powered by the 12V of the vehicle and typically installed under the dash. Additionally, the gateway has an extra sensor and metric ability of using Geo-location. The on board PowaINFRA gateway has the same capabilities as the standard PowaINFRA gateway and is compatible with the sensors in the PowaINFRA range.

Other vehicle tracking systems are typically wired and thus rely on the sensors to be connected to contacts on the main unit. No only is this a more difficult installation but it limits the number of sensors installed in a vehicle as it is not cost effective. Most vehicle installation of refrigerated trucks only have one temperature probe installed, either on the output or return vents of the cooling units. This is typically located at the front of the refrigeration trailer and the cooling varies within the trailer. Thus it is likely that the load can experience fr…

Digitisation – the ‘power’ of IoT

DS showcased the Powalert sensor at the MyBroadband conference on the 26th October 2017. IoT is the incremental next step into the optimised use of technology that was made prevalent by smart phone technology. The cost efficiencies of smart phone technologies have resulted in the deployment of a number of other generic devices that use low powered network connections as an alternative. These are the class of devices known as IoT, the Internet of Things, which were previously not networked. The PowaINFRA range is a true IoT solution. Powalert is a product in the PowerINFRA range. This solution expands the digital world to buildings and infrastructure that were previously mostly accessed by requiring physical connections. The Powalert sensor, using IoT technology, provides the ability to determine power related failures within telecommunications. A last mile provider typically has multiple customers using leased lines. When an outage occurs at the customer premises, the…

The Hours of WannaCry from the Cisco Umbrella Blog

In the span of just 10 days, two large-scale, wormable attacks grabbed international headlines. First, a phishing campaign posing as a Google Docs sharing request gained access to Google accounts then spread across its victim’s contacts, and now, a ransomware campaign with a bite, named WannaCry, autonomously infected vulnerable systems leveraging an exploit leaked on the internet. In the early minutes of the attack, we worked with our Talos counterparts to analyse the behaviour of WannaCry and protect our customers. We were also particularly proud to see that our Investigate product helped MalwareTech reduce WannaCry’s impact. In this post, we hope to give you a retrospective analysis of what we’ve observed during the first critical hours of the event.
Read more here.

PUE: to compare is human – to improve is divine (part of the DS PUE series of articles)

Yes, I know – it’s an inadequate distortion of an old, clichéd proverb. Yet, I say this too often in client meetings and peer discussions, “Don’t compare the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of your data centre to that of another because it’s a pointless exercise. - Lee Smith Read the article here about Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) in data centres on our website.

Checklist of the information a manager of a NOC needs to have close at hand

This is a checklist devised by DS of the information a manager of a Network Operations Centre (NOC) needs to have close at hand:
Command and controlDate and time of current shift including start, finish and handover.NOC manager on dutyShift leadersService Delivery Manager on duty/standbyMajor Incident Manager on duty/standby Tiger Team status (refer here for process) echowhiskydeltaromeobravoalpha Red-Amber-Green (RAG) of the trenchesSecurityData centreAppsSupportInfrastructure NotificationsOngoing Service Level Agreement (SLA) or contract violationsAll Major Incidents All failures and outages Last 10 maintenance tasks completedNext 10 maintenance tasks scheduledPlanned continuity tests scheduled (inverter/generator tests, network path protection tests, business continuity or application high availability tests)Resources available to the NOCResources unavailable to the NOCChanges completed during the past week (includes the status on whether they were successful or failed)Changes sch…

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