Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea off Orkney to investigate whether it can boost energy efficiency. The data centre, a white cylinder containing computers, could sit on the sea floor for up to five years. An undersea cable brings the data centre power and takes its data to the shore and the wider internet – but if the computers onboard break, they cannot be repaired. Orkney was chosen because it is a major centre for renewable energy research. The theory is that the cost of cooling the computers will be cut by placing them underwater. “We think we actually get much better cooling underwater than on land,” says Ben Cutler, who is in charge of what Microsoft … Read More
How Can Dropbox Business Help in the Event of a Ransomware Attack?
Ransomware; “A type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid” One of the latest and and most prolific malware threats used by cyber criminals comes in the form of Ransomware. As defined above, cyber criminals will attempt to compromise your data, files, or entire computer by enticing users to perform an unintended action. Consequently, the result is the unintentional downloading of a virus or link to a poisonous website. Upon acceptance, the gates to your data have been unlocked and full access to the cyber criminals granted; the attack has now been launched and your computer – together with its contents – can be held hostage! Ransomware has the … Read More
Cyber Security: Does my business need it?
According to the BBC, fraud and cybercrime is costing the country an estimated £193bn a year and has consequently taken the top spot in the league of the most costly criminal activity in the UK, crippling the justice system and draining our resources. It might be big corporates such as Sony and Talk Talk making headlines following cyber attacks but criminals are looking towards easier targets and attacking the more vulnerable and ill-prepared SMEs. According to Government statistics SME’s were asked about their position on cyber security and many respondents concluded that they: Don’t feel they are at risk. Don’t think they can afford security. Don’t know where to start when it comes to security. Is my business at risk? … Read More
Power outage affects large parts of BT’s broadband network
Another major UK Internet outage occurred on Thursday morning, this time reportedly caused by a power failure at Telehouse North (TH10). The outage appeared to have started at around 7am, with at least one network at Telehouse North falling over due to a reported loss of power. The situation had mostly been resolved by around 11am, though some UK broadband users are still reporting spotty connections. Like Wednesday’s outage, it appears that BT has a significant amount of networking equipment at Telehouse North. The has affected an unknown number of BT and Plusnet broadband subscribers, plus other smaller ISPs and services such as Zen Internet that make significant use of BT’s backhaul network. Telehouse issued the following statement: We are aware that there has been … Read More
123-reg accidentally deletes client Websites in error
Web hosting firm 123-reg has accidentally deleted an unspecified number of its customers’ websites. The company, which hosts 1.7m sites in the UK, said an error made during maintenance “effectively deleted” what was on some of its servers. “We can conclude that the issues faced have resulted in some data loss for some customers,” the firm admitted. It started a “recovery process”, but advised customers with their own data backup to rebuild their own websites. The web host, which has 800,000 customers in the UK, would not say how many websites had been deleted. What went wrong? Websites are hosted on computers called servers that can dish up pages to thousands or millions of people at the same time. Some … Read More
Panama papers all 2.6TB of them
The front-end computer systems of Mossack Fonseca are outdated and riddled with security flaws, analysis has revealed. The law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers hack has shown an “astonishing” disregard for security, according to one expert. Amongst other lapses, Mossack Fonseca has failed to update its Outlook Web Access login since 2009 and not updated its client login portal since 2013. Mossack Fonseca’s client portal is also vulnerable to the DROWN attack, a security exploit that targets servers supporting the obsolete and insecure SSL v2 protocol. The portal, which runs on the Drupal open source CMS, was last updated in August 2013, according to the site’s changelog. On its main website Mossack Fonseca claims its Client Information … Read More
What is FTTC and FTTP?
Fiber to the premises (FTTP) is a form of fiber-optic communication delivery, in which an optical fiber is run in an optical distribution network from the central office all the way to the premises occupied by the subscriber. Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) involves running fibre optic cables from the telephone exchange or distribution point to the street cabinets which then connect to a standard phone line to provide broadband. This is combined with a copper cable from the cabinet to the home or business which uses VDSL or similar technology that can deliver much faster speeds over shorter distances.