Move from Android to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch & vice-versa

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201196

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00061001/

Windows 10: DON'T update to version 2004

 It has been reported that many machine had been having BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) upon updating Windows to version 2004.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/1329773/Microsoft-Windows-10-update-August-Lenovo-issues-blue-screen-death

https://support.lenovo.com/sg/en/solutions/ht510448#thinkpad

Making Sense of Home Network

In Singapore today, all flats already moved on to the fast optical cable (broadband). The optical terminals (by OpenNet) in our houses looks like this:

Fibre cable (yellow) is then connected to a modem or simply called an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) [sample picture below].

The ONT simply converts from fibre to UTP cable but the LAN port in which we tap our internet for our home is important to note. Usually if we never switch Internet Service Provider (ISP), the default port to tap internet from is Port 1. Otherwise, its good to check with your ISP which port from our ONT do we tap internet from.

To test internet connectivity, we can simply plug via cable from our PC/laptop to one of the ports and check for internet.

Once we know which port on the ONT our (normal UTP) network cable should be connected to, the other end of that cable should be connected to a router.

A typical router looks like below:

The other end of the cable from ONT  should be connected to one of the LAN port of the router.

The router is usually the most important network device in our home. This is because all other devices, like our mobile devices, laptops/PCs and TVs are connected to it.

These routers are sometimes pre-configured by our ISP. However, we can configure them by ourselves. There is usually a reset button on these devices so that we can reset the device to its default setting. Once in its default setting, we may connect to it using it default IP address and set the Wifi settings and security (refer to the model's how-to on vendor's site).

Sometimes the wifi reach is not good and we may need extra "repeater" for wifi at certain locations in our houses. Today, there are many devices that are popular to "mesh" the whole house for reach.

However, if you are renewing a plan and get a new router, and you do not have the budget to get newer products, you may re-use your old router elsewhere in the house. To do this, you will need to cable from a LAN port of the first router to a LAN port old one (maybe in a room). Next, just reset the old router and set it to "Bridge" mode. (refer to model's how-to on vendor's site). :)

Chocolatey

Everyone loves chocolates !

What if you do not have to download all your standard applications individually and updating them each when there are updates ?

There are many ways to get all of your standard applications all updated using applications like Ninites, Appget or Yum, but Chocolatey is simply the easiest 😊

Let's get straight to it !

1. Prep-Reqs: Windows 7+ or Windows Server 2003+ / .NET Framework 4
2. Open command prompt as admin and copy-paste this and press Enter to run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Done Installing !

You can find all your standard or favourite apps as a Chocolatey package from here:
https://chocolatey.org/packages

Copy all the application names that you will need on your machine (example: firefox, 7zip.install & jre8). Tip: You can copy all the applications in a notepad with a space in between them for installation).

To install all your standard applications, simply copy the text from your Notepad (like below) and paste them in command prompt (opened as administrator) and press Enter.

You will find that all your selected applications are installed at one go !

TIP: If you do not need confirmation, you can add -y in the command to skip confirmation.

When new version of your installed applications is out, you just need give the below command in your command prompt:

choco upgrade all -y

To uninstall an application, this is the below command:

choco uninstall spotify -y

What is Docker ? What is Containers ?

Docker is a set of platform as a service (PaaS) products that uses OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. Containers are isolated from one another and bundle their own software, libraries and configuration files; they can communicate with each other through well-defined channels. All containers are run by a single operating-system kernel and are thus more lightweight than virtual machines.

The service has both free and premium tiers. The software that hosts the containers is called Docker Engine. It was first started in 2013 and is developed by Docker, Inc.

Docker can package an application and its dependencies in a virtual container that can run on any Linux server. This helps provide flexibility and portability enabling the application to be run in various locations, whether on-premises, in a public cloud, or in a private cloud. Docker uses the resource isolation features of the Linux kernel (such as cgroups and kernel namespaces) and a union-capable file system (such as OverlayFS) to allow containers to run within a single Linux instance, avoiding the overhead of starting and maintaining virtual machines. Because Docker containers are lightweight, a single server or virtual machine can run several containers simultaneously. A 2018 analysis found that a typical Docker use case involves running eight containers per host, but that a quarter of analyzed organizations run 18 or more per host.

The Linux kernel's support for namespaces mostly isolates an application's view of the operating environment, including process trees, network, user IDs and mounted file systems, while the kernel's cgroups provide resource limiting for memory and CPU. Since version 0.9, Docker includes its own component (called "libcontainer") to directly use virtualization facilities provided by the Linux kernel, in addition to using abstracted virtualization interfaces via libvirt, LXC and systemd-nspawn.

Docker implements a high-level API to provide lightweight containers that run processes in isolation.

Components

The Docker software as a service offering consists of three components:

Software: The Docker daemon, called dockerd, is a persistent process that manages Docker containers and handles container objects. The daemon listens for requests sent via the Docker Engine API. The Docker client program, called docker, provides a command-line interface that allows users to interact with Docker daemons.

Objects: Docker objects are various entities used to assemble an application in Docker. The main classes of Docker objects are images, containers, and services.

A Docker container is a standardized, encapsulated environment that runs applications. A container is managed using the Docker API or CLI.

A Docker image is a read-only template used to build containers. Images are used to store and ship applications.

A Docker service allows containers to be scaled across multiple Docker daemons. The result is known as a swarm, a set of cooperating daemons that communicate through the Docker API.

Registries: A Docker registry is a repository for Docker images. Docker clients connect to registries to download ("pull") images for use or upload ("push") images that they have built. Registries can be public or private. Two main public registries are Docker Hub and Docker Cloud. Docker Hub is the default registry where Docker looks for images. Docker registries also allow the creation of notifications based on events.

Tools

Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. It uses YAML files to configure the application's services and performs the creation and start-up process of all the containers with a single command. The docker-compose CLI utility allows users to run commands on multiple containers at once, for example, building images, scaling containers, running containers that were stopped, and more. Commands related to image manipulation, or user-interactive options, are not relevant in Docker Compose because they address one container. The docker-compose.yml file is used to define an application's services and includes various configuration options. For example, the build option defines configuration options such as the Dockerfile path, the command option allows one to override default Docker commands, and more. The first public beta version of Docker Compose (version 0.0.1) was released on December 21, 2013. The first production-ready version (1.0) was made available on October 16, 2014.

Docker Swarm provides native clustering functionality for Docker containers, which turns a group of Docker engines into a single virtual Docker engine. In Docker 1.12 and higher, Swarm mode is integrated with Docker Engine. The docker swarm CLI utility allows users to run Swarm containers, create discovery tokens, list nodes in the cluster, and more. The docker node CLI utility allows users to run various commands to manage nodes in a swarm, for example, listing the nodes in a swarm, updating nodes, and removing nodes from the swarm. Docker manages swarms using the Raft Consensus Algorithm. According to Raft, for an update to be performed, the majority of Swarm nodes need to agree on the update.

Palo Alto - Traps Endpoint Protection / PathFinder / Install PA VM

Darktrace

British cyber security company


Darktrace is a company that specialises in cyber defense. The company was established in 2013 and is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and San Francisco, with over 40 offices worldwide.

Quick Facts:

Darktrace was founded in 2013 by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge and individuals with cyber operations experience at intelligence agencies.[1] Its Enterprise Immune System technology uses AI and unsupervised machine learning to autonomously detect and take action against cyber-threats across all diverse digital environments, including cloud and virtual environments, Internet of Things, and industrial control systems.[2]

Darktrace is backed by several advisors and investors from the technology, business, and cyber security domains. The company's advisory board includes Alan Wade, former CIO of the CIA and Lord Evans of Weardale KCB, former Director-General of the British security service MI5.[3]

The board of directors is chaired by Robert Webb QC, former General Counsel of Rolls Royce and British Airways.[4] Twelve of the company’s 20 directors, including co-chief executives Nicole Eagan and Poppy Gustafsson, used to work at HP Autonomy.[5]

Since the company's inception in 2013, its technology has been deployed more than 9,000 times across 5 continents. Darktrace now has over 900 employees around the world.[6]

In September 2018, Darktrace reached a valuation of $1.65 billion, reaching unicorn status.[7][8] The company earned $78 million in revenue for the year ending June 2018.[9]


Darktrace Enterprise Immune System

Darktrace's Enterprise Immune System uses proprietary machine learning and AI algorithms to build a so-called "pattern of life" for every network, device, and user within an organization. It then employs correlation techniques to classify and cross-reference these models, establishing a highly accurate understanding of 'normal activity' within that particular environment.[10]

From this evolving understanding of 'normal', it can then detect potential threats as they emerge in real time.[11] It is a self-contained system and does not rely on rules, signatures, or prior assumptions of known threats. The technology's total time to install is around one hour and results are produced immediately, without tuning or configuration.[12]

The Enterprise Immune System further employs an autonomous response technology, Antigena, which allows networks to take instant and autonomous action against in-progress cyber-attacks. Antigena takes targeted action, for example slowing down or stopping a compromised connection or device, in order to neutralize threats without impacting normal business operations.[13]

One end user,[14] Michael Sherwood at City of Las Vegas commented, "Darktrace Antigena is the only automated response technology that is capable of fighting the most important battles for us. Using Darktrace's AI, we can now stop never-before-seen threats in their tracks, allowing us to remain uniquely proactive in the face of a rapidly-changing threat landscape." [15]

The product also visualizes network activity on a user interface, called the 'Threat Visualizer', which makes the network and any detected anomalies fully searchable, and provides comprehensive visibility of both traditional and non-traditional IT.[16]


Darktrace Industrial

In November 2017, Darktrace launched a new business unit – Darktrace Industrial[17] – dedicated to fighting threats in industrial and SCADA networks. Darktrace Industrial uses AI specifically developed to detect cyber-threats and latent vulnerabilities within OT and IT environments. Darktrace Industrial works by learning 'normal' across a range of OT environments, providing the same form of protection for radically different technologies and deployment types, from decades-old PLCs to distributed sensors and the Industrial Internet of Things.

References

1 ^ Hall, Susan. (5 January 2017). "Darktrace Automates Network Security Through Machine Learning." The New Stack. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

2 ^ Magee, Tamlin (6 March 2017). "Church of England puts stop to ransomware with Darktrace." Computerworld UK. Retrieved 13 June 2017.

3 ^ "Advisory Board." Darktrace.com. Retrieved 13 June 2017.

4 ^ "Board of Directors." darktrace.com. Retrieved 13 June 2017.

5 ^ "Inside Darktrace, the UK’s $1.65bn cyber security start-up." [1]. Retrieved 10 October 2018.

6 ^ "Losses widen at security start-up Darktrace as it embarks on hiring spree". The Telegraph. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.

7 ^ Browne, Ryan (2018-09-26). "Cybersecurity start-up Darktrace raises $50 million and is now worth $1.65 billion". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-09-27.

8 ^ Fox-Brewster, Thomas. "From The Olympics To A Unicorn: How 'Cyber Immune System' Darktrace Hit A $1.3BN Valuation". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-09-27.

9 ^ Brewster, Thomas (2020-02-06). "Skeletons In The Closet: $2 Billion Cybersecurity Firm Darktrace Haunted By Characters From HP's Failed Autonomy Deal". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-02-06.

10 ^ Hall, Susan. (5 January 2017). "Darktrace Automates Network Security Through Machine Learning." The New Stack. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

11 ^ Greene, Tim (9 March 2017). “Darktrace finds more attacks, cuts response time, saves money for Blackhawk Network.” Network World. Retrieved 13 June 2017.

12 ^ Hall, Susan. (5 January 2017). "Darktrace Automates Network Security Through Machine Learning." The New Stack. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

13 ^ Kobie, Nicole (4 April 2017). “Darktrace’s AI is now automatically responding to hacks – and stopping them.” WIRED. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

14 ^ Conger, Kate. (12 May 2017). “Las Vegas taps AI for cyber security help.” TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 June 2017.

15 ^ Quested, Tony (7 April 2017). “New Weapon from Darktrace in AI arms race.” Business Weekly. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

16 ^ Hamblen, Matt. (5 Dec 2016). “Behavior analytics tools for cybersecurity move into enterprises.” Computerworld. Retrieved June 13, 2017.

17 ^ "Darktrace Industrial Uses Machine Learning to Identify Cyber Campaigns Targeting Critical Infrastructure"