First it was Bradford Networks announcing they had raised another 8 million dollars in venture funding to help them break out beyond the edu market. Now comes word that Forescout has raised a like amount  amount of additional capital. This was based upon a 80% growth rate for Forescout.  This is well below the numbers I have seen Ray, Ken and Gordon throw about in interviews and at presentations.   I guess you can spin all you want about how many customers you have or have won, but when it comes to raising cash, you can't play as fast and loose as you do in your marketing.

Also this is a series E round for Forescout and brings their total raise to 44 million dollars.  That makes for a tough number to make work.  They need to roll some hard ways to make that bet pay off.  I was led to understand they just raised 6 million last September.  That makes 14 million in a little under a year.  Can you spell big B-U-R-N. 

The thing about both of these raises is that in the present market, just like the gas you put in your own tank, the gas these NAC vendors are putting in their tank is I am sure quite expensive!

So, here is my next monthly "Security Warrior" blog round-up of top 5 popular posts and topics.

1. Again this month, my logging polls took the #1 spot!  Poll #8 that covered context data for log analysis is analyzed here. Other popular polls include a controversial Windows Log Collection Poll (which is a poll #7)  and poll #6 about logs that people actually look and poll #5 about logging challenges. Next poll is coming soon.
2. Not entirely surprising, my post/rant called "You Are "A Security Idiot" If ..." takes the #2 spot after being live for only a few days. Yes, we all like to point out other people's problems, especially when they are epically huge :-)
3. Also not surprisingly, my post "11 Signs That Your SIEM Is A Dog or "Raffy, You Killed SIM!"" is on the Top list. It is both humorous and sadly true (and backed up by other sources)
4. A curious subject of DLP or "data leak prevention" (specifically, the post called "So, CAN We Have DLP?") also tops the charts. My previous post on data leak 'prevention' ("In Passing on DLP") is popular as well.
5. Again and again, people googling for "open source SIEM" have pushed this post (this tiny old pathetic blurb) to top5. This ancient post from years ago explains why an open source SIEM will NOT emerge soon, if ever.

See you in July!

Possibly related posts / past monthly popular blog round-ups:

• Monthly Blog Round-Up - May 2008  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - April 2008  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - March 2008  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - February 2008  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - January 2008  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - December 2007  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - November 2007  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - October 2007  
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - September 2007
• Monthly Blog Round-Up - August 2007

(Photo credit: The Tech Stop)

ScienceLogic: How long have you been involved with Interop?

Geoff Horne: Since about 1996.

ScienceLogic: How has it been changing? Does the show get more complex with new technologies or because of the constantly changing size of the show?

Geoff Horne: The technologies have changed. Every year there’s a different market environment. Since we build on customer needs, things change every year. Things like ScienceLogic for Network Monitoring, for how long have Network Management tools been completely web based? In general, it doesn’t really get any better or worse because every year we’re building it again. You don’t get the stability of a standard environment. The upside is that we’re always doing a full upgrade, a full technology refresh and not using old code.

ScienceLogic: Do those kinds of changes influence the types of vendors you look for for InteropNet?

Geoff Horne: The base categories don’t change. You always need to forward packets. You always need switches, you always need routers. We’ve tried to open it up to everyone that has products involved with networks to see if we have the time or space for it.

ScienceLogic: The kind of cooperation that you get between the vendors is what seems to be an unachievable nirvana for Enterprises. What’s the secret to getting 17 vendors to work together in such a short time? Enterprises would kill for that.

Geoff Horne: The honest answer is don’t trust the vendors. If they try and build something the way they want to, its not going to interoperate. You have to pull them out of their safety zone, make them do things that you think the product can/should do to ensure interoperability.

ScienceLogic: In a blog post prior to Interop Vegas 2008 you stated three major goals for InteropNet. They were Education, Monitoring and Statistics. How did you do against these goals?

Geoff Horne: I think we did pretty well. They’re 3 things we really didn’t have before. They’re things that just weren’t focused on the right way. For the first round of changing the focus, changing the way people look at the network (statistics rather than packets), it worked quite well, it gave people a much better idea as to what’s going on.

ScienceLogic: If we look at NY as take two for Interop 2008, are there things you are going to do differently based on lessons learned in Vegas?

Geoff Horne: We’re building more physical redundancy in the core network, geographic distribution of the infrastructure within the show. This will allow us to bring up chunks of the network independently. It isn’t something that we really thought of before. This helps us take the single point of failure (the NOC) out of the equation.

ScienceLogic: Are there any lessons learned from Interop that you think would help enterprises?

Geoff Horne: Visibility is key. Your network is significantly more functional when more people can see what’s going on. If the only guy that can see what’s going on is the guy with his fingers on the terminal, no one can make good decisions. You have to make people loosen up their control so that everyone can see and therefore make educated decisions.

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American will offer Gogo on its 15 Boeing 767-200s, which means all JFK-LAX routes and some JFK-SFO and JFK-MIA (Miami) routes. The test will likely stress the system because more people will get on than on a typical flight since they won't be paying, and I would guess a lot of people will immediately try streaming video just to see if it works.

The full-on launch is still a pilot project even though it involves so many planes, routes, and passengers.

BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin asked me to participate in an interview call today with execs from Aircell and American Airlines, and I've written up the full account for their site.

Among other interesting tidbits I learned today, the onboard systems have 800 GB of capacity for future expansion--streaming media, most likely--and the AA-configured 767-200 has power outlets scattered around coach, and at every seat in first and business class.

Another day, another coffee.

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And now, the news…

1. Former SEMO Employee Found with Data Files of Personal Information of Students | KFVS 12
2. Ruby flaws send security researchers into shock | The Register
3. WhiteHat Secures $7 Million Round of Funding | Earth Times
4. UK firm offers web-based software audit | vnunet
5. Educating Employees Reduces Security Breaches | Small Business Computing
6. New Trojan Leverages Unpatched Mac Flaw | Washington Post
7. Secrecy an effective legal tool The Star

Tags: News, Daily Links, Security Blog, Information Security, Security News

Nashua, N.H.'s downtown network may never launch: The local paper says, c'mon, already. The network was to span a 1.2-mi stretch of the main street and use donations. Deadlines have come and gone for a year.

Covad may launch San Carlos, Calif., test network: The company know for wired installations as the last-man-standing among competitive DSL and other digital line providers nationwide, is looking for city access to build a square mile test area. This is the latest wrinkle in trying to get Wireless Silicon Valley underway after the consortium was unable to raise funds, and lead-partner Azulstar stepped back or was replaced.

Lexington, Kent., may relaunch shuttered network: The city bought SkyTel's network assets for $10 over a year ago--10 dollars, not 10 plus any zeroes--and the city may partner with the University of Kentucky to build a public-safety network. The university would manage the network. It's unclear from the article if any public access would be included.

The writer says that air-to-ground service is like Wi-Fi in the sky, but it's using cellular data standards, and so it's much more like mobile broadband in the sky. He also writes that there's 3 Mbps, which is the combined up-and-down estimated throughput of AirCell, the only firm that can operate such service in the U.S. for commercial flights. The next graf mentions that satellite-based Internet access is coupled with, uh, 802.11b (yes, B) access points. I think that's an error, innit?

And the analysis of JetBlue's move is incorrect. The purchase of Verizon's Airfone network is about positioning equipment, not using out-of-date gear that can't be employed for phone calls on commercial airliners.

I'd suggest a more appropriate metaphor be used than the one in this sentence: "[Lufthansa] hopes the experience is more fruitful than its ill-fated 2004 deal with Boeing's Connexion service, which crashed and burned when Boeing shut it down two years later." Beyond the distasteful reference, Connexion was shut down in an orderly fashion, and Lufthansa was one carrier that loved it, and tried to get it to stay in operation, and, failing that, to build a consortium to revive it.

The article finishes with a set of incorrect conclusions:

"There hasn't been much news about how airlines plan to charge for these services." In fact, we know pretty much that it will cost roughly $6 an hour, $10 for a 3-hour flight or less, and $13 for a flight longer than 3 hours. That's from Aircell in various statements, and it appears to be roughly the charges expected from its competitors in the US. In Europe, mobile calls and texting prices are also known: about US$2.50 per minute for calls, and something like 25 to 50 cents for text messages, not much more than the egregious ground pricing.

"If the industry's cash crunch gets much worse, in-flight broadband might be mothballed before it even gets off the ground." It's unclear what part of the expense the airlines are bearing. In my discussions with firms over the last five years, it's clear to me that this round involves the providers bearing more of the cost--and hence the lower installation cost involved--but also retaining more of the revenue.

Wi-Fi a-go-go onboard buses: The New York Daily News checks in on the trend to put Internet access via Wi-Fi on board East Coast buses. The article notes that Greyhound's new sidewalk-pickup BoltBus service among corridor cities has provoked the long-running Chinatown buses to bolt on Wi-Fi as well. The Chinatown Bus Association says here that their bus tickets are cheaper and thus more competitive--but one of their members has already added Wi-Fi, and others are considering it. MegaBus also serves the coast and has Internet access, as well as DC2NY. The biggest problem, though? Passengers demand AC outlets, and only BoltBus has them on every bus. LimoLiner (New York to Boston) isn't mentioned here, but is one of the earliest firms I'm aware of with on-board Internet, starting in 2004, and they also have power to every seat.

Aurora, Ill., joins MetroFi cities turning down gear deal: Aurora, the city of light, the first electrified streetlit city in the U.S., opts to not buy the MetroFi gear. Along with all of MetroFi's other networks (excluding Riverside, Calif., operated with AT&T), June 20 will likely be the last day of service. About 160 of 600 to 900 nodes were installed in Aurora.

San Francisco paper wraps up MetroFi's shutdowns in their area: Ryan Kim writes in the SF Chronicle about the many networks being shut down by MetroFi around the bay. Santa Clara and San Jose are still looking at MetroFi's equipment offer. Neither city has complete coverage; Santa Clara is focused on some residential portions, and San Jose has some downtown service. Kim brings up the spectre of twice or three times dead Ricochet.

Santa Fe bypasses Wi-Fi health concerns: The city council voted unanimously to approve Wi-Fi service in libraries and city-owned buildings. This odd paragraph appears in the AP story: "Julie Tambourine, an advocate for the disabled and homeless, said after Wednesday's meeting that the legal analysis was flawed, because it didn't take into account those with diabetes, seizure disorders, respiratory ailments and other conditions that can be adversely affected by microwave radiation." It's unfortunate the writer didn't get a medical research in any of those areas to discuss that. I have never heard the strongest advocates of the view that EMF causes health issues mention any of those conditions.

Minneapolis suffers the heartbreak of leafage: Leaves are popping in Minneapolis, and Star-Tribune columnist Steve Alexander writes that residents are seeing some Wi-Fi reception problems on that city's Wi-Fi network. This is the only big-city network that can be currently described "successful," even though its long-term success has to be proven out. The firm responsible, USI Wireless, told Alexander they're working on adjusting about 5 percent of antennas to cope with the pesky greenery.

St. Louis Park sues ARINC over Wi-Fi network: The Minnesota town says the network never worked, and had earlier discussed a lawsuit. The city wants the value of the contract ($1.7m) plus a very modest amount in damages and fees ($50,000). The city plans to start removing gear if ARINC doesn't sometime in June. But they have to deal with 490 poles erected to hold the nodes and solar-charging gear--sunk into concrete. More recent testing showed that the network worked well in some areas, but the majority of the network did not, according to the Star Tribune.

Verizon builds out fiber in AT&T territory: Interesting sign of competition in otherwise monopoly-per-provider-type world. Verizon is using AT&T's hard-won statewide video franchising rules in Texas to build competitive fiber in Dallas suburbs. They're apparently not bringing telecom; they're acting like a cable TV firm with data. Verizon owns chunks of territory all over due to it encompassing GTE in a deal years ago. GTE serves suburbs west of Portland, Ore., and east of Seattle, for instance, while Qwest serves most of the rest of each state.

Foster City Wi-Fi dies on June 20: MetroFi is unlighting its cities, and Foster City opted not to spend the nearly $200,000 asking price MetroFi put on its equipment. MetroFi might still find a buyer, but June 20 is the network's current final day. Naperville, Ill., also expects a June 20 shutdown. They, too, were offered the network hardware for 200 grand.

Chehalis lights up: A small city in southern Washington votes to put in Wi-Fi hotzones. The cost is about $53,000 and annual fees $15,000. Funds will come from existing tax and grant sources. The city chose to install service to make sure they're not missing a checkbox on the amenities list for visitors and businesses rather than for a particular, measurable goal.

Nearby Centralia pulls its Wi-Fi: A pilot project in the larger city of Centralia, Wash., a bit north of Chehalis, is shut down when poles used to mount Wi-Fi radios are removed as electrical wires are buried. (The reporter here confuses broadband over powerlines (BPL) with broadband wireless.) The system might be restarted later.

Craig Settles writes up Pennsylvania's Cambria County wireless success: This is a network built for particular municipal purposes, part of Settles's long-time drumbeat about having applications first and then networks built for those networks second. He notes that Cambria built a 700 sq mi network that sounds nearly cost neutral through efficiency and cost conservation--it's cheaper to get much more service with this network than it was for a smaller array of services with incumbent-provided networks.

Santa Fe residents oppose Wi-Fi in the library on health grounds: You know what I have to say about how provable this has turned out to be in clinical studies. I am, however, as always, concerned about these people's health, even if I don't believe that Wi-Fi (or EMF) causes their problems. The group opposed to library-Fi is citing the ADA in this case, uniquely I believe. Six libraries suggested that EMF triggers seizures in epileptics, something I've never heard cited before; maybe CRTs (flickering), but EMF? Wired is substantially less kind than I am, pointing out that EMF other than Wi-Fi produces vastly higher signal strength. (They're sort of ignoring signal strength at a given point where an individual stands in relation to a transmitter, however.)