The first Brisbane VMUG meeting of 2022 will be a lunch and learn event and will be held on Wednesday 23rd March from 12pm – 1pm. It’s powered by VMware and Queensland University of Technology and promises to be a great event. It’s also an opportunity to welcome the new leaders to the Brisbane VMUG team: Claire O’Dwyer and Antony West.
Become a Cyber Warrior with VMware
Sean Scott is a Cybersecurity advocate, technologist and digital transformation specialist with over 25 years of IT experience. With an extensive history working with IT, Infrastructure, Cloud, and Cyber teams, he uses the past experience as a member of IT, internal and external consulting, representing system integrators and global IT vendors. Sean leverages different perspectives and experiences to drive a customer outcome-focused mindset. Please join us for our first Lunch and Learn where Sean will deliver the following:
Agenda:
The State of Cybersecurity
Everyone’s role in the ASD Essential 8 controls
The role of VMware in Security
Workload Security – Embedded security in vSphere
Demo
Q&A
Refreshments will be served and due to capacity limits numbers are restricted. Doors open at 12pm on March 23rd at The Cube, QUT – 2 George Street, Brisbane. The session will start at 12.15pm promptly, with a 40 minute presentation planned.
Primary Venue
The Cube – Science & Engineering Centre (P Block) QUT Gardens Point
George Street 2, 4000 Brisbane, QLD, AU
VMware has gone to great lengths to make sure this will be a fun and informative session and I’m really looking forward to hearing Sean talk all things security. You can find out more information and register for the event here. I hope to see you there. Also, if you’re interested in sponsoring one of these events, please get in touch with me and I can help make it happen.
While we’re talking about work, Nitro has published its 2022 Productivity Report. You can read more here.
This article from Backblaze on machine learning and predicting hard drive failure rates was interesting. Speaking of Backblaze, if you’re thinking about signing up with them, use my code and we’ll both get some free time.
Had a security problem? Need to recover? How do you know when to hit the big red button? Preston can help.
Speaking of doom and gloom (i.e. losing data), Curtis’s recent podcast episode covering ZFS and related technologies made for some great listening.
Have you been looking for a “A Unique Technology to Scan and Interrogate Petabyte-Scale Unstructured Data Lakes”? Maybe, maybe not. If you have, Datadobi has you covered with Datadobi Query Language. You can read the press release here.
I love when bloggers take the time to do hands-on articles, and this one from Dennis Faucher covering VMware Tanzu Community Edition was fantastic.
Stupid title, but ransomware has been in the news quite a bit recently. I’ve had some tabs open in my browser for over twelve months with articles about ransomware that I found interesting. I thought it was time to share them and get this post out there. This isn’t comprehensive by any stretch, but rather it’s a list of a few things to look at when looking into anti-ransomware solutions, particularly for NAS environments.
It Kicked Him Right In The NAS
The way I see it (and I’m really not the world’s strongest security person), there are (at least) three approaches to NAS and ransomware concerns.
The Endpoint
This seems to be where most companies operate – addressing ransomware as it enters the organisation via the end users. There are a bunch of solutions out there that are designed to protect humans from themselves. But this approach doesn’t always help with alternative attack vectors and it’s only as good as the update processes you have in place to keep those endpoints updated. I’ve worked in a few shops where endpoint protection solutions were deployed and then inadvertently clobbered by system updates or users with too many privileges. The end result was that the systems didn’t do what they were meant to and there was much angst.
The NAS Itself
There are things you can do with NetApp solutions, for example, that are kind of interesting. Something like Stealthbits looks neat, and Varonis also uses FPolicy to get a similar result. Your mileage will vary with some of these solutions, and, again, it comes down to the ability to effectively ensure that these systems are doing what they say they will, when they will.
Data Protection
A number of the data protection vendors are talking about their ability to recover quickly from ransomware attacks. The capabilities vary, as they always do, but most of them have a solid handle on quick recovery once an infection is discovered. They can even help you discover that infection by analysing patterns in your data protection activities. For example, if a whole bunch of data changes overnight, it’s likely that you have a bit of a problem. But, some of the effectiveness of these solutions is limited by the frequency of data protection activity, and whether anyone is reading the alerts. The challenge here is that it’s a reactive approach, rather than something preventative. That said, companies like Rubrik are working hard to enhance its Radar capability into something a whole lot more interesting.
Other Things
Other things that can help limit your exposure to ransomware include adopting generally robust security practices across the board, monitoring all of your systems, and talking to your users about not clicking on unknown links in emails. Some of these things are easier to do than others.
Thoughts
I don’t think any of these solutions provide everything you need in isolation, but the challenge is going to be coming up with something that is supportable and, potentially, affordable. It would also be great if it works too. Ransomware is a problem, and becoming a bigger problem every day. I don’t want to sound like I’m selling you insurance, but it’s almost not a question of if, but when. But paying attention to some of the above points will help you on your way. Of course, sometimes Sod’s Law applies, and things will go badly for you no matter how well you think you’ve designed your systems. At that point, it’s going to be really important that you’ve setup your data protection systems correctly, otherwise you’re in for a tough time. Remember, it’s always worth thinking about what your data is worth to you when you’re evaluating the relative value of security and data protection solutions. This article from Chin-Fah had some interesting insights into the problem. And this article from Cohesity outlined a comprehensive approach to holistic cyber security. This article from Andrew over at Pure Storage did a great job of outlining some of the challenges faced by organisations when rolling out these systems. This list of NIST ransomware resources from Melissa is great. And if you’re looking for a useful resource on ransomware from VMware’s perspective, check out this site.
Welcome to Random Short Take #57. Only one player has worn 57 in the NBA. So it looks like this particular bit is done. Let’s get random.
In the early part of my career I spent a lot of time tuning up old UNIX workstations. I remember lifting those SGI CRTs from desk to desk was never a whole lot of fun. This article about a Sun Ultra 1 project bought back a hint of nostalgia for those days (but not enough to really get into it again). Hat tip to Scott Lowe for the link.
As you get older, you realise that people talk a whole lot of rubbish most of the time. This article calling out audiophiles for the practice was great.
This article on the Backblaze blog about one company’s approach to building its streaming media capability on B2 made for interesting reading.
DH2i recently announced the general availability of DxEnterprise (DxE) for Containers, enabling cloud-native Microsoft SQL Server container Availability Groups outside and inside Kubernetes.
Speaking of press releases, Zerto has made a few promotions recently. You can keep up with that news here.
I’m terrible when it comes to information security, but if you’re looking to get started in the field, this article provides some excellent guidance on what you should be focussing on.
We all generally acknowledge that NTP is important, and most of us likely assume that it’s working. But have you been checking? This article from Tony does a good job of outlining some of the reasons you should be paying some more attention to NTP.
This is likely the most succinct article from John you’ll ever read, and it’s right on the money too.
Welcome to Random Short Take #54. A few players have worn 54 in the NBA, but my favourite was Horace Grant. Let’s get random.
This project looked like an enjoyable, and relatively accessible, home project – building your own NVMe-based storage server.
When I was younger I had nightmares based on horror movies and falling out of bed (sometimes with both happening at the same time). Now this is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.
Welcome to Random Short Take #51. A few players have worn 51 in the NBA including Lawrence Funderburke (I remember the Ohio State team wearing grey Nikes on TV and thinking that was a really cool sneaker colour – something I haven’t been able to shake over 25 years later). My pick is Boban Marjanović though. Let’s get random.
Folks don’t seem to spend much time making sure the fundamentals are sound, particularly when it comes to security. This article from Jess provides a handy list of things you should be thinking about, and doing, when it comes to securing your information systems. As she points out, it’s just a starting point, but I think it should be seen as a bare minimum / entry level set of requirements that you could wrap around most environments out in the wild.
Could there be a new version of AIX on the horizon? Do I care? Not really. But I do sometimes yearn for the “simpler” times I spent working on a myriad of proprietary open systems, particularly when it came to storage array support.
StorCentric recently announced Nexsan Assureon Cloud Edition. You can read the press release here.
Speaking of press releases, Zerto continues to grow its portfolio of cloud protection technology. You can read more on that here.
Spectro Cloud has been busy recently, and announced supporting for management of existing Kubernetes deployments. The news on that can be found here.
Are you a data hoarder? I am. This article won’t help you quit data, but it will help you understand some of the things you can do to protect your data.
So you’ve found yourself with a publicly facing vCenter? Check out this VMware security advisory, and get patching ASAP. vCenter is the only thing you need to be patching either, but hopefully you knew that already.
John Birmingham is one of my favourite writers. Not just for his novels with lots of things going bang, but also for his blog posts about food. And things of that nature.
Welcome to Random Short Take #48. Not a great many players have worn 48 in the NBA (2 as it happens). It gets better soon, I assure you. Let’s get random.
I may or may not have a few bezels in my home office, so I enjoyed this article from Mellor on bezels.
Another great article from Preston reflecting on 2020 and data protection. And the reading and listening part is important too.
If your business is part of VCPP, this article on what’s new with pricing provides a good summary of what’s changed. If you’re not, it’s probably not going to make as much sense.
This is a great article on Apple’s OCSP and how things can go south pretty quickly.
Datadobi and Wasabi recently announced a technology alliance partnership – you can read more about that here.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for reading. You may have noticed that I wrote fewer posts this year. Some of that is due to increased workload at the day job, some of that is related to non-blog writing projects, and some of that has been general mental fatigue. I also couldn’t really get into the big vendor virtual conferences in the way that I’d hoped to, and this had an impact on content output to an extent.
In any case, wherever you are, stay safe, happy holidays, and see you on the line next year.
Here are some links to some random news items and other content that I recently found interesting. You might find them interesting too. Episode 18 – buckle up kids! It’s all happening.
Cohesity added support for Active Directory protection with version 6.3 of the DataPlatform. Matt covered it pretty comprehensively here.
Speaking of Cohesity, Alastair wrote this article on getting started with the Cohesity PowerShell Module.
In keeping with the data protection theme (hey, it’s what I’m into), here’s a great article from W. Curtis Preston on SaaS data protection, and what you need to consider to not become another cautionary tale on the Internet. Curtis has written a lot about data protection over the years, and you could do a lot worse than reading what he has to say. And that’s not just because he signed a book for me.
Did you ever stop and think just how insecure some of the things that you put your money into are? It’s a little scary. Shell are doing some stuff with Cybera to improve things. Read more about that here.
I used to work with Vincent, and he’s a super smart guy. I’ve been at him for years to start blogging, and he’s started to put out some articles. He’s very good at taking complex topics and distilling them down to something that’s easy to understand. Here’s his summary of VMware vRealize Automation configuration.
Google Cloud has announced it’s acquiring Elastifile. That part of the business doesn’t seem to be as brutal as the broader Alphabet group when it comes to acquiring and discarding companies, and I’m hoping that the good folks at Elastifile are looked after. You can read more on that here.
A lot of people are getting upset with terms like “disaggregated HCI”. Chris Mellor does a bang up job explaining the differences between the various architectures here. It’s my belief that there’s a place for all of this, and assuming that one architecture will suit every situation is a little naive. But what do I know?
I’ve written about Rubrik’s Polaris offering in the past, with GPS being the first cab off the rank. You can think of GPS as the command and control platform, offering multi-cloud control and policy management via the Polaris SaaS framework. I recently had the opportunity to hear from Chris Wahl about Radar and thought it worthwhile covering here.
People don’t want to hear about the problem, because they already know what it is and they want to spend time hearing about how the vendor is going to solve it. I think in this instance, though, it’s worth re-iterating that security attacks happen. A lot. According to the Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report ransomware attacks are growing by more than 350% annually. It’s Rubrik’s position that security is heavily focused on the edge, with firewalls and desktop protection being the main tools deployed. “Defence in depth is lopsided”, with a focus on prevention, not necessarily the recovery. According to Wahl, “it’s hard to bounce back fast”.
What It Does
So what does Radar do (in the context of Rubrik Polaris)? The idea is that it is increasing the intelligence to know when you get hit, and helping you to recover faster. The goal of Radar is fairly straightforward, with the following activities being key to the solution:
Detection – identify all strains of ransomware;
Analysis – understand impact of an attack; and
Recovery – restore as quickly as possible.
Radar achieves this by:
Detecting anomalies – leverage insights on suspicious activity to accelerate detection;
Analysing threat impact – spend less time discovering which applications and files were impacted; and
Accelerating recovery – minimise downtime by simplifying manual processes into just a few clicks.
How?
Rubrik tell me they use (drumroll please) Machine Learning for detection. Is it really machine learning? That doesn’t really matter for the purpose of this story.
[image courtesy of Rubrik]
The machine learning model learns the baseline behaviour, detects anomalies and alerts as they come in. So how does that work then?
1. Detect anomalies – apply machine learning on application metadata to detect and alert unusual change activity with protected data, such as ransomware.
What happens post anomaly detection?
Email alert is sent to user
Radar inspects snapshot for encryption
Results uploaded to Polaris
User informed of results (via the Polaris UI)
2. Analyse threat impact – Visualise how an attack impacted the system with a detailed view of file content changes at the time of the event.
3. Accelerate recovery – Select all impacted resources, specify the desired location, and restore the most recent clean versions with a few clicks. Rubrik automates the rest of the restore process.
Thoughts and Further Reading
I think there’s a good story to tell with Polaris. SaaS is an accessible way of delivering features to the customer base without the angst traditionally associated with appliance platform upgrades. Data security should be a big part of data protection. After all, data protection is generally critical to recovery once there’s been a serious breach. We’re no longer just protecting against users inside the organisation accidentally deleting large chunks of data, or having to recover from serious equipment failures. Instead, we’re faced with the reality that a bunch of idiots with bad intentions are out to wreck some of our stuff and make a bit of coin on the side. The sooner you know something has gone awry, the quicker you can hopefully recover from the problem (and potentially re-evaluate some of your security). Being attacked shouldn’t be about being ashamed, but it should be about being able to quickly recover and get on with whatever your company does to make its way in the world. With this in mind, I think that Rubrik are on the right track.
You can grab the data sheet from here, and Chris has an article worth checking out here. You can also register to access the Technical Overview here.
Scale Computing and WinMagicrecently announced a partnership improving the security of Scale’s HC3 solution. I had the opportunity to be briefed by the good folks at Scale and WinMagic and thought I’d provide a brief overview of the announcement here.
But Firstly, Some Background
Scale Computing announced their HC3 Cloud Unity offering in late September this year. Cloud Unity, in a nutshell, let’s you run embedded HC3 instances in Google Cloud. Coupled with some SD-WAN smarts, you can move workloads easily between on-premises infrastructure and GCP. It enables companies to perform lift and shift migrations, if required, with relative ease, and removes a lot of the complexity traditionally associated of deploying hybrid-friendly workloads in the data centre.
So the WinMagic Thing?
WinMagic have been around for quite some time, and offer a range of security products aimed at various sizes of organization. This partnership with Scale delivers SecureDoc CloudVM as a mechanism for encryption and key management. You can download a copy of the brochure from here. The point of the solution is to provide a secure mechanism for hosting your VMs either on-premises or in the cloud. Key management can be a pain in the rear, and WinMagic provides a fully-featured solution for this that’s easy to use and simple to manage. There’s broad support for a variety of operating environments and clients. Authentication and authorized key distribution takes place prior to workloads being deployed to ensure that the right person is accessing data from an expected place and device and there’s support for password only or multi-factor authentication.
Thoughts
Scale Computing have been doing some really cool stuff in the hyperconverged arena for some time now. The new partnership with Google Cloud, and the addition of the WinMagic solution, demonstrates their focus on improving an already impressive offering with some pretty neat features. It’s one thing to enable customers to get to the cloud with relative ease, but it’s a whole other thing to be able to help them secure their assets when they make that move to the cloud.
It’s my opinion that Scale Computing have been the quiet achievers in the HCI marketplace, with reported fantastic customer satisfaction and a solid range of products on offer at a very reasonable RRP. Couple this with an intelligent hypervisor platform and the ability to securely host assets in the public cloud, and it’s clear that Scale Computing aren’t interested in standing still. I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s next for them. If you’re after an HCI solution where you can start really (really) small and grow as required, it would be worthwhile having a chat to them.
Also, if you’re into that kind of thing, Scale and WinMagic are hosting a joint webinar on November 28 at 10:30am EST. Registration for the webinar “Simplifying Security across your Universal I.T. Infrastructure: Top 5 Considerations for Securing Your Virtual and Cloud IT Environments, Without Introducing Unneeded Complexity” can be found here.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
