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Pandora FMS and RedHat6, a story that comes to an end in 2022

Today I will tell you a little story, that of good Redhat6 and Pandora FMS, a relationship that endured, on favorable terms, everything it had to endure, but finally fell apart. Calm down, they still will stay as friends.

Pandora FMS stops supporting RedHat6 this 2022

Redhat6 was once the generation of Red Hat’s complete set of operating systems, designed for mission-critical enterprise computing and certified by leading enterprise software and hardware providers. Many systems were based on Rhel6. Among them we highlight CentOS, which in its day, was a derivation, a kind of free clone of Redhat, with the same life cycle.

As many of us know, CentOS 6 reached the end of its official life cycle, on November 30th, 2020, so it is a system that has been obsolete for more than a year. However, we, Pandora FMS, have maintained a year of extended support (2021) for these systems to make transition and migration from CentOS 6-based systems to systems based on CentOS 7 or the latest RedHat 8 easier. But this is over by 2022.

The Future of RedHat

What will happen now? Well, let’s talk about RedHat Enterprise Linux 8. Because the most cutting-edge IT is hybrid IT. And in order to transform a system into a hybrid environment, from data centers to Cloud services, certain formalities are needed. Like an adaptable scalability. Seamless workload transfer. Application development… And, of course, RedHat already has an operating system that meets all these requirements, the path to its future is RedHat 8. Cutting-edge technology that adapts to businesses and has the essential features, “from container tools to compatibility with graphic processing units”, to launch tomorrow’s technology today.

Some alternatives to CentOS

Are there any alternatives for team administrators who already moved on? Well, we have some candidates and we know them well because we support them.

  • RHEL for Open Source Infrastructure: RedHat itself launched this alternative to the community so that no one would sigh for the death of CentOS, even so we are facing a clone of RHEL.
  • Rocky Linux: It was developed by Greg Kurtzer and named after Rocky McGough. During its first 12 hours of life online, it was downloaded 10,000 times.
  • AlmaLinux: Although now managed by its own foundation, AlmaLinux was launched in its day by those responsible for CloudLinux. Since its inception it was claimed by many as the best positioned successor to CentOS, now its version 8.5 is the proposed exact copy of RHEL 8.5.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About PandoraFMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS can control is the hard disks of your computers.

Top 5 Requirements for a Successful Edge Deployment

Earlier this year, Scale Computing published “The Gorilla Guide to: Enabling IT at the Edge” a jargon-free guide designed to help IT leaders and practitioners understand the fundamental principles of edge computing and offers practical guidance as to how to get started on your edge journey. One of the most commented upon chapters was in Chapter 2, The Top 5 Requirements for a Successful Edge Deployment.

Edge computing deployments have unique constraints that are significantly different from the ones with which typical data center deployments contend. After all, by definition, edge deployments are away from normal support services, far from the sanitized data center, and deeply enmeshed in the real work of the organization where they must deliver high value without disrupting other business activities.

Here is what we believe are the top five requirements for a successful edge deployment:

1. Modest Physical Footprint

Some vendors just sell standard data center equipment for edge use without accounting for the less-than-perfect environment that may be encountered there. For example, data center gear designed to work when provided with the highest quality cooling can suddenly develop reliability issues when located in a poorly ventilated storage space at an edge installation.That’s why it’s vital that edge equipment should be conceived from the start for that purpose, with sufficient ruggedness built in to handle the wider range of issues that are typical at the edge — whether that edge is the shop floor, a warehouse, or somewhere in a retail establishment. Edge components and systems need to be thought of as “universal” products that can be deployed when and where they’re needed, with few limitations, and made appropriately secure in any given environment.

2. Affordable but Effective

For the many industries that operate remote sites, ranging from finance and retail to manufacturing and so-called Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO), there’s a need for reliable computing to support their business applications and operational technologies. But none of these scenarios can afford large, dedicated spaces or complexity. Edge adopters must consider the size of the actual equipment and its requirements for access space, air flow, cabling, and so forth. So, smaller and more compact equipment generally helps drive flexibility because it allows more freedom to choose deployment locations and makes it less likely a deployment will disrupt other activities. It typically also implies less onerous cooling and power needs. It is worth noting that compact form factors can also be helpful for enhancing physical security. For example, a smaller form factor means equipment can be secured and ceiling mounted for example, where it becomes harder to tamper with.

3. Resilient and Survivable

Edge computing is no place for daintiness: It’s where real work gets done, some of it dirty, messy, hot, and noisy. So, in addition to needing only a basic physical environment and simple power and connectivity, prudent adopters make sure the edge setup (hardware and software) is designed to be failure resistant, able to recover from many problems autonomously, to protect data, and to maintain operations in almost any circumstance. Edge equipment needs to be ready to handle that kind of stress without generating performance issues. Furthermore, autonomy should be part of the basics — delivering no-nonsense reboots and allowing most other maintenance tasks to be initiated remotely.

4. Simplified Resource Additions (Scale Out) and Hardware Replacement

Edge environments are very dynamic with new applications being deployed regularly and data volumes growing exponentially creating new demands on edge infrastructure. It’s critical that infrastructure is designed to accommodate that growth and expand and upgrade the edge micro-datacenter with new resources and applications as easily as the initial edge deployment. Failure to plan for expansion of the edge environment can lead to expensive forklift upgrades or multiple independent islands of infrastructure to manage, with all the complexity and cost associated with that kind of choice.

5. Repeatable, with Zero-Touch Provisioning

Edge systems should take a standardized approach requiring little or no customization and minimal skills in installation. When possible, edge should offer or embrace infrastructure as code (IaC), which simplifies change control. Repeatability means that service and support is standardized so staff doesn’t need to research each installation before responding to a problem but, instead, can count on using a consistent approach and methodology. Management must not require specialized IT staff on site; upgrades and infrastructure scaling must be non-disruptive; the foundation must be self-healing; and IT specialists must be able to manage the entire edge fleet seamlessly at scale. Finally, look for zero-touch provisioning. This is a device-configuration process that can be operated automatically and eliminates most of the burden on IT administrators when setting up, maintaining, or upgrading an edge system

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing 
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

What are CVSS scores?

Understanding Vulnerability Scoring

Threat actors make use of vulnerabilities for their attacks. By exploiting vulnerabilities, attackers can gain access to devices, networks and systems. Vulnerabilities enable attackers to steal corporate information and sell sensitive information. They can also eavesdrop to confidential communication.   

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Safetica NXT Q4/2021: Safetica HUB, improved content scanning, and weekly report

We are releasing new features and improvements to our SaaS product, Safetica NXT, continuously. Do you want to know what major changes brought last months for end-customers and MSP? 

New features for end-customers 

Improved content scanning technology 

You can now fine-tune the pre-configured data categories using keywords. With their help, you can decrease the number of false positives, or extend the scope of any data category by creating custom definitions with your own keywords. 

New version for Windows delivers significant improvements to the auditing process and content scanning capabilities. Safetica NXT now scans only specific, best-practice file types (for the complete list, see our Knowledge base).  

Enhanced USB devices and Email channels overview 

The Workspace section now also provides information about the USB devices and Email channels, through that the data flows.  Thanks to a new module aimed at Emails, Safetica NXT can now distinguish which emails are sent within a virtual “safe zone” and evaluate those as less risky. The purpose of this feature is to treat internal emails sent within the organization as less risky than those which are leaving the company. 

Enhanced tooltips for risky events in Data security > Overview with more detailed info about criteria related to detection policy rules and smart scanning.

Improved weekly report 

Our weekly report delivered in your inbox got an additional boost in terms of new data and features. Particularly: 

  • Overview of risky events amount divided by their severity. 
  • New section dedicated to protected users (employees) and their risk level 
  • Additional context for detected risks and users 
  • Info about trends (how data changed compared to last week)
  • We also released new design and branding. 

New features for MSP 

Safetica HUB: Central management  

You can now manage access into the Safetica HUB and Safetica NXT via a new Settings section, with an overview of all created accounts and their status. In Dashboard you find the crucial info in the form of tiles, such as the total number of your registered customers, number of enrolled endpoints, secured users, or amount of threats across all your customer base (in the last 30 days).   

When registering new customers, you can select the desired license type (demo, trial, full, or NFR). The respective record is created automatically in Safetica backend and no further communication with the Safetica team is needed. Info about license type is displayed in the customer overview for every registered or new customer. 

Customer role 

You can now give direct access to Safetica NXT to selected customer representatives via a special Customer role. The customer will be able to use all the features of Safetica NXT and browse the data from their company. They will not be able to access Safetica NXT of other customers nor the multi-tenant Safetica HUB. 

You can find the release notes here

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Safetica
Safetica is to provide small and mid-sized companies with the same quality data protection that corporations have – affordably, and without any additional IT administration or disruptions in operation.

How to Prevent DDoS Attacks in Your Company?

There are several methods by which malicious agents attack websites and destabilize network services and resources.

One of the most commonly used techniques is the DDoS attack, which stands for distributed denial-of-service.

Through this attack, a website ends up becoming inoperable and overloaded with malicious traffic.

However, DDoS attacks can also be made against all types of network resources, such as virtual applications, data centers, corporate servers, APIs, etc.

Traffic overload can cause a variety of problems for your company, from bottlenecks in accessing important data to the unavailability of all digital tools in the corporation.

As a result, it is important to be aware of these attacks and articulate solutions to protect your company.

There are several ways to prevent DDoS attacks on your enterprise servers. In this text, we will explain in more detail what DDoS attacks are and how they can affect your business.

And, above all, how to prevent DDoS attacks in your company.

What Are DDoS Attacks?

Before specifying what DDoS attacks are, we must understand what DoS (denial-of-service) attacks are in general.

A DoS attack is a way of rendering a network resource unusable. The attack is usually carried out with a traffic overload, directing a series of superfluous requests to render the website unusable.

Through these malicious requests, the system ends up being overloaded and unable to process legitimate requests.

In the DDoS attack, the traffic maliciously directed to the resource comes from several sources. By multiplying the source of the attack, the method makes it impossible to avoid overloading by blocking a single source.

DDoS attacks are often used as a criminal mechanism. By rendering the system unusable, hackers can blackmail large organizations.

There are numerous techniques for performing a DDoS attack.

The simplest way to do a DDoS attack is through a specialized attack tool such as Slowloris or Stacheldraht. This type of tool is included in several types of malware and can perform the attack without the knowledge of the system administrator.

The best way to understand a DDoS attack is through the following metaphor: imagine a group of people crowding into a shop entrance, preventing access to legitimate consumers. In this way, the shop itself ends up being inaccessible.

How can DDoS Attacks Affect Your Business?

DDoS attacks are intended to make legitimate use of websites and web resources in general unavailable. Thus, the attacker is able to disrupt the activity of the attacked organization.

The main targets of these attacks are online services that we use frequently and contain sensitive data, such as internet banking, media, educational tools, medical management systems, e-commerce, etc.

The motivations behind attackers are not the same. Different groups have different reasons for carrying out DDoS attacks.

Attacks are sometimes carried out as a form of political activism. When government agencies are the victims, the agents generally seek to cause some type of economic or social instability.

In the case of massive attacks organized by large groups, DDoS can be used as a distraction tactic, directing the attention of authorities and technical teams to smaller attacks.

In other cases, the motivations may be strictly financial. For example, a malicious competitor could order a DDoS attack to make its service more attractive to consumers.

Or, more directly, the attacker can use the DDoS attack to extort a company and gain illicit profits.

In these cases, the malicious agent produces an attack to disable some digital service and charges a ransom to return the system to normality. These are the attacks known as RDDoS (ransom distributed denial-of-service).

Another tactic is to just threaten the organization with an attack. To convince the company to pay the ransom, the attacker can make an attack demonstration, a “sneak peek”, proving its disruptive capacity and, in this way, increasing their chances of profit from the fear and panic produced.

Unfortunately, the company does not always have an adequate protection system. Furthermore, contacting law enforcement authorities can be a time-consuming solution and cause even more trouble with invaders.

Most of the time, hackers are not even tracked, as they use cryptocurrency wallets to receive the ransom.

There is a whole lot of calculation to be done in the event of ransomware attacks. In fact, the answer to the simple question “should I or should I not pay the ransom?” can be more complicated than you think. See what factors to consider by clicking here.

The consequences of a DDoS attack can be disastrous. The instability of internal systems, for example, can make the production process more expensive or even totally hindered. On the other hand, the unavailability of websites accessed by the public can make it impossible to attract customers and make sales.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Segura®
Segura® strive to ensure the sovereignty of companies over actions and privileged information. To this end, we work against data theft through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases and a multitude of devices. In addition, we pursue compliance with auditing requirements and the most demanding standards, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001 and HIPAA.

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