Daily Network Monitor

The U.S. Geological Survey has outlined an ambitious - though unfunded and unapproved - road map for wiring Yellowstone over the next decade to keep better tabs on its geologic life.

Jake Lowenstern, a USGS geologist and head of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, said the plan is meant as a starting point for launching discussions about how best to monitor the park. It’s our way of thinking through what sort of techniques would be useful … what we do and why and then where do we fall short and how we might improve,” Lowenstern said.

The proposal suggests upgrades in Yellowstone’s seismic network, more gauges to monitor streams and potentially dangerous gases, Global Positioning System stations that help predict ground-splitting explosions, and even instruments hundreds of feet below the ground to monitor groundwater, magma and shifting rocks.

In the past 2 million years, Yellowstone has launched three of the largest volcanic eruptions on the planet. Another major eruption of what some have called a “supervolcano” has been the topic of much speculation in recent years.

“In terms of knowing whether an eruption is going to happen, we already have a pretty good system,” Lowenstern said.

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3M Digital Signage will be launching a comprehensive environment for the remote monitoring, diagnostic analysis and maintenance of devices on a digital signage network at London’ s Screen Expo 2007.

The new 3M Digital Signage Software - Network Operations Manager addresses many potential show-stopping hardware and software issues that might interfere with playback, without the need to deploy an on-site technician.

The new Network Operations Manager (NOM) tool enhances the comprehensive content management capabilities of 3M Digital Signage Software - Network Edition by providing real-time visibility of a digital signage network’s entire computing infrastructure. Whilst Network Edition enables users to manage multimedia content, schedule playlists and verify correct playback, NOM equips users to remotely diagnose and repair issues on player PCs and other network devices without requiring on-site attendance.

“A failure anywhere within a digital signage network is highly visible and it is critical for digital signage operators to have a network analysis and maintenance solution that is comprehensive and enables a quick response,” says Simon Birkenhead , Sales and Marketing Manager, 3M Digital Signage Division. “Offering software with the capability to improve efficiency, minimise downtime and increase overall IT effectiveness is another way we’re building on our promise to deliver digital signage solutions that lead the industry in reliability and fully deliver against customer needs.”

Network Operations Manager complements Network Edition software by enabling users to identify and address infrastructure issues before they might affect playout. Player downtime is minimised with features such as automated email alerts that instantly warn of any hardware, software or network issue on any remote player that might affect playout. NOM offers remote control of any digital signage network player PC, including real-time video streaming to the user?s desktop of playback from any player to verify on-screen images.

Read the whole story here.

On Christmas day, the number of bots tracked by the Shadowserver group dropped nearly 20 percent.

The dramatic decrease in weekly totals–from more than 500,000 infected systems to less than 400,000 computers–puzzled researchers. The Internet Storm Center, a threat monitoring group managed by the SANS Institute, confirmed a drop of about 10 percent.

One of the Internet Storm Center’s network monitoring volunteers posited that the decrease was due to the large number of computers given as gifts this Christmas. The systems running Microsoft Windows XP will be using Service Pack 2, which also means the firewall will be on by default, adding an additional hurdle for bot herder looking to reclaim their drones.

“Many of the infected machines are turned off, the new shiny ones have not been infected, and the Internet is momentarily a safer place,” Marcus Sachs, director of the ISC, stated in a diary entry. “But like you said, give it a few weeks and we’ll be right back to where we started from.”

Read the full story here.