China looks to become major player in global smartphone game

Chinese electronics companies are launching a frontal assault on global smartphone leaders such as Apple and Samsung Electronics as they seek to turn their country from the largest maker of mobile devices into one of the largest marketers with products geared toward emerging markets. While Huawei is making an aggressive push into international markets, some smaller players -- such as Goophone and Coolpad -- are combining successful designs from existing phones with low-cost features to tap a growing domestic market.

Hackers hit South Korean targets for military secrets

An unknown group of hackers has been using sophisticated computer code to infiltrate computer networks in South Korea with the goal of uncovering the nation's military secrets, as well as those of its ally, the U.S. According to security researchers, the malware -- which has been in use since at least 2009 and is being blamed on North Korea -- is designed to scour secure networks for keywords such as the names of individuals, weapons systems and base locations and was used to infiltrate a social media site used by the South Korean military.

Battle over cloud systems and user privacy looms

The controversy involving the National Security Agency's PRISM program has prompted some European entities to warn companies to avoid U.S. service vendors. However, David Linthicum writes that the real battle of privacy in relation to the cloud hasn't even begun. "The reality is that people who [work] with cloud-based platforms won't stop using those platforms -- but they will get much better at security and privacy. With such improvements in security and privacy, law enforcement and government agencies won't have ready access to some data. That means legal battles will occur in many countries, with the use of remote data hosting services, such as cloud services, in the middle," he writes.

False malware warning prompts agency to dump IT gear

An alleged malware warning promoted the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration to trash $170,000 in IT equipment, wasting half -- $2.7 million -- of its IT budget, a Commerce Department report says. Another $3 million in equipment was slated to be destroyed, but the lack of funds prevented the EDA from continuing the eradication. The faulty warning resulted from miscommunication between the EDA and the Department of Commerce. "Unfortunately, both organizations continued to propagate the inaccurate information ... during the incident response activities," the report said.

Why most companies are behind the learning curve on security awareness

Promoting security awareness in the workplace is one of the most critical steps a company can take to protect its networked assets, but experts say that by relying on a one-size-fits-all approach that equates "awareness" with "training," many firms continue to overlook important nuances to employee behavior. Smply providing information is not enough to ensure true awareness, which requires a more personalized approach.

Detailed list of changes in ICND1 and ICND2

As most of you are already aware, the CCNA is no longer a pre-requisite to other certifications within Cisco®’s certification paths. I am discouraged by the amount of people saying they will only take the minimum requirement of CCENT before moving onto other certification because ICND2/CCNA is too hard! 

Sure it is hard, but I believe that the foundation is key to success! I am disappointed in Cisco® for not making the CCNA a pre-requisite.

Take a look at the changes below. I think people will be surprised when they take the CCENT. The CCENT is no longer an entry level certification!

Topics Removed from the ICND1 Exam:

• Securing the Network
• Understanding the Challenges of Shared LANs
• Solving Network Challenges with Switched LAN Technologies
• Wireless LANs
• Using Cisco® SDM
• Configuring Serial Encapsulation
• Enabling RIP

Topics Added to the ICND1 Exam:

• Implementing VLSM
• Scaling the Network with NAT and PAT
• Managing Traffic Using ACLs
• Implementing VLANs and Trunks
• Routing Between VLANs
• Implementing single area OSPF
• Introducing Basic IPv6
• Understanding IPv6
• Configuring IPv6 Routing

Topics Removed from the ICND2 Exam:

• Routing Between VLANs
• Securing the Expanded Network
• Implementing VLSM
• Scaling the Network with NAT and PAT

Topics Added to the ICND2 Exam:

• Troubleshooting VLAN Connectivity
• Understand Spanning Tree Protocol
• Understand and configure Etherchannel
• Understand Layer 3 Redundancy Protocols
• Troubleshooting IPv4 Network Connectivity