Technically Speaking

Telecommunications networks are undergoing radical and long-term change. It's a gradual process. But it's certain that the changes are accelerating and growing more extreme. The reason is simple: End users want to use the networks to do far more demanding and sophisticated things than before. Consider facial identification used to identify potential terrorists at airports. The network supporting such a system must serve up enough bandwidth and be close enough to databases to perform the task between the time a person checks in and boards the plane. It must do this many times a minute ...

In the first part of my interview with Jörg-Peter Elbers, SVP of advanced technology at ADVA, we discussed quantum-safe communication and what it means for the future of networking security. In the second part, we look at implementation strategies for post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution. Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation ...

Quantum technology provides valuable and highly effective tools in a variety of areas, including security. Recently, I discussed quantum-safe communications with Jörg-Peter Elbers, ADVA’s SVP of advanced technology. Here’s an edited transcript of the first part of our conversation ...

Here’s a sentence that hasn't been written too often. It's one that is music to the ears of security pros and the organizations for which they work: "There is some good news about ransomware." Ransomware of course is an existential threat in which a computer or computer system is taken over by hackers who prevent access to files unless a ransom is paid. The good news is that the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center said that last year ransomware attacks fell. The reduction was not incidental: 2,673 attacks were reported in 2016 and 1,783 last year ...

If things work out the way proponents hope, software-defined WANs will make tying corporate locations together far more efficient, increase functionality and reduce costs. SD-WANs are an implementation of software-defined networks. Today, network elements are purpose-built physical devices. If a company wants a firewall to protect an office, it calls a service provider or carrier who sends out a guy – it always was a guy – with a firewall in a truck. He deploys it into the network ...