Tom Hollingsworth

About the Author:

Tom Hollingsworth is a networking professional, blogger, and speaker on advanced technology topics. He is also an organizer for networking and wireless for Tech Field Day.  His blog can be found at https://networkingnerd.net/

Articles by Tom Hollingsworth

Okta Breach Blamed on User’s Personal Google Login | Gestalt IT Rundown: November 8, 2023

November 8, 2023

Okta hasn’t had a very good run of security headlines lately, and the latest is a breach that resulted in the theft of session tokens of several customers from Okta’s customer support system. Though the number of customers was relatively low, the unauthorized access went undetected for over two weeks. The root cause seems to have come from an employee logging into their personal Google account and saving a username and password with the Chrome browser.

AI Won’t Fix Your Data Security Problems

November 7, 2023

Data security is a complicated subject and AI is not a magic solution to fix all of the problems you will face with it. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Richard Kenyan, Matt Tyrer, and Chris Hayner as they discuss how AI has changed the landscape of security. They discuss the challenges of finding the right AI models to replicate how your systems look and behave as well as where there are blind spots with respect to user behaviors. They all talk about the ways that attackers are starting to adjust their tactics to beat systems that can’t anticipate where the attacks will be coming from next.

Executive Order for Federal AI Standards Signed | Gestalt IT Rundown: November 1, 2023

November 1, 2023

President Joe Biden has signed a comprehensive executive order addressing the safety and governance of artificial intelligence in the United States. The order, running to nearly 20,000 words, signifies a significant shift towards enhanced AI governance, covering areas such as transparency, safety data sharing, federal standards, and tests, and ethical considerations across various sectors. It requires tech companies developing large AI models to share safety data with the U.S. government before releasing them to the public, addressing transparency concerns advocated by AI experts. This comes just before the US, China, European Union, and major tech companies and organizations attend an international summit on AI risks at Bletchley Park organized by the UK government. Are we finally going to do something about AI?

Edge is the Third Great Tech Revolution

October 31, 2023

Tech is a field full of revolutions and Edge is something special. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Jim Czuprynski, Gina Rosenthal, and Brian Knudtson give their take on whether or not Edge is a fundamental shift in the status quo or mearly an evolution of other paradigm shifts like Cloud. The panel focuses on the way that Edge strategies are affecting the way we consume content and deploy applications as well as the impacts that Edge has on areas outside of technology.

Licensing is Ruining Networking

October 24, 2023

Software licensing is making networking much more complex and causing networking professionals to be very confused about the state of their discipline. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Nick Buraglio and Lindsay Hill as they discuss the way that software defined networking (SDN) has changed the feature set of network hardware. Also discussed is the shift in focus to developer assets as well as how to recognize revenue from incremental feature additions as well as deployment of resources to appropriate functions in a network software development company.

Finishing Strong with Networking Field Day 33

October 19, 2023

Join Tech Field Day for Networking Field Day 33 on October 25-26, 2023! We’re going to hear great presentations from Graphiant, Cisco, RG Nets, Nokia, Fortinet, and Intel. Read on to learn more about their topics as well as where to tune in live.

AMD CEO Lisa Su leaves Cisco Board of Directors | Gestalt IT Rundown: October 18, 2023

October 18, 2023

Big news this week from the boardroom as Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, has announced her departure from the Cisco Board of Directors. The move comes as a surprise in a recent SEC filing and was announced without fanfare. Su had served on the Cisco board since 2019. She is also stepping down from the board of Analog Devices, a position she has held since 2016. There is speculation that this departure could signal that AMD will begin moving into the networking space more with a focus on DPU technology to compete against Cisco’s entrenched positions with networking hardware.

US-China Tech War now Focused on RISC-V chip Technology | Gestalt IT Rundown: October 11, 2023

October 11, 2023

In the ongoing geopolitical battle between the United States and China, a new front has emerged, focusing on the open-source chip technology known as RISC-V. American lawmakers, citing national security concerns, are pressuring the Biden administration to place restrictions on U.S. companies’ involvement in RISC-V, which is widely utilized in China. This technology competes with proprietary chip architectures from Arm and Intel and has applications ranging from smartphone chips to advanced artificial intelligence processors. The lawmakers fear that China is exploiting the culture of open collaboration among American companies to bolster its own semiconductor industry, potentially undermining the U.S.’s leadership in the chip field and supporting China’s military modernization. We’ve spoken a lot about RISC-V and the US/China situation, so it’s no surprise that these are coming together. How should we look at this situation?

No One Talks About Edge Backup

October 10, 2023

Backing up data at the edge is fraught with challenges concerning the importance of the data and the limitations of the hardware at your disposal. In this episode of the On-Premise IT Podcast, Jody Lemoine, Ben Young, and Bart Heungens discuss how edge backup differs from traditional enterprise disaster recovery. They highlight the need to identify data retention requirements for edge systems as well as the pitfalls of using cloud solutions versus local options for disconnected devices or lackluster connectivity situations. The discussion wraps up with questions that operations teams should be asking to get in front of these challenges before disaster strikes.

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