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Its been a part of wireless networks for years, including as a component of 4G LTE. Recently, however, with the rise of edge computing, Local Break Out has become topic of serious discussion in the data center market.

LBO is the part of the wireless network that lets selected streams of incoming data be diverted, like a fork in a river or a tap on a beer barrel, away from the networks own addresses. It was proposed by communications engineers back in 2012 to enable roaming devices like smartphones to have the data theyre using to be routed to them by service providers other than the ones theyre customers of. At the time it was also under consideration by the European Parliament [PDF] as a kind of platform for a competitive market in roaming communication, a way for many networks to serve a single customer with voice and data.

Related: Why Google Cloud and AT&T May Merge their Telco Edges

It later became part of the 3GPP standards organizations Release 8 of the global standard for wireless infrastructure baked into the network. The standard is presently on Release 16, the second stage of 5G deployment, with Release 17 due to be finalized in early 2021.

With 5G turning up the volume on data throughput, LBO is becoming a kind of all-purpose socket for edge computing platforms to tap into the wireless network and connect to services and data providers upstream. One of the things this does is enable smaller platforms to provide data center services that are competitive, at least in some regards, to colocation and public cloud giants by leveraging wireless networks fiber optic links as their interconnecting fabrics.

Related: Vapor IO Intros Kinetic Edge Exchange for Network Peering at the Edge

3GPP has defined the roles of home and visited networks while sharing the responsibility of providing the user experience or data service, remarked Tom Nadeau, regarded by many as a father of SDN and presently a technical director at Red Hat. The visited network is responsible for building its network infrastructure independently of the home network operator.

LBO was designed to enable a shorter path between a wireless user and a roaming data network, leveraging the existing wireless packet gateway in the network being visited as the routing agent. In practice, however, LBO was expanded for the home networks purposes, shortening the distance between the packet gateway and a nearby access point to the internet, or to a cloud service provider. In a note to DCK, Nadeau explained that 3GPPs architecture for LBO is altogether agnostic about the infrastructure of either the remote visited service provider network that connects to it or the home network from which a connection may be made.

The 3GPP SBA (Service Based Architecture) refers to a 3GPP-defined model of how [network] functions are built and chained to deliver mobile services, Nadeau wrote. These services are built using software components called network functions. The functions can run on a cloud platform such as Red Hats OpenStack, he pointed out.

LBO is an option to short-circuit traffic at the local POP [point-of-presence] where the data plane exists to deliver edge services. S/PGW-U [the converged serving gateway and packet data network gateway in 5G, on the user plane of SDN] can be placed as a network function on OpenStack at the edge to handle Local Break Out.

In other words, no single part of the roaming data connection requires a peculiar type of server or unique network appliance. Its an anything-to-anything connection. And at the point where just about anything comes together, why not build an entirely new data services market?

At the edge, theres this concept of an edge exchange, explained Alex Marcham, technical marketing manager for the edge data center provider Vapor IO. An edge exchange is similar to a provider-neutral Internet Exchange, which gives networks more options for direct connectivity to ISPs and CDNs, giving operators similar options for outside connectivity at the edges of their networks. Conceivably, it could be a way for Amazon Web Services or another cloud provider to offer low-latency connectivity between its cloud platform and subscribing private facilities.

In those cases, if you were to have an LBO connection from your packet gateway to one or more of those edge exchange sites you could potentially exchange data between, say, a Verizon and an Amazon without having to take your original long path back to a hyperscale facility, Marcham said. In that case, once you leave the packet gateway on that SGi interface, you are routable IP. You go into an edge exchange which has the same components as a traditional network exchange, in the form of a meet-me room, and the various letters of agreement that control those network connections through that MMR.

Theres an argument to be made, Marcham believes, in favor of the development of an edge services ecosystem. It wouldnt replace or supplant the current cloud services-based economy, but rather supplement it with lower-latency options on a premium service tier.

In one scenario, for example, a CSP could offer API access to an AI service, perhaps for rapidly processing photo or video data and identifying its contents. Today, a round-trip transaction involving a cloud data center in one of its regional availability zones would take too long for a near-real-time application. But on a premium tier, where the connectivity is arranged through an edge exchange, users could be linked to the same service using the much faster fiber optic network that wireless operators use for backhaul. LBO would provide both the on-ramp and the off-ramp into the fiber network.

Theres a business to be forged there, believes Vapor IOs chief marketing officer Matt Trifiro. Just whose business it will be, however, remains to be determined.

Offering the operators the ability to deploy white-box hardware in facilities that they didnt have to build and dont have to carry on their balance sheets provides massive economic benefits, as well as massive time-to-market benefits, he said. Conceivably, as much as one-third of the cost of operating an edge data center could be wiped off an operators balance sheet, and risk could be offloaded to a partner.

If Im Verizon, if Im Amazon, Ive got to put something there, continued Trifiro. And somebodys already solved the networking and the colocation problem. Its an order of magnitude more efficient and cheaper to use that than to build my own.

Customers are hoping to capitalize on the opportunities that edge computing can bring to their organizations, noted Red Hats Nadeau. While edge computing and Mobile Edge Computing are established concepts, whats different are the new technologies that are making it easier to deploy and operate resources at large scale across broadly distributed locations, while at the same time enabling a new wave of applications and workloads that businesses can use to create differentiation, drive new business, or lower costs.

In 1904, an electrical engineer named Harvey Hubbell happened upon the concept that electricity could become a viable industry if the network were to adopt standard sockets. Well over a century later, engineers believe, edge exchanges could become a similarly viable, world-changing industry, as long as everyone agreed on how to plug in.

Read the rest here:
Local Break Out (LBO) and Its Role in Bringing Cloud to the Edge - Data Center Knowledge

Kaspersky researchers have discovered a watering-hole campaign targeting users in Asia since May 2019.

More than 10 websites related to religion, voluntary programs, charity, and several other areas were compromised to selectively trigger a drive-by download attack resulting in a backdoor set up on the targets' devices.

Attackers used a creative toolset, which included GitHub distribution and the use of open-source code.

A watering hole is a targeted attack strategy in which cyber criminals compromise websites that are considered to be fertile ground for potential victims and wait for the planted malware to end up on their computers. In order to be exposed to malware, a user needs to simply visit a compromised website, which makes this type of attack easy to spread and thus more dangerous.

This multi-stage waterhole attack with an unsophisticated but creative toolset is distinctive due to its fast evolution since its inception date, as well as the wide range of tools used.

Upon visiting one of the water-holing websites, a previously compromised resource will load an obfuscated malicious JavaScript, which gathers information about the visitor.

An external server then ascertains whether the visitor is a target. If the visitor is validated as a target, the second JavaScript stage will load a plugin, which in turn will trigger a download attack, showing a fake Adobe Flash update pop-up.

The visitor is then expected to be lured into the update trap, and download a malicious installer package that will set up a backdoor named 'Godlike12', thus providing the threat actor with full remote access to the infected device, enabling them to modify files, harvest confidential data from the computer, log activity on the computer and more.

Another backdoor, a modified version of the open-source Python backdoor called Stitch, was also used in the attack. It provided classic backdoor functionalities by establishing a direct socket connection to exchange AES-encrypted data with the remote server.

The fake Adobe Flash pop-up was linked to an executable file hosted on github.com under the guise of a Flash update file. GitHub disabled this repository on the 14th of February 2020 after Kaspersky reported it to them, thus breaking the infection chain of the campaign.

The repository has, however, been online for more than 9 months, and thanks to GitHub's commit history, the researchers were able to gain unique insight on the attacker's activity and tools.

This campaign stands out due to its low-budget and not fully developed toolset, which has been modified several times in a few months to leverage interesting features like Google Drive C2. Kaspersky characterizes the attack as likely being the work of a small, agile team.

"Watering hole is an interesting strategy that delivers results using targeted attacks on specific groups of people. We were not able to witness any live attacks and thus could not determine the operational target," said Kaspersky senior security researcher, Ivan Kwiatkowski.

"However, this campaign once again demonstrates why online privacy needs to be actively protected. Privacy risks are especially high when we consider various social groups and minorities because there are always actors that are interested in finding out more about such groups."

Kaspersky recommends following a series of steps to avoid falling victim to targeted attacks on organizations or persons.

According to the organization, people should not update nor install Adobe Flash Player, as the product is no longer supported and most likely, the update disguises something malicious. In case it has been installed, Kaspersky recommends removing it as the technology is now obsolete.

VPN must be used to hide the person's association with a specific group by masking the real IP address and hiding the real location you are at.

Kaspersky suggests that people choose a proven security solution such as Kaspersky Security Cloud for effective personal protection against known and unknown threats.

The Security Operations Center (SOC) team must be provided with access to the latest threat intelligence, and to stay up to date with new and emerging tools, techniques and tactics used by threat actors and cybercriminals.

For endpoint level detection, investigation and timely remediation of incidents, implementation of EDR solutions such as Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response are advised.

In addition to adopting essential endpoint protection, implementing a corporate-grade security solution that detects advanced threats on the network level at an early stage, such as Kaspersky Anti Targeted Attack Platform is also advised.

Continued here:
Holy Water: A creative water-holing attack discovered by Kaspersky - ETCIO.com

Accrington, UK: North West Logistics has moved its data to Mandatas cloud-based systems.

The system provides customers with real-time information but also also allows North West Logistics personnel to remotely access systems from home now more important given the measures introduced to cope with the coronavirus.In previous times, says the company, all operational data was on a server which presented access problems and raised concerns regarding long term reliability.Stephen Dunn, managing director, North West Logistics: says: The server needed replacing and we were worried about the disaster recovery aspect and interruption to the business, should the system fail. Plus, we needed to use discs to back-up everything and for those reasons we looked for a more versatile and reliable solution.The move went very well with little disruption to our business. It was extremely well planned and were very pleased with the way Mandatas IT and software team handled the project, he says.Now we can give our customers the freedom to access and interact with real-time information when they log into the Mandata system. Our directors and staff can access our systems remotely. None of this was possible before.Its already given us big benefits across the business including electronic PODs, instant progress on jobs for our customers and of course, remote working, he says.

We could never have anticipated the extraordinary circumstances which were now facing and were so pleased that we moved to the cloud when we did.All in all, its the way the industry is moving. Being able to give customers information today, not tomorrow. Having the flexibility to access financial as well as operational information as and when you need, without having to be physically in the office.The cloud has given us an extra dimension to our business. Its a seamless way of working that we didnt have before, in terms of remote access and mobile working, he says.

http://www.mandata.co.uk

Link:
North West Logistics moves to the cloud - Tina Massey