During the keynote at the Cisco Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, held Nov. 9 to 11, CEO John Chambers wanted to make very clear that the networking company thinks video is absolutely important for effective collaboration.
Along those lines, Cisco Systems released a number of products and technologies to make video more accessible for users -- whether those users are in the office, on the road or working for a trusted partner. In addition, video is designed to be easier to use for one-on-one contact or group encounters, as well as for asynchronous information dispersal mechanisms like wikis or blogs.
At the summit, Cisco's representatives demonstrated many of the new capabilities on stage:
Video 1 (which is part one of two) demonstrates Cisco's ability to deliver a platform that fosters enterprise online communities, allows users to establish communications from within those communities and allows users to post, view or search video content. Using Flip video cameras, users can upload media directly into the community or a conversation via a PC or an iPhone.
Video 2 (part two of two) shows individual users joining a telepresence session using various hardware and software, and injecting documents and recorded video into the call, and demonstrates the promised future ability for WebEx users outside the corporate network to join the same telepresence session.
Video 3 demonstrates Cisco communication capabilities working across a range of devices (BlackBerry and iPhone, for instance, plus their integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server and Cisco's various desktop solutions -- moving calls between various devices to show how the session is maintained even though the presentation capabilities of the different devices vary. Cisco also unveils its new desktop wireless IP Phone.
With news of eBay's Skype sale out of the way, Skype employees are apparently free to start disseminating information once again. As such, Skype today in blog posts reacted to a pair of security concerns that I've written about recently.
One post outlined a new hotfix for Skype 4.1 that, among other things, takes the first baby step toward helping users deal with incoming invite spam. The hotfix purports to make unclickable any links presented within an invite request. While I'd rather see Skype work to change the way invite requests are currently commingled with real contacts within a user's contact list, or actually block the incoming spam, it's a start.
I'm actually waiting to apply the hotfix until I get my next spam invite so I can see the differences in action. I'll add a screen or video as soon as I have something to show.
In the second note, Skype finally responded to the recent news circulating about the Trojan PeskySpy, which aims to steal the audio of a Skype call and send the conversation to parts unknown. In the post, the author links to the Symantec post about the threat, rather than the less detailed post about the Trojan by Sophos that first captured my attention.
The post clarifies that the Trojan hooks into Windows APIs and uses these hooks to collect Skype output rather than directly attacking Skype code. Instead, the Trojan sits in between the audio hardware and Skype, intercepting the data payload after Skype decrypts it (or before Skype encrypts a transmission) on a Windows-based host.
As a side note, that second Skype post mentioned represents the first addition to the Skype Security blog since April.
A couple weeks ago, I pondered what the future would hold for the current iteration of Skype, whether feature and particularly security enhancements would be put off until eBay launches a whole new system to work around their ongoing legal problems with Joltid.
At that time, my question revolved around the issue of Skype spammers, as I consistently found unwanted people had injected their profiles into my contact lists - or so I thought. Instead, as I later learned, my problem was more with Skype's presentation logic rather than the actual security. For while the spammers were displayed among my contacts, their presence there represented an invite to connect rather than an actual contact.
The problem with that presentation logic is that for obvious spam accounts, I never clicked on the account to see the difference. Instead I would just block it and move on. What would make more sense would be to present invites in a separate window or dialog box that requires a user's specific approval, rather than acting like users should and would automatically want every invite to be added to the contact roster.
Either way, Skype knows they have an increasing spam problem, as was addressed on one of their blogs recently. Unfortunately, while the blog tells of a company initiative to fix the problem, there are no details to be had on what the company will actually do or when they might do it. In a nutshell, Skype is saying "We're working on it, stay tuned." Meanwhile, the onus remains on users to identify and report spammers.
But my overarching question about ongoing security development on the current Skype still remains, as the company may face a more pressing test looking in the near term, as Sophos Labs today revealed some information about a Skype Trojan that has been written, and for which the source code is currently being distributed.
"The Trojan injects a dll component into a running process of Skype. The dll then hooks the "send" and "recv" APIs in this Skype process to the Trojan's own custom functions. This allows the Trojan to extract and save the audio and video data, and send it back to the attacker. We're detecting both the executable and the injected dll as Troj/Skytap-Gen based on samples we've seen so far."
The upshot of this Trojan is that, no matter how secure your system may be, if the caller on the other end is infected, your call gets recorded no matter.
Let's hope Skype has a more clear plan - and timeframe - to deal with this threat.
Update: Differing slightly from Sophos' report, Symantec research indicates this Trojan operates by "hooking various Windows API calls that are used in audio input and output" and that the problem doesn't lay within Skype itself. In other words, the Trojan hooks into Windows subsystems Skype utilizes, and the Trojan then listens for and records Skype calls specifically.
I've got Skype set to accept incoming calls, video calls or instant messages only from people in my Contact list. Yet every time I log into Skype, I see a few chat messages from obvious spam accounts, asking me to "rate my Webcam" or "meet in private."
Inevitably, when I flip over to my contact roster, I notice that the spammers have added themselves to my contact list, freeing them to bother me in other ways if I don't immediately block them.
I first noticed this problem with one of the first non-beta builds of Skype 4.0, but it certainly continues through to the latest builds of 4.1. And I'm hardly the only one experiencing this, and it doesn't seem particular to whether the user is on a Mac or a PC.
A PR guy working with Skype suggested that accounts accessing Skype from multiple computers may find the security settings differ slightly from instance to instance -- which may lead to this problem. I access Skype from two different Windows PCs, a MacBook and my iPhone. On the computers, I've found the privacy settings all match. If those same privacy settings exist on the iPhone, I've yet to find them, so perhaps the hole lies there. But if so, Skype needs to add those settings to its iPhone instance.
One can't help but wonder if the potentially pending divorce of eBay from the underlying Joltid technology Skype uses has led to a stoppage or massive slowdown of development on the Skype we all currently use. eBay recently announced a development initiative for a replacement peer-to-peer technology to replace the existing technology, in case the legal wrangling between eBay and Joltid goes south.
If eBay is investing in a massive project to reinvent Skype for release sometime in 2010, it stands to reason the company is not actively working to improve the current Skype much. And it remains unclear whether Joltid will or can undertake that work in eBay's stead.
But if Skype security problems are not addressed, and the network devolves into a morass of spam and illicit contacts, will users stick around to see whether the new technology is even worth their time?
Anyone still hoping Newber will make it through Apple's maze of certification can kiss that hope goodbye and should now start longing for Google to open up subscriptions to Google Voice née GrandCentral soon instead.
From the e-mail just sent to beta users like myself:
"As you may be aware, Newber first applied for acceptance into the App Store on October 2nd, 2008. After more than five months awaiting approval, and despite both overwhelming response from the professional community and varied attempts to get any kind of response from Apple, Newber has not received a review. Not rejected, not accepted - limbo.
We are sad to say that for this reason FreedomVOICE has stopped development on Newber. For this reason we will be ending the extended Newber Beta Test on March 31st, 2009. We would like to give you the next few weeks as an opportunity to begin transfer of your Newber phone number to the carrier of your choice. If you are interested in doing so, simply contact your new carrier and follow their procedure for having a number transferred. Your new carrier may contact FreedomVOICE Technical Support at 1-800-477-1477 ext. 2 if they need to verify any information.
After March 31st, all remaining Newber Beta Test phone numbers will be canceled."
More depressing news about this can be found here.
update: Got the go-ahead to move from GrandCentral to Google Voice yesterday. More on my impressions of the new service coming soon.
I've been waiting with baited breath all week for Google to upgrade my GrandCentral account to the rebranded Google Voice service. Hopefully with this upgrade, GrandCentral will finally be usable given my particular set of needs and devices - only a full year after I first tried putting the service to work.
In fall 2008 at CTIA, or more specifically at one of the satellite shows, I met with representatives of a company called Newber. They were writing an application for the iPhone. A little like GrandCentral, Newber provides users with a VOIP phone number, and the application redistributes calls received by that number to whatever number you want, such as to a land line or an iPhone.
I participated in the beta for the software, liking it on the whole when compared with GrandCentral, but not enough to pay the monthly fee once the software and service got approval from Apple's App Store.
Back in November, I got notice that the beta was officially ending, but we testers could keep using it until the App Store launch. I uninstalled the beta and moved on, figuring I would blog a little about it once it officially launched.
Today, it occurred to me that I hadn't heard anything about the software for a long time. Checking Newber's site, I learned why: It still has not been approved, 125 days and counting.
Check out the little ticker on Newber's homepage that counts out its pain, day by day.
The good news is that Newber now has a BlackBerry beta in the hopper too. If the company's lucky, RIM's App Store validation will not be nearly as onerous.
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 20 tech-related things, facts, habits or ideas about yourself. At the end, you will tag no one, since you should have forsworn chain letters years ago. However, if you want to share your tech idiosyncrasies, you can reach me at agarcia@eweek.com or leave a comment below.
1. Come July, I will probably ditch my iPhone. Not because of the device itself, but because AT&T's network gives lousy coverage in my house, in my office and along my commute route--even though I live in the heart of technology country. Those 4,490 available rollover minutes say it all.
2. I used to be a zealous advocate of building one's own PC. Now it seems like a lot of trouble, and maybe not such a great way to save money.
3. I built a telephone conference server to use at work out of old PCs, open-source software and a bunch of analog lines off our corporate PBX. The building and testing were infinitely more interesting than the meetings.
4. At home, I've been steadily digitizing all my media, mostly because I hate all the shelf space it takes up. I still can't cut the cord to physical media, though, as I like having it around. This is an annoying conundrum for me.
5. I am as baffled as anyone by Microsoft's phalanx of Windows 7 versions. I'd prefer to see two versions--Home and Corporate--with software add-on packs (for media, security and management). Unfortunately, I suspect this would make things harder for everyone somehow.
6. Despite my years of experience with wireless technology, I still can't make 1080p video stream consistently well without throwing thousands of dollars at the cause.
7. I hate running anti-virus software, and until last year, I never did on my personal systems. The rise of drive-by Web threats secreted on normally trusted sites really freaks me out, though.
8. I use Windows XP, Vista, Seven and CentOS Linux on a regular basis. None of them have changed my life. Perspective, people.
9. I pretty much never back up my personal data.
10. I got my start in IT because I kept accidentally cracking into a Unix server at work. I like to think the IT director saw something in me, but really, I think she just wanted to keep an eye on me.
11. During my first server crisis as an IT staffer, I spent the night on the floor next to the server with a bunch of manuals and Chinese food. The next morning, when everything was working properly, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could do this for a living. The problem was something like, "Novell 3.12, when running on a server with an EISA bus, loads all memory-resident programs under 640K, no matter how much memory you have." Adding the OS2 namespace had pushed me over the limit. Or something like that--it's kind of a blur now.
12. My first PC was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a, the second an IBM PC Jr. To keep my parents from using the systems, I wrote an authentication program that, when wrong credentials were entered, would match the onscreen text color to the background, then reboot the machine.
13. I got my first e-mail account in 1991, accessing it using Pine. Seven years later, when they forced everyone on the server to start using POP3, I lost interest in that account.
14. I find helping someone buy a smartphone is much harder than helping them choose a PC. It's simply too personal a preference to impose your will on. I ask three questions: "What carrier do you want to use?" "Can you type on a touch-screen?" "What three things do you want most to do with it?" I point in the right direction, then I get out of the way.
15. My personal domain name is an obscure Simpsons reference. It's not as cool as it once was. Or, it was never cool.
16. I use many VOIP services--mostly Skype,GrandCentral and Raketu. I still have a land line, although I never use it.
17. I loved the hands-on expertise and great customer service of my old DSL ISP, but I love even more the lower price and fast pipes provided by the local cable conglomerate. This makes me very sad.
18. While I suspect that I could easily replace my cable subscription with over-the-air HD, Netflix Watch Now, Hulu and Amazon.com services, I am not quite ready to make that leap.
19. On many occasions, I have stood in a Best Buy or Fry's looking for geek inspiration. More often than not, I will pull out my iPhone and order whatever inspires me online (usually at Amazon.com) while still standing in the store.
20. I think everyone should learn how to do bare-metal virtualization. Find instructions online on how to load VMware's ESXi on a USB stick, plug it into a computer with a lot of RAM and give it a shot. It will be worth the effort. Bonus points if you make an iSCSI server to use with it.
Free and open just met free and closed. But the introduction of the two will come with a price tag on it.
This week during Digium's Astricon conference in Glendale, AZ, Digium and Skype announced Skype for Asterisk - granting Asterisk PBX users the ability to leverage Skype for both outbound and inbound calling.
Users on an Asterisk-based VoIP system will be able to place calls to Skype users for free from their desktop phones. Likewise, Asterisk users will be able to receive calls from Skype users on their desk phones.
Users can also gain some benefits of least cost routing, as administrators can configure Asterisk to route international calls via SkypeOut to save a little coin on long distance bills. Telephony administrators can buy and manage the allocation of SkypeOut minutes to Skype users via Skype's Business Control Panel.
The partnership could also ease the integration of voice services into a company's web site. For instance, web site administrators could place a button the company web site to call the company, triggering a Skype call (or Skype download and install) to the company that can be routed into the corporate phone system - to a receptionist, sales person, or whoever else may be appropriate.
The Skype for Asterisk integration occurs through an add-on channel driver module that needs to be installed on an Asterisk server (running either Asterisk 1.4 or 1.6). This connector will not be open source and will be for-pay, as the software will be available for purchase directly from Digium or from some Asterisk system integrators. Although pricing has not been announced as of yet for the connector, expect the price to be based on how many concurrent channels will be needed to bridge between the Asterisk implementation and the Skype network.
PBX integration for Skype calls is not new, as companies like VoSKY have offered appliances that provide Skype trunks to PBX implementations for a couple years now. However, Digium representatives claim that the Skype for Asterisk integration will scale much better, and is expressly designed to handle multiple concurrent Skype channels.
Skype and Digium are staging product availability for the time being. Interested parties (whether you are a company using Asterisk or a system integrator reselling it) can register for the private, stage one of the beta here. Later on, there will also be a public beta - but there is no announced time frame for that yet.
Digium's CEO Danny Windham encouraged me to sign up for the private beta and write about the process, so I hope to be testing the integration soon.
I don't have a work-provided cell phone, but I frequently want to use my personal phone for work. However, I use a personal number on the phone, so I am loathe to give it out to people I don't know that well. Many times I have asked that my cell number get used only in a specific instance, but that request often gets ignored, and suddenly I'm getting cold called.
To solve this dilemma, I've been using Google's GrandCentral for about a year, and I like it well enough despite some obvious flaws it has when used with an iPhone. I can give my GrandCentral number out, and the service looks for me at my desk, my lab bench, my cell phone, and (occasionally) my home number. And with the GrandDialer application that showed up in Apple's App Store a few weeks ago, I can now also easily place outbound calls through GrandCentral without giving up my iPhone's CallerID info.
However, GrandCentral leaves a lot to be desired. Foremost, I can't check my GrandCentral voicemail from my iPhone, because 1) the iPhone doesn't support Flash, which GrandCentral uses for its visual voicemail functionality and 2) the iPhone won't let me download WAV files as the alternative method of message checking. I also can't move in-progress calls between lines.
At the ShowStoppers show in San Francisco last night, I ran across Newber, a new GrandCentral clone designed specifically to work with the iPhone (although I see no reason why support won't be added for other devices in short order). In beta right now, Newber gives the user one phone number to give out - and like GrandCentral, Newber will find you on your iPhone or any landlines you may have pre-programmed. Newber also claims that their software lets you to transfer in-progress calls between your various lines, and Newber will also utilize the iPhone's locationing technology (GPS or the WiFi/cell tower triangulation for Gen 1 iPhones), to identify your lines that are nearby.
No word on what, if any, voicemail services will be available through Newber, but the company is promising better dialing options down the road, allowing users to automatically dial every number you have on file for a contact - to find them with just a click of a button.
The downside, when compared to GrandCentral, appears to be cost. While GrandCentral remains free at this time due to Google's never-ending beta cycles, Newber looks like it will cost $5 a month/2 cents a minute - although I am unclear whether those charges are either/or or cumulative.
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