Linode: "Large DDoS attacks" in Tokyo (Frankfurt, London)


Tom Paine



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Linode has experienced some DDoS attacks recently in Tokyo, as its status report indicates:

We're currently working to mitigate another large DDoS attack causing connectivity issues and packet loss in Tokyo.
Posted about 14 hours ago. Apr 22, 2016 - 08:57 UTC

I reached out to Linode for comment, and received the following statement attributed to lead network engineer, Alex Forster:

"There were three attacks several hours apart, two of which lasted approximately a half hour and one of which lasted approximately one hour. Linode was being attacked directly, not any of our customers, and the effect of the attack was severe packet loss for a subset of customers (not all due to ECMP traffic hashing)."

"As many enterprises in the cloud can attest, DDoS attacks are ever more common in any shared hosting space. However, these latest hacks have been especially large. Even as we mitigate the attacks, we're working as outlined here to upgrade the Tokyo connectivity situation."

It is important to note that no further problems have been reported since that last report, and no other regions have been impacted.

But talk of "severe packet loss for a subset of customers" is a concern.


Saturday update: Have problems spread to Frankfurt?


Linode Status Report:


Identified
We've identified the cause of these connectivity issues as a large-scale DoS attack. We're working with our upstream provider to mitigate the attack and and harden our network in Frankfurt against further attacks and will provide updates as needed.
Apr 22, 13:07 UTC


The situation appears to have stabilized since then.


 Latest problem spot: London


Degraded Network Performance in London
Incident Report for Linode
New Incident Status: Resolved
The degraded network performance and packet loss that was affecting a subset of customers in our London datacenter has been identified as related to a large DoS attack that was directed at the entire London datacenter. This attack has been fully mitigated by our upstream provider at this time.
Apr 23, 22:23 UTC








Why Dick's Sporting Goods decided to play its own game in e­commerce (TechRepublic)


LInks 4/21: AstraZeneca commits ‘hundreds of millions’ to sequencing genomes of 2M people over 10 years; Google Cast confirmed for Google Fiber hardware



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iCloud and Siri Teams at Odds as Apple Seeks to Move Cloud Services In-House (MacRumors)

Google Cast confirmed for Google Fiber hardware
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Comcast stabs set-top boxes in the back, pipes directly into smart TVs (The Register)

Udall to McConnell: Call Up Rosenworcel Nomination (Multichannel News)

Verizon warns strike could `pressure' earnings (USA Today)

AstraZeneca commits ‘hundreds of millions’ to sequencing genomes of 2M people over 10 years (Techcrunch)



Accenture Sells 60% of Duck Creek
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Rapid Ratings Secures Growth Capital from LLR Partners to Accelerate Innovation in Financial Risk Management (Business Wire)
Targeting D&B.

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Pennsylvania slapped Uber with an $11.4 million fine for operating without a license (PCWorld)

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Alibaba's Cloud unit teams with SAP, Accenture in China to serve enterprise market (Update)


Tom Paine



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Alibaba’s cloud computing service unit, Aliyun, has teamed up with SAP and Accenture to provide services to the Enterprise market, the Shanghai Daily reports.

It has also built industry solutions in some sectors, including Internet of Things and online video streaming.

If I read the story correctly, the alliance is primarily aimed at the Chinese domestic market.

"It aims to can help both domestic companies to expand their overseas presence as well as establish local teams to boost revenues from foreign firms," according to the article.




Although its starting in China, Aliyun claims global presence, and its always possible the geographic scope of the partnership could expand.

Alibaba has been making huge investments in building a smarter cloud, with the aim of ultimately competing against Amazon Web Services.

Update: More info on partnership from Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post . Not clear what the specifics are behind the alliance agreement.







LINKS 4/20: Comcast to kill the cable set-top box; SAP Sees 2016 Sales on Track After Sluggish Start to Year



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A guide to New Jersey startups (NJBiz)

SAS targets digital marketing with Customer Intelligence 360, updates architecture and IoT tools (ZDNet Blogs)
Philly has always been a major market for SAS, particularly in Pharma.

SAP Sees 2016 Sales on Track After Sluggish Start to Year (Bloomberg)

Comcast to kill the cable set-top box (Boston Globe)


Update: Comcast Xfinity TV Program Cited in Set-Top Dust-up (Multichannel News)

Wall Street is about to ask Google some tough questions about its big bets (Business Insider)


PointRoll's value: Where did it go?


Tom Paine



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One tweet I made recently received a good deal of attention:





King of Prussia-based PointRoll, one of the Philly area's first new media successes, was actually sold by Tegna, the successor to Gannett that contains its non-newspaper properties; the newspapers were spun to a new Gannett Company.

Not that this is new news. After all, the deal was reached in late November, as Technically Philly reported at the time.

But the deterioration in value was perhaps more than some Ad tech people realized.

When it was acquired by Gannett, ClickZ referred to PointRoll as one of the "top four rich media companies", and its future seemed bright. But years of being a corporate kickball within Gannett, which seemed to me to never quite know why it owned it, probably dulled its creative and competitive edge and contributed to its shrinking value over time.

Also, the price PointRoll sold for may have reflected the current state of valuations in the Ad tech market as a whole:





There also was the late 2014 settlement of charges that PointRoll overrode Safari users' privacy preferences. It paid a $750,000 fine and agreed to monitoring.



PointRoll still has value to advertisers in certain segments. The CEO of the company that acquired PointRoll, New York-based Sizmek, said PointRoll serves a majority of ads from the automotive, CPG and retail industry, and it fit well with its strategy.

As to how many associates are left in King of Prussia, Technically Philly reported at the time of its acquisition by Sizmek that 100 out of approximately 300 were let go. But Sizmek's LinkedIn page has only 48 in the Greater Philadelphia area.

And the Inquirer reported a few days ago that PointRoll's CEO, Mario Diez, has left his job to take the top job at Elodina, a New York-based business software firm cofounded by another PointRoll vet.




Links 4/19: Pepper Hamilton Expands Technology Group; Cable Firms Prepare To Fight Set-Top Rules



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Pepper Hamilton Expands Technology Group (Globe Newswire)

Cable Firms Prepare To Fight Set-Top Rules That Help Google, Apple (Investor's Business Daily)

Escaping the Digital Media ‘Crap Trap’
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Comcast Unifies Broadcast, Digital Video Distribution Platform (Multichannel News)


IBM’s new revenue streams have yet to deliver (Diginomica)

IBM Shares Tumble After Earnings Forecast Misses Estimates (Bloomberg)

New AWS service helps companies to move their apps to the cloud (PCWorld)

COREDIAL CEO: LINES ARE BEING REDRAWN ON TECHNOLOGIES COMPANIES (Channel Partners)


YP Plans First-Round Bid for Yahoo (Bloomberg)
Margins in the Yellow Pages biz sure aren't what they used to be.

Here are some of the brutal memes Googlers created about Tony Fadell and Nest (Re/code)




Republished from five years ago: Where I dismiss the very idea of a Trurmp candidacy


Tom Paine



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As the 2012 election approached, I wrote a brief post on the possibility of two Penn grads, Jon Huntsman Jr. and one Donald Trump, running for President.

Huntsman never gained traction in the GOP prmaries, and Trump chose not to run, presumably never to be mentioned again as a potential candidate.



Links 4/18: Verizon, wireline unions continue negotiations, but lock horns; Netflix Shares Slump As Subscriber Estimates Disappoint



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iPhone Rumors: Samsung-Made OLED Displays, All-Glass Design (Information Week)

Trump and Wharton: A complicated relationship (AP via Philly.com)


Verizon, wireline unions continue negotiations, but lock horns on healthcare, outsourcing jobs and pensions (FierceTelecom)


Netflix Shares Slump As Subscriber Estimates Disappoint (Fortune)


Comcast VP Fuels Second-Screen Startup (Donahue Report)


Investors are slashing startup valuations—and not even Uber and Airbnb are safe (Quartz)


Sunday Highlights: Tom Siebel's C3 IoT competes with ThingWorx; Amazon Aims at Netflix With Separate Prime, Video Subscriptions





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Tom Siebel's C3 IoT looks to expand, slay giants (ZDNet)
Siebel takes a bit of a slap at GE's Predix, which is closely allied with PTC's ThingWorx.

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Sports Authority not the only sports retailer seeking new game plan (Philadelphia Inquirer)


Five leading banks, Safeguard Scientifics invest in $30 million Series E in Transactis


Tom Paine



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Today, Transactis announced that 5 major banks, Capital One, Fifth Third, PNC, TD, and Wells Fargo, along with Radnor-based Safeguard Scientifics, had participated in a $30 million financing as part of a Series E round into the New York-based company, a provider of electronic billing and payment solutions.

Each bank, along with Safeguard, invested an equal amount in Transactis as part of the Series E financing. Transactis has now raised $70 million, including this financing.

Safeguard led Transactis’ Series D financing in August 2014.

Transactis says it reaches more than 100M households and businesses in North America.