WARNING: A severe threat greater than Heart Bleed has been revealed.

This is a very important warning, and it is recommended that any Linux-based system be patched immediately.

A bug discovered in the widely used Bash command interpreter poses a critical security risk to Unix and Linux systems – and, thanks to their ubiquity, the wider internet.

It lands countless websites, servers, PCs, OS X Macs, various home routers, and more, in danger of hijacking by hackers.

Read more here:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/24/bash_shell_vuln/
or here: https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2014/09/24/Bourne-Again-Shell-Bash-Remote-Code-Execution-Vulnerability

Cywest has already deployed patches to critical systems, and we are recommending that all customers do the same as quickly as possible. A reverse shell possibility also exists with this bug, requiring Cywest to isolate and shut down any breached systems.

Asking The Right Questions

I found myself with a career in technology for a lot of reasons but one of the most telling was due to a pursuit of knowledge.  When I was a kid my parents would be delighted by the amount of research I would do on any topic of interest.  They thought it would enable me to go far in life.  I still have a profound thirst for knowledge.  I always want to know the reasons why an action or decision has occurred.  I’m just as happy to answer any and all questions from our customer base about the service we provide.

Asking - and getting the answers to questions is something I still find many folks are unwilling to do when considering critical technology questions.  They cover the basics – they just don’t ask the more detailed questions possibly because they don’t know what they should be.  If you’re looking at an infrastructure or telecom project, these are some of the additional things I’d want to know.  I encourage you to compare the answers we give to any of our competitors.

1.    What is the average retention rate of the company’s customer base?

2.    Does the provider directly operate/manage the services platform its providing or is it reselling the services of a third party?

3.    What kind of technical certifications or qualifications have the company’s employees achieved?

4.    Does the company you’re considering actually offer a broad array of services including configuration and legitimate network design?

There are a number of other things I’d want to know including any strategic partnerships the provider has with existing companies so that I was aware of any synergy with companies I already used but if you just start by asking the four listed above you’ll be off to a good start in your research.