Is every RFID tag like a snowflake?

A problem faced by the RFID industry is counterfeit RFID tags. Since most tags are just a sort of substitute for a barcode or magnetic strip label, and encryption is generally not a viable (or even desirable) option, RFID tags could be counterfeited and used for nefarious purposes, which you can entail.

However, a new company called Verayo (an MIT spinoff company) has formulated an at least partial answer to this dilemma. They have come up with a process for getting a sort of electronic fingerprint from individual RFID tags. Since there are small, necessary variations in the chip material and manufacturing process, no two RFID tags are exactly alike. Even if they meet the same specifications, there are small artifacts in the way that they process signals, which can be measured. Professor Srini Devadas, CTO of Verayo, says,

A signal traveling through a simple circuit will go faster or slower depending on these physical variations. By sending a series of signals through, and measuring how fast they travel, [one] can generate a string of numbers unique to each circuit.

This is a great step toward building more secure RFID systems. Each RFID tag would, essentially, be personally trackable on an almost meta-level. Of course, this added layer of security would cost more money, so it would have to be employed in only a cost-effective manners. But if you're tracking things like medicines or very expensive consumer goods, it may be a good step. Maybe Lilly Drugs could have avoided this latest embarrassment!

Cisco Now Requires CCNA Certification For CCSP Certification

Some news about Cisco certification has recently come out. In order to gain a Cisco CCSP (Cisco Certified Security Professional) certification, an IT professional will have to have already CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification as a prerequisite. CCNA and CCSP classes may be taken back-to-back.

The thinking behind the decision seems to be that the CCNA ensures an IT professional has basic, entry-level knowledge of Cisco systems. Its curriculum highlights installation procedure, core security practices, troubleshooting, and network monitoring. It also gets into the basics of network security, such as data confidentiality. The CCSP certification represents a more advanced stage in an IT professional's career. It is supposed to demonstrate advanced knowledge, including network threat mitigation and infrastructure protection. Further, the CCSP certification emphasizes Cisco Router IOS (ISR) and Catalyst Switch security features, Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), secure VPN connectivity, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Cisco Security Agent (CSA), Security Enterprise and Device Management, and Network Admission Control (NAC).

The iPhone and Verizon: Rachel and Ross or Juliet and Romeo?

A pretty funny post from the Faster Times makes a startlingly apt analogy: The iPhone is the Rachel to Verizon's Ross. If you've never seen Friends (has it really been 16 years since the show debuted?!), Rachel and Ross were the perfect-for-each-other but always-missing-each-other couple that created a lot of the show's romantic tension during its ten year run. The analogy, while silly, holds up.

The iPhone is the 2,000 pound gorilla of smart phones (and phones, in general): Hate it or love it, you have to admit that its fast, steady adoption rate shows people are attracted to it. Whether it's the App Store, the phone's slick user interface, or the coolness factor, people are seduced by Apple's penultimate gewgaw. So why shouldn't the most popular phone be on the most popular network? You'd think it's a marriage made in heaven.

Brown, author of the article, posits that AT&T has simply continued to outbid Verizon. As (Fake) Steve Jobs himself points out, AT&T is certainly not spending its increasing profits on growing its network. Rather, while the company has been (since 12/2007) enjoying evenly increasing revenues since becoming the sole carrier of the iPhone, capital expenditures have remained stagnant. Operating income has remained level, as well. All this extra revenue is going somewhere--either into executives' pockets or into paying Apple back for the providing it an exclusive relationship with its iPhone (and now its iPad, as well). This relationship built around monetary kickbacks and exclusivity seems to contradict Brown's prediction that the iPhone will eventually hook up with Verizon. If Apple continues to receive the lion's share of AT&T's profits, then the increased sales it would see on the Verizon network may be rendered moot. After all, Apple has shown that its modern incarnation is pretty darn savvy. The iPhone and Verizon could be less Rachel and Ross and more Juliet and Romeo--seemingly destined for each other, but star crossed lovers all the same.

Don't forget about VoIP!

I know we're all waiting breathlessly (you can breath! remember to breath!) for the Apple iPad/iTab/table computer announcement, but we thought it would be good to remember that a lot of the tech we take for granted is still looking for mass adoption and refinement. Chief among them is VoIP telephony. Danie Crowther, a partner at consulting firm Deloitte, sees mobile VoIP as a big gainer in 2010.

“The rising adoption of mobile VOIP services could cause a fundamental rise in expectations as to what mobile voice can do.”

Google Voice has been kind of backended onto the iPhone, and Android (in Nexus One and Droid flavors) seems poised to keep mobile telephone technology in the forefront of people's minds. According to Crowther, mobile VoIP could be a $30 billion global business within three years. I'm willing to bet that's a lot more money than the Apple iTable is going earn. It's just something to keep in mind: Our core technologies--email, voice, Internet--may be delivered via ever and more impressive technologies, but they're still the star of the show. VoIP isn't as sexy as it used to be, but it's still a growing technology.

Cisco Networkers Live 2010

If you're looking to sharpen your Cisco training, network with leading IT professionals, and learn a heck of a lot, then you should check out Cisco Networkers 2010. The event is being held in Barcelona! You can check out some registration information here.

The Cisco Keynote will be delivered by Marthin De Beer, Senior Vice President, Emerging Technologies Group. Marthin was one of the main creative minds behind development of technologies such as Cisco TelePresence, TelePresence Exchange Services, Digital Media Systems, Media Processing, Video Surveillance Systems, and Converged Building Systems.

There will also be a Guest Keynote from Professor Bruce Thomas. Thomas is the Director of the Wearable Computer Laboratory at the University of South Australia. His talk will focus on augmented reality technology, including head-mounted displays and virtual retina displays.

It's probably a long trek for most readers, but if you're company has a fresh training budget, you might want to get away to Barcelona from 25 January to 28 January and enjoy a change of scene and some great Cisco training.

The Changing Face of Cisco Training

Companies looking to cut costs and increase efficiency are turning toward software virtualization in order to cut down on hardware and increase their versatility. For the IT professionals that work on virtual machines, this development has been a turn of good fortune. Businesses are hiring aggressively for IT professionals with virtualization expertise, as this CNN Money article points out.

As businesses continue to hire virtualization specialists, network certifications are also popping up. Both VMware, a world-leading virtualization company, and Cisco are offering new certification courses. A senior manager at Learning@Cisco, Marcello Hunter, has said that

"Network virtualization is a key component of next-generation datacenters, and it is clear that virtualization skills are essential to ease the adoption of these networking technologies and maximize the return on enterprise investments. We now incorporate VCP training into two of our Cisco Data Center Unified Computing certification programs. Teaming with top organizations in virtualization like VMware to develop authorized training, education and career certifications underscores our commitment to providing organizations and individuals with the technical knowledge and expertise needed to capitalize on the evolution of networking technology."

The certifications available from VMware, VMware Certified Professional (VCP) and VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX), are growing in popularity throughout the IT industry. They are designed for system administrators, system operators, systems engineers, consultants, architects, and enterprise designers. IT professionals with a VMware certification are thought to earn from 15% to 19% more than non-certified IT professionals. Presently, there are approximately 40,000 VCP-certified IT professionals. The rest of the article has lots more interesting information. If you’re interested in virtualization and Cisco IT training, you should check it out!

Cisco Training Resource

Here's a great article about Cisco training and certification courses. It offers some sound advice, such as beginning with the CCNA and gaining some experience before going after the CCNP. They also advice not using an online-only training course due to the sometimes unpredictable nature of Internet access. The article also goes into why you would even want to participate in a Cisco training course, which is always a good question:

A lot of trainees presume that the school and FE college route is still the most effective. So why then are commercial certificates becoming more in demand? With 3 and 4 year academic degree costs climbing ever higher, together with the IT sector's general opinion that vendor-based training is closer to the mark commercially, there has been a large rise in Microsoft, CompTIA, CISCO and Adobe certified training programmes that educate students at a much reduced cost in terms of money and time. Academic courses, as a example, clog up the training with a lot of background study - and much too wide a syllabus. This prevents a student from getting enough core and in-depth understanding on a specific area.

If you're thinking of getting Cisco certified, keep in mind that you can always visit Cisco's own Support Community Forum.