Posts

, , , ,

Nvidia Beats the Street Record Growth Fueled by Hopper and Blackwell Innovations

Nvidia, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, has emerged as a beacon of technological innovation, much as the industrial giants of a bygone era reshaped their worlds. Its latest creations—the Hopper GPU and Blackwell systems—are not merely advancements in computing; they are the tools of a new industrial revolution, their influence stretching across industries and into the lives of millions. As measured by its astonishing financial results, the company’s trajectory reflects the unparalleled demand for these tools.

The latest quarter’s revenue, a staggering $35.08 billion, represents a 94% leap from the $18.12 billion of a year prior—a figure that would have seemed fantastical not long ago. Its net income soared to $19.31 billion, more than double last year’s third-quarter figure of $9.24 billion. Even after accounting for adjustments, earnings reached 81 cents per share, outpacing Wall Street’s expectations of 75 cents per share on projected revenues of $33.17 billion, according to FactSet.

This is no mere coincidence of market forces or transient trends. Nvidia’s success is rooted in the astonishing versatility of its Hopper GPU and Blackwell systems. Their applications span a broad spectrum—from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity—each deployment, which is a testament to their transformative power. These are not simply tools but harbingers of a future where the limits of what machines can do are redrawn with each passing quarter.

The Hopper and Blackwell systems are not isolated achievements; they are central to Nvidia’s rise as a leader in innovation, its vision ever fixed on the horizon. The technology reshapes industries as varied as medicine, entertainment, finance, and autonomous systems, weaving a thread of progress through all it touches. Like the significant advancements of earlier eras, these creations do not merely answer existing questions; they pose new ones, unlocking doors to realms previously unimagined.

Thus, Nvidia’s record-breaking quarter is a financial milestone and a marker of its place in history. As it shapes the future of computing, the company’s influence extends far beyond the confines of Silicon Valley. It is, in a sense, a reflection of our age—a testament to human ingenuity and the ceaseless drive to innovate, explore, and create.

By Skeeter Wesinger

November 20, 2024

/0 Comments/by
, , , ,

The New Frontline in Security Technology: Large Language Models in the Battle for Software Security

In the age of relentless digital transformation, software security remains both a bulwark and a vulnerability. The deployment of Large Language Models (LLMs) as tools to fortify this critical frontier marks a turning point, one that evokes the blend of promise and peril characteristic of technological revolutions. Like radar in the skies of the Second World War, these LLMs have the potential to detect threats unseen by the human eye, provided they are used judiciously and in concert with other defenses.

The power of LLMs lies in their unparalleled ability to analyze vast swaths of source code with a speed and thoroughness that human developers cannot match. From detecting the cracks in the foundation—buffer overflows, injection vulnerabilities, hardcoded credentials, and improper input validation—to recognizing subtle, non-obvious threats that arise from the interplay of complex systems, these models operate with an unrelenting vigilance. What might take a team of skilled engineers days or weeks to unearth, an LLM can flag in minutes, scouring line after line with mechanical precision.

This capability is most potent during the prerelease phase of development when the entire source code is laid bare. It is here, before a product sees the light of day, that LLMs can expose vulnerabilities lurking in the shadows, vulnerabilities that, if left unchecked, could later metastasize into full-blown breaches. The cost of such breaches is not merely financial but reputational, eroding the trust that underpins all digital enterprises.

Consider the subtle artistry of an LLM detecting insecure data handling in a function, not because the code itself appears flawed but because of the way it interacts with calls elsewhere in the codebase. This is no brute-force analysis; it is an exercise in pattern recognition, a demonstration of how machines are learning to see the forest as well as the trees.

Yet, as with radar, the promise of LLMs must be tempered by realism. They are not a standalone defense, nor do they obviate the need for more traditional measures. They complement fuzzing, which tests software by bombarding it with random inputs and identifying areas where such testing might be most fruitful. They serve as a first line of defense, flagging issues for human reviewers who can then apply their judgment and experience to resolve them.

Moreover, LLMs can act as vigilant assistants during development itself, offering real-time suggestions for secure coding practices. In doing so, they become not merely tools of analysis but instruments of prevention, guiding developers away from insecure practices before they become embedded in the code.

What sets LLMs apart is their scalability. Unlike manual reviews, which are labor-intensive and constrained by human resources, LLMs can analyze sprawling codebases or even multiple projects simultaneously. This scalability is nothing short of transformative for organizations tasked with securing complex software ecosystems.

Used in concert with fuzzing, manual reviews, and other security protocols, LLMs represent the new frontline in software security. They bring automation and scale to an arena that has long been constrained by the limitations of time and manpower. Their ability to access and analyze full source code during development ensures that the vulnerabilities they uncover are not only flagged but actionable.

The lessons of history remind us that no single technology, no matter how transformative, can operate in isolation. LLMs are tools of immense potential, but it is the interplay of man and machine, of automation and expertise, that will ultimately determine their success. In this emerging battle for the sanctity of our digital infrastructures, LLMs are an ally of immense promise, provided we deploy them wisely and with an understanding of their limitations.

By Skeeter Wesinger

November 18, 2024

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-frontline-security-technology-skeeter-wesinger-olzbe

/0 Comments/by
, , ,

A New Front in Cybersecurity Exposed

In a move that has set the cybersecurity world on alert, Palo Alto Networks has sounded the alarm on a significant security flaw in their Expedition tool, a platform designed to streamline the migration of firewall configurations to their proprietary PAN-OS. This vulnerability, codified as CVE-2024-5910, underscores the critical importance of authentication protocols in safeguarding digital boundaries. The flaw itself—a missing authentication mechanism—permits attackers with mere network access the alarming ability to reset administrator credentials, effectively opening the gate to unauthorized access and potentially compromising configuration secrets, credentials, and sensitive data that lie at the heart of an organization’s digital defenses.

The gravity of this flaw is underscored by the immediate attention of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has not only added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog but also issued a direct mandate: all federal agencies must address this vulnerability by November 28, 2024. The urgency of this deadline signifies more than just bureaucratic efficiency; it speaks to the alarming nature of a vulnerability that CISA reports is being exploited in the wild, thus shifting this issue from a theoretical risk to an active threat.

Palo Alto Networks has responded with characteristic clarity, outlining a series of robust security measures to mitigate this vulnerability. They emphasize restricting the PAN-OS management interface to trusted internal IP addresses, advising against exposure to the open internet. In addition, they recommend isolating the management interface within a dedicated VLAN, further securing communications through SSH and HTTPS. These measures, while straightforward, demand a high level of attention to detail in implementation—an effort that could very well mean the difference between a fortified system and a compromised one.

Meanwhile, in a strategic pivot, Palo Alto Networks has announced that the core functionalities of Expedition will soon be integrated into new offerings, marking the end of Expedition support as of January 2025. The shift signals a broader evolution within the company’s ecosystem, perhaps heralding more advanced, integrated solutions that can preemptively address vulnerabilities before they surface.

The directive to apply patches and adhere to the recommended security configurations is not just sound advice; it is, as security expert Wesinger noted, a necessary defensive measure in a rapidly shifting landscape where the stability of one’s systems rests on the relentless vigilance of their custodians. The events unfolding around CVE-2024-5910 are a reminder that in cybersecurity, as in any theater of conflict, complacency remains the greatest vulnerability.

By Skeeter Wesinger

November 14, 2024

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-front-cybersecurity-exposed-skeeter-wesinger-rjypf

/0 Comments/by
, , ,

Dominion Voting Systems and the DVSorder Affair A Saga in American Election Security

In early 2024, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan and Auburn University stumbled upon an overlooked flaw in Dominion’s Democracy Suite voting system. The flaw, astonishing in its simplicity, harked back to the 1970s: a rudimentary linear congruential generator for creating random numbers, a method already marked as insecure half a century ago. Yet there it lay, embedded in the heart of America’s election machinery. This flaw, known as DVSorder, allowed the order of ballots to be exposed, violating a voter’s sacred right to secrecy without needing inside access or privileged software.

Dominion Voting Systems responded, as companies often do, with carefully measured words—a single-page advisory noting that “best practices” and “legal advisors” could mitigate the flaw. A software update, Democracy Suite 5.17, was eventually rolled out, claiming to resolve the vulnerability. Yet this patch, touted as a “solution,” seemed only to deepen the questions surrounding Dominion’s response. Was it a fix, or merely a stopgap?

A Bureaucratic Response: The Slow March of Democracy Suite 5.17

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission granted its stamp of approval to Democracy Suite 5.17 in March 2023, seemingly content with its certification. But the rollout that followed revealed the entrenched and fragmented nature of America’s election infrastructure. Election officials, bound by local constraints, cited logistical challenges, costs, and the impending presidential election as reasons to delay. In the absence of federal urgency or clear guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the vulnerability remained in effect, a silent threat from Georgia to California.

Even as researchers watched from the sidelines, Dominion and federal agencies moved cautiously, with state adoption of Democracy Suite 5.17 proceeding at a glacial pace. Some states, like Michigan and Minnesota, made efforts to upgrade, but others deferred, considering the patch a burden best shouldered after the election. Thus, the DVSorder vulnerability persisted, largely unresolved in precincts where patching was deemed too disruptive.

The Patchwork of Democracy Suite 5.17: A System in Pieces

As expected, Democracy Suite 5.17 encountered obstacles in deployment, emblematic of the fractured approach to American election security. States such as Michigan tried to sanitize data to safeguard voter privacy, but the result was incomplete; others attempted to shuffle ballots, a solution whose effectiveness remained dubious. The whole exercise appeared as a microcosm of America’s approach to its electoral machinery: decentralized, hesitant, and all too often compromised by cost and convenience.

A Sobering Reminder for Democracy’s Future

The DVSorder affair serves as a reminder that elections, despite their image of order, depend on fallible human governance and systems. In this case, a mere oversight in programming triggered a vulnerability that risked eroding voter privacy, a cornerstone of democracy itself. Dominion’s response, slow and bureaucratic, reveals the unsettling reality that our reliance on technology in elections opens doors to errors whose repercussions may be profound.

The researchers who exposed this flaw were not saboteurs but, in a sense, stewards of public trust. They brought to light a sobering truth: that in the age of digital democracy, even the smallest vulnerability can ripple outward, potentially undermining the promises of privacy and integrity on which the system stands.

As the dust settles, DVSorder may join the list of vulnerabilities patched and closed, yet a shadow lingers. With each election cycle, new threats and oversights emerge, casting a faint but persistent question over the future of American democracy. One wonders—will we be ready for the next vulnerability that arises? Who knows.

By Skeeter Wesinger

November 4, 2024

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dominion-voting-systems-dvsorder-affair-saga-american-wesinger-i4qoe

/0 Comments/by
, , , ,

Pollara 400

The Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) has delayed release of the version 1.0 of specification from Q3 2024 to Q1 2025, but it looks like AMD is ready to announce an actual network interface card for AI datacenters that is ready to be deployed into Ultra Ethernet datacenters. The new unit is the AMD Pensando Pollara 400, which promises an up to six times performance boost for AI workloads. In edge deployments, running a firewall directly on the NIC allows for more efficient security enforcement, where system resources may be limited. Using the NIC for firewall tasks frees up CPU cores, allowing your system to scale more efficiently without degrading performance as traffic volumes increase.

The AMD Pensando Pollara 400 is a 400 GbE Ultra Ethernet card based on a processor designed by the company’s Pensando unit. The network processor features a processor with a programmable hardware pipeline, programmable RDMA transport, programmable congestion control, and communication library acceleration. The NIC will sample in the fourth quarter and will be commercially available in the first half of 2025, just after the Ultra Ethernet Consortium formally publishes the UEC 1.0 specification. Businesses can implement NIC-based firewalling to manage traffic across VLANs or isolated network segments, enhancing network security without the need for dedicated firewall hardware.

Pollara 400

The AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC is designed to optimize AI and HPC networking through several advanced capabilities. One of its key features is intelligent multipathing, which dynamically distributes data packets across optimal routes, preventing network congestion and improving overall efficiency. The NIC also includes path-aware congestion control, which reroutes data away from temporarily congested paths to ensure continuous high-speed data flow.

The AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC supports advanced programmability and can be integrated with a development kit that is available for free. The AMD Pensando Software-in-Silicon Development Kit (SSDK) provides a robust environment for building and deploying applications directly on the NIC, allowing you to offload networking, firewall, encryption, and even AI inference tasks from the CPU.

The SSDK supports programming in P416 for fast path operations, as well as C and C++ for more traditional processing tasks. It provides full support for network and security functions like firewalling, IPsec, and NAT, allowing these to be handled directly by the NIC rather than the host CPU. Developers can use the provided reference pipelines and code samples to quickly get started with firewall implementations or other network services.

The SDK and related tools are open and accessible via GitHub and AMD’s official developer portals, enabling developers to experiment with and integrate Pensando’s NICs into their systems without licensing fees. Some repositories and tools are available directly on GitHub under AMD Pensando’s.

The delay in the release of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium’s (UEC) version 1.0 specification, initially expected in the third quarter of 2024 and now pushed to the first quarter of 2025, does little to shake the confidence of those observing AMD’s bold march forward. While others may have stumbled, AMD stands ready to unveil a fully realized network interface card (NIC) for AI datacenters—the AMD Pensando Pollara 400—an innovation poised to redefine the landscape of Ultra Ethernet data centers. This NIC, a formidable 400 GbE unit, embodies the very pinnacle of technological advancement. Designed by AMD’s Pensando unit, it promises no less than a sixfold increase in AI workload performance.

The Pollara 400’s impact goes beyond sheer processing power. At the edge, where resources are scarce and security paramount, the NIC performs firewall tasks directly, relieving the central processing unit from such burdensome duties. Herein lies its genius: by offloading these critical tasks, system scalability is enhanced, enabling traffic to flow unhindered and system performance to remain steady, even under mounting demands.

As we await the final specifications from the UEC, AMD has announced that the Pollara 400 will be available for sampling by the fourth quarter of 2024, with commercial deployment anticipated in early 2025. It is no mere stopgap solution—it is a harbinger of a new era in AI networking, built upon a programmable hardware pipeline capable of handling RDMA transport, congestion control, and advanced communication library acceleration.

Furthermore, the NIC’s intelligent multipathing is a feat of engineering brilliance. With its path-aware congestion control, this marvel dynamically directs data around congested network routes, ensuring that AI workloads are never hampered by the bottlenecks that so often plague high-performance computing.

The Pollara 400 is more than just hardware; it is an ecosystem supported by the AMD Pensando Software-in-Silicon Development Kit (SSDK), a free and versatile tool that allows developers to fully leverage its capabilities. Whether programming in P416 for high-speed operations or using C and C++ for more traditional tasks, developers can easily deploy firewalls, IPsec, and NAT directly onto the NIC itself, bypassing the need for traditional CPU involvement.

The SSDK provides not only the means but also the guidance to streamline development. From pre-built reference pipelines to comprehensive code samples, it invites developers to embrace the future of network security and AI processing, all while maintaining openness and accessibility via AMD’s repositories on GitHub. This is no longer just the work of a single company—it is a shared endeavor, opening new frontiers for those bold enough to explore them.

Thus, as AMD prepares to thrust the Pollara 400 into the spotlight, one thing becomes abundantly clear: the future of AI networking will not be forged in the server rooms of yesterday but at the cutting edge of what is possible, where firewalls, encryption, and AI tasks are handled in stride by a NIC that rewrites the rules.

Story By

Skeeter Wesinger

October 11, 2024

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amd-pensando-pollara-400-skeeter-wesinger-yulwe

/0 Comments/by