3000 tools still en route to release
August 7, 2009
In the middle of a summer where security patches seem to fly at the top of IT consciousness, tools and programs for the HP 3000 are still winging their way to a Web site near your browser.
Speedware licensed all of HP's available content for 3000s off the Jazz utility server earlier this year, as well as training programs for migration platform HP-UX. Those free training tools made a debut online this spring, but after a detour of a few months the Jazz utility programs will also be hosted on a Speedware Web site.
"I am probably halfway through what needs to be done for the Jazz [software]," reported Speedware's Webmaster Andre Dubreuil. "I figure by the end of this month everything should be up and available for download."
Some of the rescheduling came as a result of Speedware's new initiative to get more migration projects started before 2010. The vendor points to the end of HP's 3000 support as a good reason to launch a transition to a platform such as Windows or HP-UX.
Security is a more serious issue for those target platforms, judging by the release in recent weeks of patches and warnings. While the Twitter distributed denial of service (DDoS) issue is still hampering that microblogging service -- driven by Linux systems and used on hundreds of millions of Windows clients -- HP continues to roll out HP-UX security patches, including a new denial of service fix for Internet services.
The latest Unix environment patch for HP's business servers closes a security vulnerability with HP-UX running BIND. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely to create a denial of service. HP issued a security bulletin yesterday for patch HPSBUX02451. HP-UX versions B.11.11, B.11.23, B.11.31 running BIND v9.3.2 or BIND v9.2.0 are at risk.
The Twitter DDoS exploits have been traced to an attack on a blogger's site, according to chief security officer Max Kelly at Facebook, which has also been affected. Blogger and LiveJournal also experienced slowdowns, according a Facebook status update. "The attack that caused issues with accessing Facebook and other sites appears to have been directed at an individual, rather than at the sites themselves," the status report stated today.
Security hacks for the DDoS were directed through Facebook and Twitter users. A report in the UK's Guardian newspaper said that attack that disrupted the Twitter site and caused problems for Facebook and LiveJournal was aimed at a a 34-year-old economics lecturer who is an active critic of Moscow's politics in the Caucasus region. "It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard," Kelly said. A similar attack on the blogger last year crashed LiveJournal.