Here’s how the Windows 10 Creators Update helps enterprises

A few weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled its Windows 10 Creators Update with a focus on the software’s benefits for end users when it launches next year. On Tuesday, the company showed a different side of the next major patch for its new operating system, showing off features that will help IT professionals.Next year, IT folks will get new features focused on security, device management, and upgrade improvements. For one, Microsoft’s advanced security suite for Windows 10 is gaining additional remediation, detection and threat intelligence tools. Administrators will also get new analytics to see how their organization is using the new operating system.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sponsored Post: Loupe, New York Times, ScaleArc, Aerospike, Scalyr, Gusto, VividCortex, MemSQL, InMemory.Net, Zohocorp

Who's Hiring?

  • The New York Times is looking for a Software Engineer for its Delivery/Site Reliability Engineering team. You will also be a part of a team responsible for building the tools that ensure that the various systems at The New York Times continue to operate in a reliable and efficient manner. Some of the tech we use: Go, Ruby, Bash, AWS, GCP, Terraform, Packer, Docker, Kubernetes, Vault, Consul, Jenkins, Drone. Please send resumes to: [email protected]

  • IT Security Engineering. At Gusto we are on a mission to create a world where work empowers a better life. As Gusto's IT Security Engineer you'll shape the future of IT security and compliance. We're looking for a strong IT technical lead to manage security audits and write and implement controls. You'll also focus on our employee, network, and endpoint posture. As Gusto's first IT Security Engineer, you will be able to build the security organization with direct impact to protecting PII and ePHI. Read more and apply here.

Fun and Informative Events

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Cool Products and Services

  • A note for .NET developers: You know the pain of troubleshooting errors with limited time, limited information, and limited tools. Log management, exception tracking, Continue reading

Supreme Court kills $399M patent award against Samsung in Apple case

The U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated a US$399 million infringement award against Samsung Electronics in a long-running design patent dispute with Apple.The court, in an 8-0 decision, kicked back the patent award to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, saying the lower court calculated the patent award based on the whole iPhone, while the design patents may cover only pieces of the device.The Federal Circuit's failure to consider a smaller damage award based on pieces of the iPhone "cannot be squared" with patent law, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the Supreme Court. The lower court, in its ruling, said it could not separate out the infringing pieces of the smartphones because they were not available for sale to the public, she noted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Mirantis moves deeper into the container world, launches certification

Mirantis is well known as a pure play OpenStack vendor. The company is (was) entirely focused on offering organizations help leveraging the OpenStack open-source cloud computing platform.As we’ve seen over recent years, the OpenStack initiative, while popular in some areas (science and telco, for example) hasn’t seen the sort of service provider revenues that justify the massive valuations of venture-backed companies.So, while other vendors have gone to the wall and had to sell themselves off to the highest bidder, Mirantis seems to be making a determined effort to pivot into adjacent areas. No longer is this a pure-play OpenStack company; Mirantis now pitches itself as an organization that “helps top enterprises build and manage private cloud infrastructure using OpenStack and related open-source technologies.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Kraken

How do you know how well your systems can perform under stress? How can you identify resource utilization bottlenecks? And how do you know your tests match the condititions experienced with live production traffic? You could try load modeling (simulation), but it’s not really feasible to model systems undergoing constantly evolving workloads, frequent software release cycles, and complex dependencies. —the morning paper

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App developers not ready for iOS transport security requirements

A month before Apple is expected to enforce stricter security requirements for app communications in iOS, enterprise developers don't seem ready to embrace them, a new study shows.The study was performed by security firm Appthority on the most common 200 apps installed on iOS devices in enterprise environments. The researchers looked at how well these apps conform to Apple's App Transport Security (ATS) requirements.ATS was first introduced and was enabled by default in iOS 9. It forces all apps to communicate with Internet servers using encrypted HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) connections and ensures that only industry-standard encryption protocols and ciphers without known weaknesses are used. For example, SSL version 3 is not allowed and neither is the RC4 stream cipher, due to known vulnerabilities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

App developers not ready for iOS transport security requirements

A month before Apple is expected to enforce stricter security requirements for app communications in iOS, enterprise developers don't seem ready to embrace them, a new study shows.The study was performed by security firm Appthority on the most common 200 apps installed on iOS devices in enterprise environments. The researchers looked at how well these apps conform to Apple's App Transport Security (ATS) requirements.ATS was first introduced and was enabled by default in iOS 9. It forces all apps to communicate with Internet servers using encrypted HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) connections and ensures that only industry-standard encryption protocols and ciphers without known weaknesses are used. For example, SSL version 3 is not allowed and neither is the RC4 stream cipher, due to known vulnerabilities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security is Hard. Why Not Automate It?


 

Security automation doesn't get a lot of time in the spotlight, but it's something that deserves more thought and attention. The almost constant stream of headlines about the latest data breach or large scale hack make these seem like inevitable events that can't be prevented. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In reality, most data breaches are easily prevented by applying basic security standards and fixing known vulnerabilities in a timely manner. Covering the basics frees information security teams to monitor, detect, and stop more advanced attacks. Hardened systems also make life difficult for attackers, which is always a good thing.

But where does Ansible fit into all this? Ansible is great for configuration management, continuous integration and delivery, orchestration, application deployment and even infrastructure provision. But “I solved a security problem with Ansible” might not be what you’re accustomed to hearing at the water cooler from your average information security or operations person.

To understand how Ansible fits into to the security picture, it’s worth stepping back a little to understand exactly what is information security.

Information security is a multifaceted problem

Keeping information secure isn’t easy. We all know what needs to be Continue reading

21% off Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 – Deal Alert

The Seagate expansion desktop drive provides extra storage for your ever-growing collection of files. Instantly add space for more files, consolidate all of your files to a single location, or free up space on your computer's internal drive to help improve performance. Setup is straightforward; simply plug in the included power supply and USB cable, and you are ready to go. It is automatically recognized by the Windows operating system, so there is no software to install and nothing to configure. Saving files is easy too-just drag-and-drop. Take advantage of the fast data transfer speeds with the USB 3.0 interface by connecting to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port.  This drive receives 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where its typical list price of $70 has been reduced 21% to $55. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to Setup HA for RHV-M pt2

Hi folks, I’m finally getting around to the high availability for RHV-M (hosted engine) walk through demo that I promised. The truth is that due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to go to “plan b”. The end result is still the same, and the workflows are almost identical, but the “in betweens” are just a bit different.

Allow me to illuminate..

So when I last left off, I was explaining the virtues of both the lightweight virtualization host (RHVH) as well as the hosted engine configuration for use as a means of providing high availability for RHV-M, the management piece for RHV. Hosted engine can support either (not both at the same time) RHVH or RHEL hosts as the hypervisor nodes.. While I really wanted to show you how get things up and running with RHVH first, I’m going to show you the “RHEL way” first. I’ll come back around the RHVH, I promise.

The workflow for getting things up and ready is very similar when comparing RHVH and RHEL – hosts, networks, and storage all get setup. DNS (forward and reverse, FQDN for hosts and RHV-M) is configured. Subscriptions are set and hosts are updated. The biggest differences are Continue reading

Trump cybersecurity dos and don’ts (Part 2)

Given recent cybersecurity incidents such as the Google Android data breach, the DDoS attack on Dyn and the data breach of the DNC, President-elect Donald Trump will find cybersecurity policy a top priority when he takes office in January.What should Mr. Trump do and what should he avoid? In my last blog, I presented some recommendations for the “do” column. Alternatively, here is a list of things President Trump should eschew in his administration’s cybersecurity agenda: Don’t obsess over cybersecurity intelligence sharing path. Public/private partnerships for cybersecurity cooperation have roots that go back to the Clinton administration’s original PDD-63 for critical infrastructure protection. In more recent times, Congress struggled with CISPA then CISA as stand-alone bills before sneaking CISA into a federal spending bill in late 2015. Intelligence sharing is a good step but it’s been beaten to death and most large organizations have figured this out on their own.  What’s needed is a concerted effort on best practices and sharing threat intelligence with small businesses. Yes, these things should happen, but the feds should do so as part of CISA and not spin up another distracting effort. Remember that threat intelligence sharing is a means Continue reading

Trump Cybersecurity Do’s and Don’ts (Part 2)

Given recent cybersecurity incidents like the Google Android data breach, the DDoS attack on Dyn and the data breach of the DNC, President-elect Donald Trump will find cybersecurity policy a top priority when he takes office in January.What should Mr. Trump do and what should he avoid?  In my last blog, I presented some recommendations for the “do” column.  Alternatively, here is a list of things President Trump should eschew in his administration’s cybersecurity agenda.  The “don’t” column includes the following: Don’t obsess over cybersecurity intelligence sharing path.  Public/private partnerships for cybersecurity cooperation have roots that go back to the Clinton administration’s original PDD-63 for critical infrastructure protection.  In more recent times, congress struggled with CISPA then CISA as stand-alone bills before sneaking CISA into a federal spending bill in late 2015.  Intelligence sharing is a good step but it’s been beaten to death and most large organizations have figured this out on their own.  What’s needed is a concerted effort on best practices and sharing threat intelligence with small businesses.  Yes, these things should happen but the feds should do so as part of CISA and not spin up Continue reading

Trump Cybersecurity Do’s and Don’ts (Part 2)

Given recent cybersecurity incidents like the Google Android data breach, the DDoS attack on Dyn and the data breach of the DNC, President-elect Donald Trump will find cybersecurity policy a top priority when he takes office in January.What should Mr. Trump do and what should he avoid?  In my last blog, I presented some recommendations for the “do” column.  Alternatively, here is a list of things President Trump should eschew in his administration’s cybersecurity agenda.  The “don’t” column includes the following: Don’t obsess over cybersecurity intelligence sharing path.  Public/private partnerships for cybersecurity cooperation have roots that go back to the Clinton administration’s original PDD-63 for critical infrastructure protection.  In more recent times, congress struggled with CISPA then CISA as stand-alone bills before sneaking CISA into a federal spending bill in late 2015.  Intelligence sharing is a good step but it’s been beaten to death and most large organizations have figured this out on their own.  What’s needed is a concerted effort on best practices and sharing threat intelligence with small businesses.  Yes, these things should happen but the feds should do so as part of CISA and not spin up Continue reading

23% off LilGadgets Premium Children’s Wireless Bluetooth Headphones with SharePort – Deal Alert

These highly rated & multi-award winning Bluetooth headphones from LilGadgets are designed for kids. The Untangled Pro offers several fun color options, is durably constructed out of a high quality polycarbonate & stainless steel, and is covered with comfortable SoftTouch fabric. Fully charged, the Untangled Pro has a generous 12 hour battery life with 180 hours on standby. It features a 93db volume limiter for safe listening, and an integrated "SharePort" that lets multiple headphones connect and listen along. Each pair comes with a high quality microfiber travel pouch, a four foot premium nylon braided 3.5 millimeter audio cable with an inline microphone and a micro-USB charging cable. They are currently rated 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,700 people (84% rate 5/5 stars: read recent reviews). Its typical list price of $64.95 has been reduced 23% to $49.95. See them on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE Networking: Past, Present, and Future

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I had the chance to attend HPE Discover last week by invitation from their influencer team. I wanted to see how HPE Networking had been getting along since the acquisition of Aruba Networks last year. There have been some moves and changes, including a new partnership with Arista Networks announced in September. What follows is my analysis of HPE’s Networking portfolio after HPE Discover London and where they are headed in the future.

Campus and Data Center Divisions

Recently, HPE reorganized their networking division along two different lines. The first is the Aruba brand that contains all the wireless assets along with the campus networking portfolio. This is where the campus belongs. The edge of the network is an ever-changing area where connectivity is king. Reallocating the campus assets to the capable Aruba team means that they will do the most good there.

The rest of the data center networking assets were loaded into the Data Center Infrastructure Group (DCIG). This group is headed up by Dominick Wilde and contains things like FlexFabric and Altoline. The partnership with Arista rounds out the rest of the switch portfolio. This helps HPE position their offerings across a wide range of potential clients, Continue reading

What were the best tech-themed songs of 2016?

The Best Songs of the Year lists are flooding the Internet these days, with music watchers from NME to Rolling Stone to Fuse sharing their picks. But what about the best technology-themed songs of 2016?I know a few possible candidates, including Tacocat's take on anonymous trolls in "The Internet" (see video below), but could use your help if you have candidates please email me here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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