IDG Contributor Network: MacOS Sierra: The day nothing happened

I was notified that a software update was available for a few of my systems. An update to macOS Sierra was available for my main production system, a MacBook Pro, and my travel system, a MacBook Air. My personal work environment also includes a cloud-based storage service, several Linux servers for local file and print services as well as a lonely, old Windows-based laptop to execute a single application to support a long-term consulting contract.Living with an electronic tower of potential trouble Since my production environment is made up of systems from different vendors, purchased at different times, and software from different vendors, the prospect of updating anything, much less the operating system on one of my production machines, is scary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lockdown! Harden Windows 10 for maximum security

You may have heard that Microsoft has made Windows 10 more secure than any of its predecessors, packing it with security goodies. What you might not know is that some of these vaunted security features aren’t available out of the box or they require additional hardware -- you may not be getting the level of security you bargained for.Features such as Credential Guard are available for only certain editions of Windows 10, while the advanced biometrics promised by Windows Hello require a hefty investment in third-party hardware. Windows 10 may be the most secure Windows operating system to date, but the security-savvy organization -- and individual user -- needs to keep the following hardware and Windows 10 edition requirements in mind in order to unlock the necessary features to achieve optimum security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Investigating Cybersecurity Incidents — a free course

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when responding to a cybersecurity incident is taking well-meaning steps to “clean up the mess” that actually ruin the digital evidence needed to investigate and prosecute the case.Learning to securely preserve that forensic evidence is key to a successful legal case. In partnership with IDG Enterprise, training company Logical Operations Inc. presents a free online course on this timely topic: Investigating Cybersecurity Incidents.In three video sessions, you’ll learn skills such as how to plan the forensic investigation; collect, protect and analyze the evidence; write an investigation report; work with law enforcement; comply with relevant laws; and prepare for case for court.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Investigating Cybersecurity Incidents — a free course

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when responding to a cybersecurity incident is taking well-meaning steps to “clean up the mess” that actually ruin the digital evidence needed to investigate and prosecute the case.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Were Apple’s ‘leaked’ iPhone 7 tweets really a mistake?

Apple hasn't embraced social media the way its tech rivals have, but the company appears to have warmed to the medium. Today Apple uses its @AppleSupport account on Twitter as a customer service and outreach tool, and the company also maintains Twitter accounts for some of its most popular services, including Apple Music, the App Store, iTunes and Beats1. Apple also finally started to use its main @Apple Twitter account in the days leading up to the iPhone 7 launch earlier this month. But things got off to a bit of a rocky start. During the company's presentation, the company published and then immediately deleted at least three tweets to the @Apple account that revealed details and key features of the iPhone 7 — before it was officially announced.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 tips for managing a global workforce

Technology has drastically changed the role of management in the enterprise, as teams, and even entire companies, grow more disperse. In fact, it's not out of the realm of possibility that you could eventually work for a company with an entirely remote workforce.While technology has brought plenty of positives to the corporate world, it's also made managers' jobs more difficult. How do you effectively measure engagement and performance if you have a team of workers sprinkled across the country or even the globe?Phil Shawe, Co-CEO of TransPerfect manages over 4,000 employees across 100 countries -- and he's learned a lot from the experience. He's had to get creative to make it work, but based on lessons learned growing his company from an NYU dorm room in 1992 to a global operation, he has six tips to offer for effectively managing remote teams.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Does Oracle have a shot in the public cloud vs. Amazon and Microsoft?

Larry Ellison has voiced fighting words at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference this week, announcing that Amazon Web Services’ lead in the IaaS market is over and that AWS will have “serious competition going forward.”But does Oracle actually have a shot versus AWS and the company many see as the second place vendor, Microsoft?“It depends,” says Gartner distinguished analyst Lydia Leong, author of the annual Magic Quadrant benchmark report for the public Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud market.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Oracle CEO Mark Hurd says he has the whole cloud stack +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A Cisco-Salesforce deal means collaboration will come to you

The hardest thing about adopting an enterprise collaboration platform can be adoption itself – getting employees to actually start up the new software and then turn to it whenever they need to communicate.Putting the software inside something that workers already use is one way to drive adoption and also make the communication tools more valuable. Cisco Systems knows this, and on Thursday the company announced a strategic alliance with Salesforce, its second big partnership in that direction after its headline-grabbing Apple iOS integration.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sneak peek: 15 gadgets to put on your holiday wish list

Start making the list and checking it twiceThe calendar may say it’s the beginning of fall, but that won’t prevent us from giving you a sneak peek at some of the hottest devices and gadgets that will top your holiday wish list. Here’s a bunch of cool stuff that we’re hoping to get our hands on to present in our 17th annual Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide (coming Nov. 14). Keep in mind that these devices are not yet reviewed, so we’re not giving these our official seal of approval for cool yule goodness, but rather an indication of some things that could be in the final guide.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Evolving Enterprise WAN

Why Would I Use BGP and not OSPF between Servers and the Network?

While we were preparing for the Cumulus Networks’ Routing on Hosts webinar Dinesh Dutt sent me a message along these lines:

You categorically reject the use of OSPF, but we have a couple of customers using it quite happily. I'm sure you have good reasons and the reasons you list [in the presentation] are ones I agree with. OTOH, why not use totally stubby areas with the hosts being in such an area?

How about:

Cisco: Yes, cosmic radiation could have caused router bug

Yesterday we reported on the reaction to a Cisco bug report that speculated “partial data traffic loss” on the company’s ASR 9000 Series routers was possibly triggered by “cosmic radiation causing SEU soft errors.”Reaction to that contention on a Reddit forum ranged from the obvious -- acknowledgment that cosmic radiation is an issue -- to sharp-tongued skepticism and tales of the cosmic radiation villain being used as a tongue-in-cheek place-holder meaning “we really don’t know what caused the problem yet.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco: Yes, cosmic radiation could have caused router bug

Yesterday we reported on the reaction to a Cisco bug report that speculated “partial data traffic loss” on the company’s ASR 9000 Series routers was possibly triggered by “cosmic radiation causing SEU soft errors.”Reaction to that contention on a Reddit forum ranged from the obvious -- acknowledgment that cosmic radiation is an issue -- to sharp-tongued skepticism and tales of the cosmic radiation villain being used as a tongue-in-cheek place-holder meaning “we really don’t know what caused the problem yet.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IBM Builds A Bridge Between Private And Public Power Clouds

Two years ago, when Big Blue put a stake through the heart of its impartial attitude about the X86 server business, it was also putting a stake in the ground for its Power systems business.

IBM bet that it could make more money selling Power machinery to its existing customer base and while at the same time expanding it out to hyperscalers like Google through the OpenPower Foundation while at the same time gradually building out a companion public cloud offering of Power machinery on its SoftLayer cloud and through partners like Rackspace Hosting. This is a big bet, and …

IBM Builds A Bridge Between Private And Public Power Clouds was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

Docker Presents at Inaugural Cloud Field Day

Thanks to everyone who joined us last Thursday. We were really excited to participate in the first Cloud Field Day event and to host at Docker HQ in San Francisco. In watching the trend to cloud and the changing dynamics of application development, the Tech Field Day organizers, Stephen Foskett and Tom Hollingsworth started Cloud Field Day to create a forum for companies to share and for the delegates to discuss. The delegates came from backgrounds in software development, containers, networking, virtualization, storage, data and of course, cloud… As always, the delegates asked a lot of questions, kicked off some great discussions, even had some spirited debates both in the room and online, always with the end user in mind. We are looking forward to doing this again.

ICYMI: The videos and event details are now available online and also follow the conversation from Twitter with the delegates.

Centec Raises $47M to Battle Broadcom

Centec is producing Ethernet switching chips.

T-Mobile Taps Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung for 5G Tests

Although T-Mobile hasn’t talked about SDN, it is working closely with Deutsche Telekom.

How to watch the 2016 Ig Nobels

If you can't make it to the annual Ig Nobel ceremony at Harvard University on Thursday night to celebrate the most unusual and imaginative breakthroughs in science, you can follow along online instead.That includes right here, we're we've embedded code for the live webcast, which starts at 6pm, EST, Sept. 22. MORE: Why there's no Nobel Prize in ComputingTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New legislation seeks to prevent US voting systems from being hacked

A U.S. lawmaker has introduced two bills to protect voting systems from hacking, amid fears that Russian cyber spies may be interfering with this year's presidential election.Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat serving Georgia, is proposing a moratorium on state purchases of electronic voting machines that don't produce a paper trail. His Election Integrity Act, introduced Wednesday, would also prohibit voting systems from being connected to the internet as a way to prevent online tampering.The high-profile hack of the Democratic National Committee publicized in June has citizens worried that U.S. election systems may be vulnerable, Johnson said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New legislation seeks to prevent US voting systems from being hacked

A U.S. lawmaker has introduced two bills to protect voting systems from hacking, amid fears that Russian cyber spies may be interfering with this year's presidential election.Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat serving Georgia, is proposing a moratorium on state purchases of electronic voting machines that don't produce a paper trail. His Election Integrity Act, introduced Wednesday, would also prohibit voting systems from being connected to the internet as a way to prevent online tampering.The high-profile hack of the Democratic National Committee publicized in June has citizens worried that U.S. election systems may be vulnerable, Johnson said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here