Sean Michael Kerner

About

Sean Michael Kerner is an Internet consultant, strategist, and writer for several leading IT business web sites.

Microsoft Patches Out-of-Band Zero-Day Security Flaw for IE

Users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system have grown accustomed to a regular, predictable cadence for patches—on the first Tuesday of every month. On Dec. 19, Microsoft broke that cadence with an emergency out-of-band update for its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. The reason is simple: Attackers are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability, putting millions of […]

Pivotal Cloud Foundry 2.4 Boosts Security With Compliance Scanner

Pivotal is releasing version 2.4 of its Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) platform on Dec. 20, providing organizations with a host of new capabilities to manage and deploy cloud-native applications. PCF is Pivotal’s commercial distribution, based on the open-source Cloud Foundry project, which provides platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capabilities for applications. In the PCF 2.4 update, Pivotal is […]

Why Etcd Matters and How It Has Revolutionized the Cloud

At the core of the modern cloud-native application movement is an open-source technology that is perhaps not as well-known as it should be. That technology is the open-source etcd project, which provides a distributed key value store that is used by all the major public cloud providers and is at the core of the Kubernetes […]

Cyber-Security Myths Continue to Persist, Norton LifeLock Reports

A key to having better security is having an understanding of what in fact is not secure and what activities can lead to risk. When it comes to cyber-security, a study released on Dec. 19 by Symantec’s Norton LifeLock found that there are many myths that American believe that simply are not factually accurate. Among […]

How Chick-fil-A Uses Kubernetes and GitOps at the Edge

Fast food restaurants are not typically considered as being places where the latest trends in IT and cloud computing can be found, but that’s what’s happening at fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A. Edge computing, the idea of having cloud-native resources at the edge of a network, is an emerging concept in IT, and it’s having […]

KnowBe4 Launches PhishER to Improve Email Security

Security firm KnowBe4 announced its new PhishER offering on Dec. 18, providing organizations with a new way to analyze and manage suspected phishing emails. PhishER is positioned by KnowBe4 as being a security orchestration automation and response (SOAR) platform for email security and phishing threats. Phishing is an all too common occurrence where an attacker […]

How Shopify Avoided a Data Breach, Thanks to a Bug Bounty

Breaches occur on an-all-too-frequent basis, but what is often never reported are the breaches that don’t happen, thanks to organizations taking rapid, proactive measures. One such incident was outlined by Shopify at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2018 last week. Thanks to a bug bounty program and the support of its vendor partner Google, Shopify was […]

Avanan Boosts SaaS Application Security With Cloud-Native Approach

Cloud security services startup Avanan announced on Dec. 17 that it has raised $25 million in a Series B round of funding that will help the company expand its capabilities. Avanan is in the business of providing enterprises with security for cloud-based email and collaboration services. The company’s platform provides both a marketplace that enables […]

Firefox 64 Boosts Tab Management, Drops RSS

In the latest milestone update of Mozilla Firefox, users of the open-source web browser have lost what was once a key feature. Firefox 64, which became generally available on Dec. 11, dropped direct integrated support for RSS feed preview and live bookmarks. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a capability that enables users to quickly see […]

Top Five Reasons Why Kubernetes Is Changing the Cloud Landscape

SEATTLE—In recent years, the Kubernetes container orchestration system has received more than its fair share of hype as the next big trend in IT. That hype was pervasive across the show floor and packed session rooms of the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2018 conference that concluded on Dec. 13 here. More than 8,000 attendees and […]