IT News

New requirement on Technology Use During Foreign Travel

June 24, 2025

In response to increasing cybersecurity and research security threats, Berkeley Lab has updated its Requirements on Technology Use During Foreign Travel to better protect government systems, Lab data, and employees during international trips. These threats, which include the tracking or seizure of government-issued devices, mirror a wider trend seen across the national lab system and… Read more »

Why Use a Password Manager Like LastPass?

January 10, 2018

Generating, remembering and maintaining unique passwords is challenging and nearly impossible today. As the number of mandatory passwords, password length, and password complexity increases, it becomes harder to remember them without relying on risky alternatives such as writing passwords down or reusing passwords for more than one application. Reuse of a password is one of… Read more »
MacKeeper Introduces More Problems Than It Is Worth

December 19, 2017

MacKeeper is a well-known utility suite for macOS, which is typically installed by users looking to improve the performance of their system. MacKeeper is known to use aggressive marketing techniques, and has a very poor track record in terms of security, and in its ability to perform as advertised. Further, MacKeeper has been known to… Read more »
High Sierra – Upgrade or Not to Upgrade

December 19, 2017

IT always cautions users to never upgrade your operating system until you do the following:Ensure you have a full backup of your system just in case you need to roll backEnsure all your current versions of software and peripherals are compatible with the new operating system, see https://roaringapps.com/ for compatibility tablesFor Operations Mac users, IT… Read more »
How Berkeley Lab BigFix Can Help You

December 1, 2017

Tammera E Campbell posted on Dec 01, 2017 Do you want to: Increase your computer security, and reduce the effort needed to keep it that way? Inventory and report potential computer software and hardware issues? Help find and track your computer assets? BigFix can help! In fact, Berkeley Lab IT has BigFix deployed on over 4000… Read more »
Apple MacOS High Sierra Security Bug

November 30, 2017

ProblemAs reported yesterday, there’s a major security flaw in Apple’s newest operating system, High Sierra. The bug allows anyone to gain complete administrative access to the computer when using “root” as the username with a blank password. Berkeley Lab’s Cybersecurity team has released this information, Apple OSX High Sierra 10.13 authentication bug.SolutionApple has released an updated… Read more »
Password Requirements Have Changed

October 19, 2017

Cyber Security recently changed Berkeley Lab Identity password requirements. The changes included:Your passphrase must be at least 14 charactersYour passphrase must pass a strength check that disallows repeated / sequential characters, keyboard patterns, and other trivial passwordsYour passphrase must be changed every 12 months, rather than 6 monthsFor more information see Password Requirements – 2017 Update. Read more »
Windows 10 Patch Causes Computer Boot Failure

October 18, 2017

Microsoft recently announced that Windows devices may fail to boot after installing Windows 10 Updates that were released on October 10 2017. Microsoft has since revoked these updates, and has provided solutions for affected systems. Read more »
Windows CBS Log File Eating Up Disk Space

October 4, 2017

Tammera E Campbell posted on Oct 04, 2017 Problem There is a known Windows 7 log file compression bug. As a result of this bug log files replicate and grow filling up your hard drive effecting system performance and slowdown. Microsoft has known about the bug, but has not provided an official patch. Several users at… Read more »
Power Outage and IT Outage Aug 18-21

August 15, 2017

Adam Stone posted on Aug 15, 2017 Maintenance to LBL power systems impacting Building 50 will take place over the weekend of Aug 19-20. The following systems are expected to be operational: Login / LDAP / Directory Services www.lbl.gov, today.lbl.gov, newscenter.lbl.gov Email delivery, routing, and access including email lists. All Google Services Building management and security systems… Read more »
[Resolved] [August 11, 2017] Google experiencing issues with Docs, Sheets and Slides

August 11, 2017

Luis Enrique Corrales posted on Aug 11, 2017 Google has been experiencing issues with Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides this morning. Google Drive has also been impacted preventing attaching files to emails and calendar events. The service has already been restored for some users, Google expects a resolution for all users within the next 2 hours.… Read more »
Voicemail outage July 11 2017 AM

July 11, 2017

Adam Stone posted on Jul 11, 2017 We are currently experience a partial outage of the voicemail system. Users cannot currently retrieve messages. The ability to leave a message is not impacted. We expect resolution before 2pm today. Read more »
Emails Sent in Error to ALS Staff

July 10, 2017

Adam Stone posted on Jul 10, 2017 Earlier today, an automated email was sent in error to multiple ALS staff indicating that their appointment at the Laboratory was ending. This email was the result of a software error which has now been corrected. We apologize for this problem. If you receive additional emails in error,… Read more »