20Aug2018
17Aug2018
Showdown: Office 365 E3 vs. Microsoft 365 Business
Recently I wrote a few articles on the various subscriptions out there, and how confusing everything is getting as the 365 universe expands and morphs. Since that time, I have also been playing more and more with the Microsoft 365 Business subscription (as opposed to Office 365 Business). As previously...
16Aug2018
How to configure anti-spam with end-user digest for Office 365 Exchange Online
Office 365 Exchange Online plans all include Exchange Online Protection (EOP) by default. And by default, the spam filter settings leave something to be desired. You can modify these settings from Exchange Admin Center. Today I will share the recommended "minimum" adjustments which I typically will make to any new...
01Aug2018
PSA: Go Setup Multifactor Authentication for Office 365
Microsoft reported recently that they have seen a 300% increase in identity-based attacks within the last year. I know, I know--you are one of those people who NEVER get duped into clicking on bad links, or giving up credentials or other personal information, right? "But I am too smart to get...
17Jul2018
The new and confusing Microsoft 365 SKU’s
I have written one post on Microsoft 365 (Business edition) so far. And I haven't had as much time to continue playing with it as I like. But, here is what I can tell you: the literature out there on these SKU's can be confusing, since they are mostly marketing-oriented,...
16Jul2018
How to bundle even more security into your Office 365 subscription
In a previous post, I covered some of the most common SKU's that are frequently purchased by small businesses, who are migrating to the Office 365 platform. In a nutshell, by FAR the most common of those are Office 365 Business Premium and Office 365 Enterprise E3--and the latter of...
07Dec2017
Password best practices controversy
Last year, Microsoft published this guidance on passwords, which contains some advice that departs from traditional best practices. For example: Eliminate character composition requirements (e.g. multiple character types @, 2, A, b) Eliminate mandatory periodic resets (do not enforce expiry) The reasoning is based on Microsoft's research, and the fact that...
10Aug2017
Vulnerability Assessments vs. Pen Testing: Walk before you run
Sales people are some of my favorite people in the world. They make me laugh out loud almost every day. The company I work for offers a few different flavors of network & security assessments for small to mid-sized businesses, but we do not offer penetration testing. Still, I occasionally...
27Jul2017
How to Encrypt your Hyper-V Guest VM’s using the GUI
Encrypting guest virtual machines is another layer of protection you can add in Hyper-V. Why would an admin want to do this? Because while encrypting the Hyper-V Host itself can protect against stolen physical disks, enabling BitLocker inside your virtual machines protects against stolen virtual disks as well (e.g. if an attacker were...
20Jul2017