The Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK is a good way to execute Microsoft Graph API queries from PowerShell scripts. In this article, we explain how to use cmdlets from the SDK with a Azure Automation runbook. The example we use is a script to send a welcome email to new employees.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (plan 2) contains the Threat Explorer feature. It's a useful way to investigate problematic messages which arrive in a tenant. The automated investigations feature can highlight messages containing malware by assembling evidence about warning signs in the message or its contents, and administrators can then action the recommendations up to and including the removal of messages already delivered to user mailboxes. Automating investigations is a good thing, if you afford Defender for Office 365 Plan 2.
As many organizations adapt legacy scripts to use app authentication instead of traditional service account credentials, security can be compromised if certain risks are overlooked. While app secrets can be great for testing code, there’s a reason they have an enforced expiry date - the longer a secret exists in production, the higher the risk it will become compromised. The methods described in this article will help build a good foundation for app authentication while keeping security top of mind when creating or updating automation scripts.
Attack Simulations are Microsoft’s foray into a crowded field of competitors who provide a service that trains users to recognize dangerous email with simulated Phishing or malware-infested messages. Microsoft has continually added features and functionality since they released Attack Simulations, including additional simulation types, different payloads, custom payloads, customizable training and more. The most recent upgrades are RBAC permissions and end user notifications. These two additions to Attack Simulation Training are a great incentive to deploy and adopt this functionality, as End User communications are the key enhancement that make this feature worthwhile for an organization.
Join myself and Paul Robichaux for this week's latest episode of the podcast to discuss a plethora of updates in Microsoft 365. Plus we're joined by Microsoft MVP Theresa Miller to discuss all things VDI with Microsoft 365. We chat about Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, VMware and much more, from the point of view of Microsoft 365 IT pros.
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Azure Automation runbooks can run Exchange Online PowerShell code on sandbox machines. Is this a good way of getting work done? In this article, we examine how to create an Azure automation account, a RunAs account, and some runbooks for PowerShell code to run against Exchange Online and other Microsoft 365 data.
Exchange Online now supports SMTP Strict Transport Security (MTA-STS), a mechanism to help defend SMTP communications between mail servers. Microsoft 365 tenants can decide if they want to enable MTA-STS for their domain by publishing a DNS record and an MTA-STS policy. You don't have to use MTA-STS, but it's a good idea to consider the option.
In this week's episode, Paul and myself get together to discuss - a bit more Exchange again - but don't worry, it's only more patches. Plus, Microsoft adds a new product into the E3 plans that we think you'll like - and as usual, the best from the Roadmap and Message Center
Teams is mostly an internal communications platform while email connects billions of people around the world. Inside Microsoft 365 tenants, you might need to connect Teams and email together. In this article, we discuss the out-of-the-box features available to link the two and describe some of the positive and negative points of each. You can certainly bridge the gap between Teams and email, but maybe Microsoft could grease the connection just a little more...
Exchange Online has mailbox retention policies. Microsoft 365 has retention policies and retention labels. In this article, we explore how to move away from Exchange Online retention to use Microsoft 365 retention. The transition makes it possible to use the advanced retention capabilities Microsoft is developing that will never show up in Exchange Online, so it's a good long-term goal to have even if it's not on your immediate work list.
In a December 24 announcement, Microsoft says that the roll-out of DNSSEC and DANE support in Exchange Online will start in mid-January 2022. Because this is a big change for the Exchange Online infrastructure, Microsoft is using a phased deployment which won't complete until mid-May. Support for DNSSEC and DANE has been coming for a long time, but it's good that the extra security which these standards bring will be available to Exchange Online tenants.
Microsoft 365 has many built-in controls to manage how users communicate externally, however, these controls do not generally extend to internal communication. While this is fine in most environments, situations exist where a degree of separation is required to segregate communication across different groups of users. This article details the configuration of Address Book Policies, and how they can be extended to include Teams.
