New Azure AD Capabilities for Conditional Access and Azure VMs at RSA 2021
First up on the show, we discuss the latest Azure AD capabilities announced at the RSA conference – some we’ve heard about before and mentioned, but this time – we’ve got a bit more information rather than just what we’ve found in the roadmap. Of particular interest to Paul is new capabilities for Named Locations based on GPS co-ordinates – and we wonder whether this is something people will be able to easily spoof – either on a larger scale as Paul mentions – or even by using something like Bluestacks, using configuration even a child could apply. And Steve gets a little excited about Azure AD login on Linux VMs in Azure – casting his mind back to nearly 20 years ago attempting to get Solaris boxes working with Windows 2000’s implementation of Kerberos V5 in AD (and failing!).
More Exchange Server Security Updates you need to apply
In what is becoming a regular task – you’ll find yourself patching Exchange Servers again – with updates for Exchnage 2013, 2016 and 2019.
On the bright side – at least these vulnerabilities are being found now, but it’s always a bit of a pain. But, you’re getting into the swing of it again aren’t you?
We discuss – and Paul bemoans anyone still on Exchange 2010 (seriously though, if you are on Exchange 2010, what are you doing?)
Released: May 2021 Exchange Server Security Updates – Microsoft Tech Community
Customer Key for Microsoft Teams is now GA
A quick recap on the show first, where we explain what customer key is and why it is useful; and why it is useful for Teams. The TLDL (too long, didn’t listen) version is – it encrypts the data at rest in Microsoft’s datacenters with your own keys, but from a user perspective doesn’t appear to be encrypted. If you want to destroy the data, then you can go through a process with Microsoft to remove the keys, and remove the policies from the services, like Exchange, SharePoint and now Teams – effectively shredding the data.
Customer Key support for Microsoft Teams now Generally Available! – Microsoft Tech Community
Microsoft Build
There are fewer announcements this week, but that’s probably because Microsoft Build is happening May 25–27, 2021. As you might expert, it is a “digital event” – so, online – and free to attend. We’ll be dropping into Microsoft 365 related sessions during the week to gain insight into the most important announcements and up and coming features. You can sign up for free, below:
Microsoft Build 2021 – Home – Microsoft Build 2021
Microsoft 365 Compliance – Joanne C Klein
Our guest on the show is renowned Microsoft MVP, Joanne Klein, who most listeners will know from her SharePoint background as a well-known expert – and more lately as one of the leading people in the Microsoft 365 compliance world. On the show Steve asks Joanne:
- What do we mean when we talk about compliance in Microsoft 365?
- If you want to establish a compliance strategy, where do you start, and who should you be talking to in the business?
- For non-regulated industries, why does compliance matter?
- How do you balance your organization’s compliance wants and needs, versus what you have available in your Microsoft 365 subscription?
Find Joanne on Twitter at @JoanneCKlein and make sure you register for her upcoming webcast on May 27 – TEC Talk: Moving Beyond a SharePoint-Only Mindset for Modern Compliance
Roadmap and Rolling out
Finally we run through some of the most interesting Microsoft 365 Roadmap and Message Center news you need to know about:
- Network Health Monitoring went GA – Paul will be writing about this on Practical 365, and has already wrote at length about the topic in the Office 365 for IT Pros book. This useful tool, which has been a long-time coming – and in preview for a while – allows you to gain insights into your client’s connectivity to Microsoft 365 services.
- Microsoft Teams: Chat with External Users in Group Chats – a missing federation replacement feature on the Skype for Business to Teams journey, this May (we hope!) you’ll be able to have multi-person group chats with external people, without needing to bring them into your tenant as a guest.
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Expanded limits for protected users within anti-phishing policies will allow up to 350 users in a policy – coming in June.
- And a neat new Microsoft Teams/PowerPoint crossover feature: Present slides from the PowerPoint app. You’ll se this appear in the PowerPoint app, in the top-right hand corner of the window (rather than the ribbon) and it makes it much easier to present using the “PowerPoint Live” feature in meetings. This appears to be rolling out now to tenants and is indeed scheduled for May.
- Our last one this week will appeal to anyone who’s rolled out OneDrive, and has clients syncing. Admin reports in the message center are rolling out into public preview and will allow you to gain insight into whether client sync is working correctly or not, including sync errors on individual devices, deployment of Known Folder Move and app versions installed.
Join us in two weeks’ time for all the big announcements from Microsoft Build, plus our guests – Paul and I are joined by 2 folks to talk about one of the world’s LARGEST Teams deployments – so you won’t want to miss it
