After many hours of digging around the Windows registry and experimenting with various keys to enable TLS 1.2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 (see my blog post here), I found this free tool that gives you one click access to configuring your Windows Cipher Suites. The Harden...
Some industries, like Government, require the use of certain cryptography algorithms. One of the great features of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 is the support for TLS 1.2Â ciphers. TLS 1.2 ciphers support AES-256 encryption with SHA-256 hashes. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not enable these protocols out of the box....
In some industries end point security is a significant concern, so organizations have been moving away from a traditional fat client to thin clients, and even to zero clients. Traditionally thin clients have some security and maintenance issues of their own. If they run Window Embedded you still need to...
A couple of weeks ago Citrix released Provisioning Services 5.6, which is a component of their XenDesktop 4.0 suite. Provisioning services is supported on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, however it does not automatically add firewall rules. In fact, when you configure provisioning services it tells you...
When VMware released ESX(i) 4.0 U1, they officially supported booting your OS drive from a paravirtual SCSI controller. Prior to U1 you could only use one of their other SCSI controllers such as BusLogic. However, when you try and install Windows with a PVSCSI controller it will not detect any...
One of the sessions that I attended today was by the very popular Marcus Murray. He's a Swedish security expert and Microsoft security MVP. I heard him speak a couple of years ago at TechEd Orlando and was really blown away by the content and his presentation style. Thankfully Microsoft...
This session talked about several proven methods of high availability and disaster recovery for SQL 2008. It focused on several case studies of real-word companies, their HA/DR approach, and metrics from their environments. It didn't cover any new wizbang technology or third party products. With the proper design, processes, procedures,...
This was a KILLER session by Laura Chappell, who is the author of Wireshark Network Analysis. I've never heard her present before, but she really rivals Mark Minasi in every way. Her presentation was filled with great tidbits of information including:- Full duplex taps - These are much preferred over...
This was a fairly dry session covering the setup and deployment of OCS 14. I won't go through all of the somewhat boring details, but will cover a few juicy tidbits that I learned.- The Setup of OCS 14 is a completely new experience, 100% different than any previous version...
This session covered some new cool features of RMS when combined with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010. Some of the new features include:- AD RMS bulk protection tool. This tool can bulk encrypt and decrypt Microsoft Office files and attachments within PSTs. The tool can be extended to...
Released a little over a week ago, Microsoft Systems Center Service Manager, is a product that ties together Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, helpdesk ticking functionality, change control tracking, and configuration change auditing. Since the product is literally brand new, not many people know what it is. There's a session tomorrow...
This session focused on a ton of tips and tricks for Windows and AD administration. The speaker went 100 MPH and it would be impossible to cover everything. But he will be uploading his presentation slide deck, scripts, and other goodies on his website here. He also wrote a book...