Windows 10: CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark now available

Brink · Jan 14, 2019

We’re excited to announce the availability of the Center for Internet Security’s (CIS) Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark—developed by CIS in partnership with Microsoft—to provide prescriptive guidance for establishing a secure baseline configuration for Microsoft 365. CIS is a nonprofit entity focused on developing global standards and recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data against the most pervasive attacks.

Microsoft 365 provides powerful online cloud services that enable collaboration, security, and compliance, mobility, intelligence, and analytics. Adopting cloud technologies requires a shared responsibility model for security, with Microsoft responsible for certain controls and the customer responsible for others, depending on the service delivery model chosen. To ensure that a customer’s cloud workloads are protected, it is important that they carefully consider and implement the appropriate architecture and enable the right set of configuration settings.

The CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark is designed to assist organizations in establishing the foundation level of security for anyone adopting Microsoft 365. The benchmark should not be considered as an exhaustive list of all possible security configurations and architecture but as a starting point. Each organization must still evaluate their specific situation, workloads, and compliance requirements and tailor their environment accordingly.

The CIS benchmark contains two levels, each with slightly different technical specifications:

Level 1—Recommended minimum security settings that should be configured on any system and should cause little or no interruption of service or reduced functionality.

Level 2—Recommended security settings for highly secure environments and could result in some reduced functionality.

The CIS Microsoft 365 Security Benchmark is divided into the following sections:

Section Description # of recommended controls Account/Authentication policies Recommendations related to setting the appropriate account and authentication policies. 8 Application permissions Recommendations related to the configuration of application permissions within Microsoft 365. 4 Data management Recommendations for setting data management policies. 6 Email security/Exchange Online Recommendations related to the configuration of Exchange Online and email security. 13 Auditing policies Recommendations for setting auditing policies on your Microsoft 365 tenant. 14 Storage policies Recommendations for securely configuring storage policies. 2 Mobile device management Recommendations for managing devices connecting to Microsoft 365. 13 Total recommendations 60
Each recommendation contains several sections, including a recommendation identification number, title, and description; level or profile applicability; rationale; instructions for auditing the control; remediation steps; impact of implementing the control; default value; and references. For example, the first control contained in the benchmark is under the Account/Authentication policies section and is titled: 1.1 (L1) Ensure multifactor authentication is enabled for all users in administrative roles (Scored).

A control is marked as “Scored” or “Not Scored” based on whether it can be programmatically tested. In this case, recommendation 1.1 can be audited leveraging the Microsoft Graph and PowerShell cmdlet. The specific steps for auditing the control are contained in the “Audit” section for this specific recommendation. This recommendation is listed as a Level 1 control because it is only applied to Microsoft 365 administrative users and would not have a company-wide impact or produce less functionality for users. The rationale for recommendation 1.1 is that Microsoft 365 administrative accounts need to be protected due to their powerful privileges and with Multiple Factor Authentication, an attacker would need to compromise at least two different authentication mechanisms, increasing the difficulty of compromise and thus reducing the risk to the Azure tenant.

Download the benchmark and provide your feedback

The CIS Microsoft 365 Security Benchmark is freely available for download in PDF format on the CIS website. In the continuity of their mission, feedback provided by those entrenched in using and implementing the benchmarks provides us the opportunity for continuous improvement of our products. Feedback can be made visible to CIS by creating a discussion thread or ticket within the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark community. In addition, Microsoft has developed a set of Office 365 security guidelines and best practices for our customers to follow. These guides can be found in Office 365 Security and Compliance documentation.
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Source: Best practices for securely using Microsoft 365 - the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark now available - Microsoft Secure

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btarunr · Jan 14, 2019

Microsoft Joins the Linux Foundation

On Wednesday, during its annual Connect(); developer event, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a series of products and partnerships that strengthen the company's Azure cloud platform for building intelligent, cross-platform apps and services. Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie detailed significant steps Microsoft is taking to empower the ecosystem by giving developers greater choice in the tools they use - including joining the Linux Foundation as a Platinum Member to better collaborate with the open source community, welcoming Google to the independent .NET Foundation, and working with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to enable .NET developers to build apps for more than 50 million Samsung devices worldwide.

Guthrie also demonstrated a preview of Visual Studio for Mac, which enables developers to write cloud, mobile and macOS apps on Apple's Mac operating system using the popular development environment; a preview of the next version of the company's flagship SQL Server database with support for Linux, Linux-based Docker containers and Windows-based environments; and a preview of Azure App Service on Linux with support for containers.

"We want to help developers achieve more and capitalize on the industry's shift toward cloud-first and mobile-first experiences using the tools and platforms of their choice," Guthrie said. "By collaborating with the community to provide open, flexible and intelligent tools and cloud services, we're helping every developer deliver unprecedented levels of innovation."

Collaborating with the community
As part of its effort to work more closely with the open source community, Microsoft on Wednesday announced it has joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum Member. Microsoft's membership in the Linux Foundation will benefit customers through increased collaboration and innovation among a diverse ecosystem.

"By becoming a Linux Foundation Platinum member, Microsoft is better able to collaborate with the open source community to deliver transformative mobile and cloud experiences to more people," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. "Microsoft has been a key contributor to many projects, and we see the company intensifying its involvement and commitment to open development."

Microsoft has become an active member of the open source community in part through the popularity of its open source and cross-platform application framework .NET Core. Wednesday's addition of Google to the .NET Foundation's Technical Steering Group further reinforces the vibrancy of the .NET developer community as well as Google's commitment to fostering an open platform that supports businesses and developers who have standardized on .NET.

Other industry leaders are also betting on .NET Core for their own commercial products. On Wednesday Samsung is releasing a preview of its Visual Studio Tools for Tizen. Developers can use the tools to build .NET apps for the Tizen operating system that runs on millions of Samsung TVs, wearables, mobile devices and many IoT devices around the world.

Tools for any developer on any platform
Microsoft highlighted several announcements Wednesday aimed at helping developers use the tools of their choice to create Android, iOS and Windows apps powered by Linux or Windows Server, including the following:

The SQL Server on Linux public preview released Wednesday is the first preview of the next version of SQL Server and brings the power of SQL Server to Linux and Linux-based Docker containers, in addition to Windows.

A new Visual Studio for Mac preview provides a macOS-based integrated development environment designed for building mobile, cloud and macOS apps.

The availability of Azure App Service on Linux with support for Containers in preview provides native Linux support for Node.js and PHP stacks on Azure App Service and now enables developers to bring their own Docker-formatted container image.

Enabling better apps through the intelligent cloud
Today's most impactful apps are using data to delight users and drive business outcomes. Microsoft today unveiled unique capabilities and services that make it easier for more developers to turn massive amounts of data into deeply personal, intelligent and predictive applications.

SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 1 availability makes database innovations accessible to more applications across product editions.

The availability of Azure Data Lake services, Azure Data Lake Analytics and Data Lake Store means developers and data scientists now have the capabilities required to easily store and process data at petabyte size files, with massively parallel analytics and enterprise-grade security for insights on data of any size, shape and speed.

Improving the end-to-end developer experience
Microsoft's solutions evolve with changing developer needs. Through the Visual Studio family, SQL Server, Windows, Office and Azure, Microsoft is working to provide the most complete platform for application innovation, spanning mobile and cloud.

The Visual Studio Mobile Center preview announced Wednesday brings together the cloud and life-cycle services that help developers build, test, distribute and monitor apps built in Objective-C, Swift, Java, Xamarin and React Native for Android-, iOS- and Windows-based devices.

The Visual Studio 2017 release candidate released Wednesday includes new capabilities to help any developer be more productive than ever for any application and any platform.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2017 and Azure Application Insights are now available, providing an enhanced collaboration and DevOps platform for cloud- first, mobile-first scenarios.

"Microsoft is transforming the nature of its appeal to developers by broadening its supported platforms," said Al Hilwa, research director for Software Development research at IDC. "The new partnerships and commitments allow Microsoft to meet developers where they are and multiply its reach and impact with mobile and cloud developers as well as become established in emerging areas such as IoT, data science and cognitive computing."

3870x2 · Jan 14, 2019

Microsoft Releases Office 365 Home Premium

Where do you actually purchase the Office 365?
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That information is available in the article. (above)

Microsoft looked at how much money Blizzard was making off of the WoW subscription model.

Brink · Jan 14, 2019

Introducing Microsoft 365

Today at Inspire, Satya Nadella unveiled Microsoft 365, which brings together Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security, delivering a complete, intelligent and secure solution to empower employees. It represents a fundamental shift in how we will design, build and go to market to address our customers’ needs for a modern workplace.

The workplace is transforming—from changing employee expectations, to more diverse and globally distributed teams, to an increasingly complex threat landscape. From these trends, we are seeing a new culture of work emerging. Our customers are telling us they are looking to empower their people with innovative technology to embrace this modern culture of work.

With more than 100 million commercial monthly active users of Office 365, and more than 500 million Windows 10 devices in use, Microsoft is in a unique position to help companies empower their employees, unlocking business growth and innovation.

To address the commercial needs from the largest enterprise to the smallest business, we are introducing Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is designed for large organizations and integrates Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security to empower employees to be creative and work together, securely.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise:

Unlocks creativity by enabling people to work naturally with ink, voice and touch, all backed by tools that utilize AI and machine learning.

Provides the broadest and deepest set of apps and services with a universal toolkit for teamwork, giving people flexibility and choice in how they connect, share and communicate.

Simplifies IT by unifying management across users, devices, apps and services.

Helps safeguard customer data, company data and intellectual property with built-in, intelligent security.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is offered in two plans—Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5. Both are available for purchase on August 1, 2017.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is built on the foundation of the highly successful Secure Productive Enterprise, which grew seats by triple digits in the last year. Going forward, Microsoft 365 Enterprise replaces Secure Productive Enterprise to double-down on the new customer promise of empowering employees to be creative and work together, securely.

Microsoft 365 Business is designed for small-to-medium sized businesses with up to 300 users and integrates Office 365 Business Premium with tailored security and management features from Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It offers services to empower employees, safeguard the business and simplify IT management.

Microsoft 365 Business:

Helps companies achieve more together by better connecting employees, customers and suppliers.

Empowers employees to get work done from anywhere, on any device.

Protects company data across devices with always-on security.

Simplifies the set-up and management of employee devices and services with a single IT console.

Microsoft 365 Business will be available in public preview on August 2, 2017. It will become generally available on a worldwide basis in the fall of 2017, priced at US $20 per user, per month.

As a part of our commitment to small-to-medium sized customers, we’re also announcing the preview of three tailored applications that are coming to Office 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Business:

Microsoft Listings—A simple-to-use email marketing service.

Microsoft Connections—An easy way to publish business information on top sites.

Microsoft Invoicing—A new way to create and deliver professional invoices.

Today, we are also announcing that Microsoft’s mileage tracking app, MileIQ, is now included with Office 365 Business Premium.

Satya also discussed how Microsoft 365 represents a significant opportunity for partners to grow their business. Microsoft 365 will drive growth by enabling our more than 64,000 cloud partners to differentiate their offerings, simplify their sales processes and increase their revenue.

According to two Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Studies (commissioned studies conducted by Forrester Consulting), Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business increase average partner margins by an estimated 35 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over three years. Partners can learn more and explore training, sales and deployment resources on the Microsoft 365 partner site.

We are incredibly enthusiastic about Microsoft 365 and how it will help customers and partners drive growth and innovation. To learn more about Microsoft 365, please visit Microsoft.com/Microsoft-365.

—Kirk Koenigsbauer
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Source: Introducing Microsoft 365 - Office Blogs

See also: Microsoft 365 announced at Inspire 2017 | Top 4 things for partners to know Microsoft Partner Network Blog

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