Security

Azure App Service Lets Encrypt Renewal Failures and Resolution

Richard Green on 18th February 2021

Paying for certificates isn’t the done thing when you can get free certificates from Lets Encrypt. Free certificates from Lets Encrypt come at a different price and that is lifetime as the certificates are only ever valid for 90 days. If you’re still manually buying and installing certificates annually then you don’t want that four times a year so we automate the process end-to-end. This has been working perfectly since about 2018 for us, however, a recent alert about a certificate expiring made us sit up and look at this case of Azure App Service Lets Encrypt renewal failures and the resolution.

Arcible and the SolarWinds Solorigate SUNBURST Threat

Richard Green on 16th December 2020

At Arcible, we take monitoring our services seriously and we take security seriously too. We use multiple products for the monitoring of our services; we consider security at all times and factor it into multiple layers of our operations. We’re releasing this article both as reassurance for our customers and for your information about Arcible and the Solorigate SUNBURST threat.

Arcible does not use the SolarWinds Orion product or any SolarWinds products to conduct our business either internally or externally with customers. Based on our current understanding and knowledge of the issues, Arcible does not believe that it is impacted by the SolarWinds threat, however, we continue to remain vigilant and review our security tools.

Using Azure AD Application Proxy to Publish Internal Web Apps

Richard Green on 16th June 2020

With users working remotely, how are they accessing the internal line of business systems such as web applications that you have running? Chances are they may be having to use a VPN but Azure AD Application Proxy could provide you with a better solution.

Oftentimes, we work with customers to help them to move workloads to Microsoft Azure but what if you want or need to keep something on-premises?

Security Key Login with Hybrid Windows 10 Devices

Richard Green on 1st June 2020

Technically speaking, this feature has been available for some time if you were prepared to use machines joined to the Windows Insider Programme, as it required a minimum build of Windows 10. Because that build, Build 18945, was exclusive to the Insider Programme, it meant that this feature wasn’t viable for production users because who wants to use preview builds with real users?

With the release of the May 2020 update for Windows 10, however, all the parts are now all there in production form to enable the use of a security key for Windows 10 login on hybrid devices.

Setting the Default Presenter Permission in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 22nd May 2020

Last week, we posted the second of our Microsoft Teams Tips videos on our YouTube channel where we discussed setting the presenter permission for your meetings. If you haven’t seen this then please, take a look and let us know what you’d like to see us discussing.

Since we posted that video, Microsoft has now, silently as far as we can tell from the blog and tweet spheres, made a change in Microsoft Teams that allows you to configure the default presenter permission for your organisation.

Understand the People in my Organisation Group in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 1st May 2020

In Microsoft Teams there are a number of pre-defined permission groups that are offered for us to use. The People in my organisation setting is one that you may be immediately drawn to when you are looking to, for example, restrict who is a presenter in a meeting by setting the user roles, however, this group includes more people than you realise.

User Roles within a Microsoft Teams Meeting

Richard Green on 1st May 2020

So you’re attending a meeting and want to know what you can do with the user role permissions that you have? Maybe you are setting up a meeting of your own and are worried about other people being able to steal the stage or take over your meeting; especially important for teachers using Microsoft Teams to present to classes.

Securing Passwords with Azure AD Password Protection

Richard Green on 22nd February 2020

Organisations define password policies to ensure that their users are not setting weak passwords that can be easily compromised. In this article, we explore securing passwords with Azure AD Password Protection and whether it can help make you more secure but also easier on your users.

Traditional password policies in Active Directory rely on basic filters to determine the number of characters and type of characters including numbers, letters, and symbols. On face value these policies may seem secure, however, are these policies actually causing the problem and much weaker than you think?

Manage Software Updates with Azure Update Management

Richard Green on 16th February 2020

The answer is Azure Update Management so what is the problem we are trying to solve? At Arcible, we have some on-premises servers. To keep safe, secure, and compliant, these servers need patching just like any other server does. Our environment is small and not big enough to justify a Microsoft Endpoint Manager (formerly Configuration Manager) deployment and Windows Server Updates Services (WSUS) is too painful and manual to manage.

So if we aren’t using Microsoft Endpoint Manager or WSUS, what do we do? We want a solution that’s automated to reduce the admin overhead but while being lightweight and not costing much.