Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft Sentinel is now eligible for complimentary remote guidance through Microsoft’s FastTrack Architecture & Advisory program.

Microsoft Sentinel is a scalable, cloud-native solution that provides security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR). 

Microsoft’s FastTrack architects that are assigned to Sentinel customers at no cost, can provide remote guidance for:

• Providing an overview of the prerequisites for Microsoft Sentinel deployment.
• Providing conceptual workspace architecture best practices and considerations, including multi-tenancy scenarios.*
• Assisting in prioritizing data connectors to optimize Microsoft Sentinel configuration, including:
  • Explaining data transformation and collection customization to assist with optimization.*
• Planning roles and permissions.
• Conducting cost expectation analysis based on planned configuration.*
• Enabling the Microsoft Sentinel service.
• Discussing and configuring data retention.
• Configuring data connectors, including:
  • Setting up Microsoft data connectors.
  • Demonstrating how to configure third-party data connectors.*
  • Exploring ingestion cost expectations.*
• Configuring analytics rules, including;
  • Built-in analytics rules.
  • A query starter pack.
  • Additional rules for Zero Trust and insider threats.
  • User entity behavior analytics rules.
  • Apache Log4J enhancements.
• Providing an overview of the following:
  • Security operations center (SOC) optimization.
  • Workbooks.
  • Watchlists.
  • User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA).
  • Logic app playbooks.
  • Incident response capabilities*, simulations, and tutorials (like practice scenarios, fake malware, and automated investigations).

*Supported with limitations.

For more information, visit:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/fasttrack/microsoft-defender#microsoft-sentinel

Contact your FastTrack Manager or Microsoft account team for more information.

Join us for a special event with Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro to learn about the next phase of Copilot innovation. The live stream starts at 8 AM Pacific Time on September 16.

Register:
https://www.linkedin.com/events/7236780403867443202/

Heads up: Microsoft administrators have 2 months left to enable multifactor authentication for access Microsoft Azure portal, Microsoft Entra admin center, and Microsoft Intune admin center.

Here’s the Microsoft 365 Message Center notification MC862873:

Starting on or after October 15, 2024, to further increase security, Microsoft will require admins to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) when signing into the Microsoft Azure portal, Microsoft Entra admin center, and Microsoft Intune admin center. Note: This requirement will also apply to any services accessed through the Intune admin center, such as Windows 365 Cloud PC. To take advantage of the extra layer of protection MFA offers, we recommend enabling MFA as soon as possible. To learn more, review Planning for mandatory multifactor authentication for Azure and admin portals.

How this will affect your organization:

MFA will need to be enabled for your tenant to ensure admins are able to sign-in to the Azure portal, Microsoft Entra admin center and Intune admin center after this change.

What you need to do to prepare:

• If you have not already, set up MFA before October 15, 2024, to ensure your admins can access the Azure portal, Microsoft Entra admin center, and Intune admin center.
• If you are unable to set up MFA before this date, you can apply to postpone the enforcement date.
• If MFA has not been set up before the enforcement starts, admins will be prompted to register for MFA before they can access the Azure portal, Microsoft Entra admin center, or Intune admin center on their next sign-in.

For more information, refer to: Planning for mandatory multifactor authentication for Azure and admin portals.

• MC862873 – Take action: Enable multifactor authentication for your tenant before October 15, 2024 | Microsoft 365 Message Center Archive

Microsoft is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated .NET Conf 2024, a free, 3-day virtual developer event celebrating the release of .NET 9. Co-organized by the .NET community and Microsoft, this annual tradition continues to grow, and we’re more excited than ever to bring you the latest innovations in .NET.

Mark your calendars for November 12th to 14th, 2024, and prepare to be inspired by a wealth of knowledge, creativity, and community engagement.

• .NET Conf 2024 – Celebrating the Release of .NET 9! – Save the Date!
  https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/dotnet-conf-2024-celebrating-the-release-of-dotnet-9-save-the-date/ #dotnet
  

Live from PyCon US 2024, the largest Python conference in the world, Microsoft returned to the Expo hall as a Sustaining sponsor with lots of fun presentations, knee deep in the code, and sharing the latest and greatest of what we do in the Python work.

Watch our 6 PyCon 2024 session recordings here!

• Microsoft at PyCon US 2024 – June 28, 2024
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/microsoft-at-pycon-us-2024/

Learn more about what Microsoft is doing in the Python Community.

• Python Community at Microsoft
  https://aka.ms/python

Take a look at the image below: Notice the watermark imprinted on the opened document with the current user’s identity, “jholloway@contoso.com”?

That’s a “dynamic watermark”.

Explore the latest advancement in information protection: Dynamic Watermarking for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This innovative feature helps organizations mitigate the risk of data leaks via “analog loopholes” by deterring users from photographing their screens while displaying confidential information. Delve into our recent blog post for detailed insights into this new functionality.

If you work with sensitive or confidential documents, you know how vital it is to prevent any leaks of information from these documents. Sensitivity labels from Microsoft Purview Information Protection offer a highly effective way to limit access to sensitive files and prevent people from taking inappropriate actions with them, such as printing a document, while still allowing for full collaboration.

However, it’s still possible for someone to take a picture of a sensitive file on their screen or of a presentation being shared either online or in-person. (Some forms of screenshotting cannot be blocked with existing technology.) This loophole presents a simple way to bypass the protections that sensitivity labels place on a document. Dynamic watermarking can be a potent weapon in combatting these kinds of leaks.

Read more here:

• Introducing dynamic watermarking for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
  https://insider.microsoft365.com/en-us/blog/introducing-dynamic-watermarking-for-word-excel-and-powerpoint