Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Introducing “Microsoft 365 Backup” for backup/recovery of your OneDrive, SharePoint & Exchange Online data at unprecedented speed with a restore SLA & keeping within the Microsoft 365 security boundary.

✅ Introducing Microsoft 365 Backup
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sharepoint-premium-blog/welcome-to-microsoft-inspire-2023-introducing-microsoft-365/ba-p/3874887
✅ Overview of Microsoft 365 Backup (Preview)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/backup/backup-overview
✅ Set up Microsoft 365 Backup (Preview)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/backup/backup-setup
✅ Microsoft 365 Backup – Adoption
https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-backup/

✅ Pricing
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/syntex-pay-as-you-go-services

Also, the most recent news from Microsoft Ignite 2023 includea details about the storage “Microsoft 365 Backup” uses & how this integrates with existing backup solutions like Rubrik, Commvault & Veaam.

✅ Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup Storage at Ignite 2023
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/microsoft-365-backup-and-microsoft-365-backup-storage-at-ignite/ba-p/3981049

#Microsoft #Microsoft365 #Backup

SharePoint eSignature is Microsoft’s first-party electronic signature service which allows users to easily request eSignatures on a #PDF document via SharePoint Online.  

Signers can easily add their electronic signature. Signed documents are saved securely back to SharePoint.

Rolling out to tenants now in the US. Other regions in 2024.

✅ Overview of Microsoft Syntex eSignature
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/esignature-overview

✅ Create a signature request using Microsoft Syntex eSignature
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/esignature-send-requests

✅ Set up Microsoft Syntex eSignature
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/esignature-setup

✅ SharePoint eSignature – Microsoft Adoption
https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-premium/esignature/

✅ Pay-as-you-go services and pricing for Microsoft Syntex
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/syntex-pay-as-you-go-services

#Microsoft #SharePoint #Syntex #eSignature

For cybersecurity professionals, it’s generally accepted that unsigned SMB networking & inbound NTLM authentication need to be eliminated from everyone’s networks.  Both are too unsafe to be allowed to exist.

The problem for cybersecurity professionals however has been that explaining the threat – relay attacks, Actor in the Middle, Pass the Hash, etc. – has been too difficult for decision makers in digest.  Even telling them that this is a fundamental ransomware threat hasn’t been enough to take action – leaving you, the security pro responsible, biting your nails on the sideline.

So we’ll be making the decision for them.

NEW SECURITY DEFAULTS FOR SMB & NTLM
Microsoft will be making SMB signing mandatory by default & we are removing and replacing NTLM by default. Both of these coming actions are officially public – see links below.

If you’re in cybersecurity & have leadership that hasn’t prioritized this for your organization, let them know that your organization can either preemptively test & disable unsigned SMB networking & inbound NTLM authentication now… or they can wait for Microsoft to do it for them.

• https://aka.ms/ntlm
• https://aka.ms/SMBSigningOBD
• https://aka.ms/SmbNtlmBlock

Many of the product groups here at Microsoft have documented what they consider to be their “can’t miss” sessions at the upcoming Microsoft Ignite 2023 conference – coming this November 14-17. (If you haven’t registered for the online/virtual event, you need to do so ASAP)

Here’s each of their respective "session guides”:

• Microsoft 365 Administrators
  Ignite 2023 – A look ahead for Microsoft 365 admins – Microsoft Community Hub
• IoT & Edge
  Lots of news to share about IoT and Edge at Microsoft Ignite 2023! – Microsoft Community Hub
• Identity & Network Access
  Get insights on identity and network access solutions at Microsoft Ignite, Nov 15-17 2023 – Microsoft Community Hub
• Governance & Privacy (Purview & Priva)
  Microsoft Ignite 2023 | Microsoft Purview and Priva
• Windows
  Windows at Microsoft Ignite 2023
• Microsoft 365
  Microsoft 365 Insiders guide to Microsoft Ignite 2023
• Intune
  Your guide to Intune at Microsoft Ignite 2023 | Microsoft Intune Blog
• Azure App Innovation
  Your guide to the Azure app innovation experience at Microsoft Ignite 2023 – Microsoft Community Hub
• Development (Visual Studio/.NET)
  Microsoft Ignite 2023 is around the corner! (Nov 14-17) – Visual Studio Blog
• Employee Experience (Viva)
  Participate in Microsoft Viva sessions at Microsoft Ignite next week – Microsoft Community Hub
• Security
• Digital security sessions at Microsoft Ignite to prepare you for the era of AI | Microsoft Security Blog
• Join the new Microsoft Security experience at Microsoft Ignite 2023 | Microsoft Security Blog
• Teams
  Get ready for the future of work with Microsoft Teams at Microsoft Ignite 2023 – Microsoft Community Hub
• Linux on Azure
  Linux on Azure at Microsoft Ignite 2023: What You Need to Know – Microsoft Community Hub
• IT Professionals (General)
  Our top Microsoft Ignite sessions for IT Pros – Microsoft Community Hub
• Outlook
  Outlook sessions at Microsoft Ignite
• NEW Azure Infrastructure
  IT professional’s guide to Azure Infrastructure at Microsoft Ignite 2023
• NEW SharePoint
  Microsoft SharePoint at Microsoft Ignite 2023 The pre-event Guide
• NEW Surface
  Microsoft Surface at Ignite 2023 – Microsoft Community Hub
• NEW CosmosDB
  Azure Cosmos DB at Ignite 2023: Chatbots, autoscale, MongoDB vCore and more! – Azure Cosmos DB Blog (microsoft.com)
• NEW Learn at Microsoft Ignite
  Microsoft Learn for Ignite | Microsoft Learn
• Partners
  Microsoft Ignite 2023 partner preview – Microsoft Community Hub

Providing feedback, suggestions or requests around Microsoft products & services is relatively simple. 

Simply go to the “Ideas community” (aka the “Feedback Portal”) at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com and you’ll see hundreds of communities – one for each product or service – where you can:

1. Search for other people’s submissions for your request
2. Vote up or Amplify a request submission to give it more attention
3. Submit your own feedback or suggestion
4. Review the status of a highly requested or in-demand suggestion

Our product groups use this forum for giving people updates on when a suggestion or request has been moved into the product roadmap & what it’s general status is  Fun fact: There’s even a feedback community for the actual “Feedback Portal” itself.  How meta.

• SITE: Feedback Portal
  https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com

ABOUT FEEDBACK FOR “WINDOWS”
The exception to the rule is that feedback around Windows OS itself, is submitted through the “Feedback Hub”, a built-in application within Windows 10 & 11 which enables easy submission of Windows-based feedback including screenshots.

• Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-the-feedback-hub-app-f59187f8-8739-22d6-ba93-f66612949332

Microsoft has just unveiled the Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a groundbreaking roadmap for tomorrow’s cybersecurity, innovatively crafted to protect our digital existence.

Here’s a sneak peek at the core pillars of the Secure Future Initiative (SFI):

• Faster Vulnerability Response: Proactive defenses and swift threat mitigation will define the new era of cybersecurity response times.
• Secure Identities: Next-level authentication mechanisms are set to create an unbreachable shield around user identities.
• Secure Development: Integrating security DNA into every strand of our development process, ensuring the software of tomorrow is safe today.

For a deeper dive, into these pillars and how they will shape our digital landscape, check out the insightful blog posts by Microsoft’s senior executives:

Detailed announcement by Microsoft President, Brad Smith:

• A new world of security: Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative – Microsoft On the Issues
  https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2023/11/02/secure-future-initiative-sfi-cybersecurity-cyberattacks/

Detailed blog by Microsoft Executive VP of Security, Charlie Bell:

• Announcing Microsoft Secure Future Initiative to advance security engineering | Microsoft Security Blog
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/11/02/announcing-microsoft-secure-future-initiative-to-advance-security-engineering/

Deep perspectives on Secure Future Initiative by Microsoft Corporate VP of Security, Vasu Jakkal:

• In the age of AI, security is global, geopolitical — and deeply personal | LinkedIn
  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/age-ai-security-global-geopolitical-deeply-personal-vasu-jakkal-taqwe/

(Image courtesy of Sameh Younis, Sr Microsoft Cybersecurity Specialist)

The release schedule for Microsoft artificial intelligence in US Government posted.  The GCC roadmap includes:

• Azure OpenAI Service for Government
  Q1 CY2024
  
• Microsoft 365 Copilot for Government 
  Summer 2024
  
• Teams Intelligent Recap for Government
  Spring 2024
• Open Source LLMs via Azure ML (Llama-2, etc.) for Government
  Available today
  

Read the full article here:

• Delivering Cutting-Edge AI Solutions to US Government – Azure Government
  https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azuregov/ai-solutions-for-us-government/

Teams Premium has made quite a name for itself, having thousand of customers in just a short time.  The showcase feature that attracts the most attention is usually “Intelligent Recap”.

• Intelligent Recap
• Text meeting summaries
• Automatic task generation
• Timeline markers for mentions, speakers, arrivals/departures
• AI generated notes & chapters
• Real-time translation captions

But there’s SO MUCH MORE to Teams Premium for:

• IT management & control
• Information & meeting security
• Engagement & sentiment analytics
• Appointment schedulers & assistance
• Webinar trainers & marketers

Here’s a quick 10minute overview of what else there is to experience with Teams Premium:

• VIDEO: Teams Premium Experiences
  https://youtu.be/zcfcDH4FbVo

Check some of these features out:

• Personalized experiences
• IT customizable Meeting templates
• Post-meeting audience analytics
• Custom user policy packages
• Advanced meeting information protection
• Watermarking for shared content & video
• End-to-end Encryption option for meetings (E2EE)
• Per-attendee Recording Restrictions
• M365 G5 Sensitivity labels for automatically present/enable “prevent copying” meeting confidentiality options
• End user experience monitoring
• Real-time meeting analytics & reporting for audio, video & sharing while meeting is in progress
• Organizational branding for meeting invites, join page
• Custom in-meeting backgrounds for organizations
• Organization together mode scenes
• Professional virtual appointments
• End-to-end customer appointments – SMS reminders, custom branded lobbies & join-by-web
• Appt management for scheduled & on-demand with pre-appt chat
• Analytics & reporting for trends, no-shows, wait times
• Mobile browser join without Teams download
• Professional, comprehensive webinars
• Waitlists, limit registration & manual approval
• Custom webinar confirmation emails
• Presenter Virtual Green Room
• Discuss & prepare & stage content behind the scenes
• Respond to chats & Q&A with attendees
• Managed webinar video & screen through webinar
• Microsoft eCDN for Teams Live Events
• Attendee engagement analytics

Read more here:

• Get Started with Microsoft Teams Premium
  https://aka.ms/setupTeamsPremium
• Overview of Microsoft Teams Premium
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/overview-of-microsoft-teams-premium-4b34cd18-fa16-4797-bae0-b96b13a54f52
• Microsoft Teams Premium – Overview for administrators
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/enhanced-teams-experience

This was actually released earlier this year but I forgot to post about it.  So here’s a summary of one of the lesser known secrets of Microsoft Teams, starting with the announcement:

Today, I am excited to introduce the Games for Work app,* developed by Microsoft Casual Games, an Xbox Games Studio.** Now, you can easily add a game in the context of where work happens: in Microsoft Teams meetings. Choose from a selection of favorite casual games including Microsoft IceBreakers, Wordament, Minesweeper, and Solitaire—all easy to play in quick, interactive, and multi-player versions (from 2 to 250 players). They are safe for work (verifiably “E” rated) and ad-free. To address the various needs of teams, each game within the app emphasizes a different element of team building.

VIDEOS ABOUT GAMES FOR WORK:
Seeing is believing so:

• Here’s a video that shows the games in action:
  https://youtu.be/fDJq1-jefIc
• Here’s a tutorial on using Games for Work:
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams/video-tutorial-how-to-use-the-microsoft-teams-games-for-work-app/m-p/3681168

FAQ:
A few things that I’ll add:

• Does “Games for Work” require a Microsoft Teams meeting?
  YES.  Games for Work is a Microsoft Teams meeting add-in.  It works when assigned to a previously scheduled meeting & run within an actual Teams meeting only.  It can also be added to a meeting during the meeting itself on the fly.
• Does this require a Microsoft 365 Enterprise subscription?
  YES.  This is only available to Microsoft 365 Enterprise & Education customers.
• Does this work with Microsoft Teams on Mobile devices or browsers?
  YES.  The apps scale to the form factor that is using it.  It works on iPhones, Android-based phones as well as tablets. It will also render in a browser when using Teams for the Web.
• Can you use Games for Work with people in other Microsoft 365 tenants?
  YES.  The Teams experience within a browser will render “Games for Work” games with people outside of your Microsoft 365 tenant.
• Can we disable/enable Games for Work for our tenant?
  YES.  Read the following post for details.
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams/how-to-use-and-disable-the-teams-games-for-work-app/m-p/3680971

Read the announcement for “Games for Work” with Microsoft Teams here:

• Build connections in Microsoft Teams with Games for Work, a new Microsoft Teams app| Microsoft 365 Blog
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2022/11/16/build-connections-with-games-for-work-a-new-microsoft-teams-app/