Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5 and Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5 Security customers can get a data grant of up to 5 MB per user per day of Microsoft 365 data ingestion into Microsoft Sentinel.

Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5, and Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5 Security customers can receive a data grant of up to 5MB per user per day to ingest Microsoft 365 data. This offer includes the following data sources:

• Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) sign-in and audit logs
• Microsoft Cloud App Security shadow IT discovery logs
• Microsoft Information Protection logs
• Microsoft 365 advanced hunting data

The data grant will be calculated automatically and applied to your bill, covering the cost of up to 5 MB of data ingestion per user per day.

In addition to this data grant, the following Microsoft 365 data sources are always free for all Microsoft Sentinel users:

• Azure Activity Logs
• Office 365 Audit Logs (all SharePoint activity and Exchange admin activity)
• Alerts from Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.

¹Calculation based on pay-as-you-go prices for Microsoft Sentinel and Azure Monitor Log Analytics for US East region. Exact savings will depend on benefit utilization and customer’s effective price after any applicable discounts.

• Microsoft 365 E5 benefit offer with Microsoft Sentinel
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/offers/sentinel-microsoft-365-offer/

We have a new Microsoft Defender for Cloud newsletter available for customers.

The newsletter highlights updates, events & other “Defender for Cloud” centric communications.  This months’ newsletter for example highlights:

• The new “Defender Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)”
• Attack path analysis and contextual security capabilities in Defender for Cloud
• Agentless scanning for Azure and AWS machines
• The new “Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark”
• The new “Defender for DevOps”
• Microsoft Ignite sessions on-demand

To enroll in the newsletter, visit:

• Subscribe to the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Newsletter
  http://aka.ms/MDfCNewsSubscribe

This morning, Microsoft Ignite 2022 kicked off – Microsoft’s IT Professional, Architect & Developer’s conference – and if you’re interested in knowing what what’s going on, you can start with https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/.

(Reminder: Microsoft Ignite is completely free for remote participants! You do need to register first however at https://register.ignite.microsoft.com/)

SURFACE EVENT:
We also had a special “Microsoft Surface Launch – Oct 2022” event this morning at 7:00AM (PST).

We announced 3 new devices for professionals and a variety of technologies never before seen! If you’d like to see that event in full, check out https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/event.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS:
If you’re interested in all of Microsoft announcements, check out the following:

• Microsoft Ignite 2022 – Main Site
  https://news.microsoft.com/ignite-2022/
• Microsoft Ignite 2022 – "Book of News": (“All Microsoft’s announcements”)
  https://news.microsoft.com/ignite-2022-book-of-news/

RECOMMENDED SESSIONS:
If you’re interested in the sessions: 

Microsoft Ignite 2022 session lists: ("What you should check out")

• Complete Microsoft Ignite Session Catalog here.
• Power Platform featured sessions here.
• Power BI featured sessions (and announcements) here.
• Security & Compliance featured sessions here.
• Identity featured sessions here.
• Teams & Collaboration sessions here. (Blog post here)
• Endpoint Management sessions here.
• Windows featured sessions here.
• Azure Network Security sessions here.
• Viva, Syntex, SharePoint, OneDrive, Lists, Stream, Project here.
• Microsoft 365 administration here.
• Azure App Innovation here.
• Modern Infrastructure (On-prem & Azure, File Services, IIS, etc.) here.
• Azure Infrastructure here.
• Government centric sessions here.
• Surface & Devices sessions here.
• MSIX App Packaging here.
• Power Automate & Automation here.
• Windows 365 specific sessions here.
• Dynamics 365 "Into Focus" session here.
• Industry-focused sessions – including on-demand Government sessions – here.

Have you completed our BlueHat conference planning survey?

If not, please do so. It only takes a few minutes and will help us ensure we’re creating an event that best meets the needs of the security research community.  Thank you!

• BlueHat Conference Planning Survey
  https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=v4j5cvGGr0GRqy180BHbR2wXkgo5QPhCgoMLy0t9xQxUQVBRM1laWkRHN1QzNlBCSVdVQTlPR0o5WC4u

(Visit the Bluehat site on Microsoft’s web site at https://www.microsoft.com/bluehat/

Have you ever seen your CPU fan spin up to 100% and when you look at Task Manager, you see high CPU usage by Microsoft Defender (msmpeng.exe) but when you open up Defender, it’s not running a full scan?

1. Launch
   New-MpPerformanceRecording -recordto c:\1.etl
2. Let the process run for bit
3. Launch
   Get-MpPerformanceReport c:\1.etl -topprocesses 100

I saw this technique posted by SwiftOnSecurity and he/she discovered that “Dell SupportAssist was poking all EXE files on the drive, triggering on-access scans” by Defender.

DEFENDER PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS TRAINING
SwiftOnSecurity recommended reading the training module, “Performance Analyzer for Microsoft Defender Antivirus” for all Microsoft Defender administrators – including plain Microsoft Defender Antivirus, as well as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Quote: “You should baseline your machines at idle and see what is causing spurious activity you haven’t tuned for.”

Microsoft OneNote, the best cloud-enabled notetaking solution, is still available completely free for Windows (32 or 64), Mac, iOS, Android & Web. Syncs to OneDrive for central backup & highly extensible. An absolutely critical tool in my arsenal.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft OneNote
  http://onenote.com/download 

Assuming you already have OneNote installed and in use, let’s go over a few cool tools & tricks to have up your sleeve to become a Power User.

ONENOTEGEM
OneNote is also supported by a great ecosystem of utilities, add-ins & tools.  Here’s one of my favorite companies that make 3rd party add-ins – OneNoteGem. They make an number of killer add-ins for OneNote including:

• Gem for OneNote
• OneNote Gem – Favorites
• OneNote Batch
• MindMap for OneNote

ONETASTIC
Another great tool is OneTastic – a programmable macro tool for OneNote.  Imagine automating keystrokes & menu clicks for quick execution of repetitive tasks in OneNote:  That’s OneTastic.  And they have a massive library of macros called Macroland – pre-created for you to use.

OneTastic has the main tool for a subscription fee and they also make available OneCalendar, a FREE tool to help you see all the OneNote pages you’ve edited over the past month.

• OneCalendar

POWER AUTOMATE & ONENOTE CONNECTOR
Something some folks don’t know is you can create workflows & automations that trigger on OneNote activity using Microsoft Power Automate. Here’s some flow samples & documentation:

• OneNote (Business) | Microsoft Power Automate

OCCUPATIONAL USE CASES
OneNote is great for IT Professionals, students/teachers, project managers, lawyers & legal staff, administrative professionals, creative writers & content developers.  Here’s some of the many articles written on using OneNote in various capacities:

• Five Ways Writers Can Use Microsoft OneNote to Improve their Writing Lives
• 7 Reasons Every Lawyer Needs OneNote
• Top 8 Tricks to Use OneNote as Project Management
• Turn Outlook Into a Project Management Tool With OneNote Integration
• OneNote for Education – Interactive Guides
• OneNote for Administrative Professionals
• How to Use Microsoft OneNote for Work

For those of you that depend on OneNote like I do – but write too many pages and lose track of where all those pages are, this is a tool I use that lists out all the OneNote pages that you wrote/edited over the past month in a calendar view.

The tool is for Windows, completely free and can be pinned to your Taskbar for quick access.  You can:

• Configure the font size to fit lots of notes in a single day
• Configure the display to show pages on the created date, the last modified date or both
• Show OneNote page previews when you hover over the title of a note
• Select which notebooks to display

Download the tool here:

• OneCalendar – Onetastic
  https://getonetastic.com/download/OneCal

I guess I forgot to post this a year ago to this blog.  Shame on me. 

Dave Weston, Microsoft Vice President of Enterprise OS Security & noted “Hacker-in-Chief” at Microsoft, did a demo where he demonstrated how Windows 10 (and prior Windows releases) can be compromised either remotely or with physical access… and how Windows 11 protects against such attacks.

Stay ahead of external and internal threats — and balance performance, reliability, and security with Windows 11. Dave Weston, Windows security expert, joins Jeremy Chapman to share the rationale behind hardware requirements and how they provide significantly more protection against today’s most sophisticated malware and attacks.

Cyber attacks are at an all time high. Many of the optional or high-end security controls from Windows 10 are now on by default and required on new machines with Windows 11. The Zero Trust security model is baked into Windows 11, from the silicon on the board itself, to the actual boot process, your login as a user, and the apps you use in your Windows session every day.

• See the sites that hackers use, and find out if your organization is exposed.
• Protect Windows from remote and in-person attacks with Virtualization-based Security.
• UEFI, Secure Boot and Trusted Boot stop rootkits or bootkits.
• Secure encryption keys, user credentials, and sensitive data behind a hardware barrier. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0 on new installs by default.

…

Watch the video here:

• Windows 11 Security — Our Hacker-in-Chief Runs Attacks and Shows Solutions
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-mechanics-blog/windows-11-security-our-hacker-in-chief-runs-attacks-and-shows/ba-p/2813193

Here’s 4 solutions we provide that address the needs of Windows users & Developers that want configurable, remotely-accessible Windows 10/11 workstations hosted in the cloud.

1. Azure Virtual Desktop
   https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/virtual-desktop/
   Microsoft’s Enterprise cloud-hosted VDI offering.  A fully IT-managed Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platform with complete configurability for OS, software & hardware. Optionally available for integration with 3^rd party tools including Citrix XenDesktop, VMware Horizon, and other historically on-prem 3^rd party VDI solutions.  Costs are determined based on monthly usage & configuration.  The original Microsoft hosted desktop offering and the one with the greatest maturity & largest ecosystem.
2. Microsoft Windows 365
   https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365
   Provides a Windows 10/11 virtual machine and persists the user’s personalized apps, content, and settings—from the Microsoft cloud to any device.  Uniquely available in “t-shirt sizes” providing a flat monthly price for each subscribed VM, ranging from $31-$66/month depending on configuration – with the caveat that there is very little flexibility in hardware configuration beyond what initial VM option is chosen.  With different options available for small & medium businesses vs Enterprise-class customers, Windows 365 provides a turnkey solution for individuals and organizations looking for a balance between predictable costs as well as VM-level flexibility.
3. Microsoft Dev Box – Virtual Machines for Developers
   https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-microsoft-dev-box-preview/
   Service that provides hosted Windows hardware & software tailored to development work. Enables quick provisioning of standard tools & platform software for developers in a hosted environment.  Leverages Windows 365 as the backend.  Full hosted Windows VM – full control over the hosted environment to install applications like SQL Server.  Can be managed using Intune/Endpoint Manager.  Works with any IDE and any source control system that runs on Windows.  Can be managed using Intune, Endpoint Manager or the Azure portal.
   (Video overview of Dev Box is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyeuSpR74W4_
4. Github Codespaces
   https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/codespaces
   GitHub Codespaces provides cloud-powered development environments for any activity – whether it’s a long-term project, or a short-term task like reviewing a pull request. You can work with these environments from Visual Studio Code or in a browser-based editor but Visual Studio’s IDE is not yet available.  As a fully managed environment created in the cloud, Codespaces does not enable modifications to the operating environment like Dev Box does but also absolved the developer of the complexity of an unmanaged environment.
   (Video overview of Github Codespaces is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VQ8OlwbqI)
   Note: Visual Studio Online was renamed to Visual Studio Codespaces then subsequently merged into Github Codespaces.

Wanna take Azure classes from Microsoft’s own Deployment Engineering team?  Get ready to register for “Learn Live: FastTrack for Azure”.

Learn along with expert Azure engineers as they walkthrough hands-on exercises, share demos, and answer your questions to connect the dots and accelerate your Azure solution implementation. This interactive and on-demand series will cover a variety of Azure solution areas as directly requested by customers. Our engineers are eager to help you gain skills and apply them on your learning and deployment journey, including answering your questions.

Join us for this live learning experience where you will be guided by subject matter experts through the Learn modules below in real time along with developers around the globe. Earn badges, prepare for certifications and Learn Live with a great community! See you there 🙂

The following classes are scheduled & registration is first come, first served – and NO, I can’t get you in if it’s booked full, so register now!

• AKS Security Best Practices: September 13, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Azure ML Enterprise Deployment: September 27, 2022 2:00PM – 3:30PM (Australian Eastern)
• Azure Governance: September 29, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Azure Networking Fundamentals: October 4, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Modern Service Operations: October 18, 2022 2:00PM – 3:30PM (Australian Eastern)
• CI/CD automation for building, testing, and deploying Apps to Azure: October 25, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Deliver remote desktops and apps with Azure Virtual Desktop: November 1, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• AKS Operations Best Practices: November 8, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Microsoft Identity Platform: November 15, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Azure Monitoring: November 29, 2022 10:00AM – 11:30AM (Pacific)
• Microsoft Purview Data Governance : December 6, 2022 4:00PM – 5:30PM (Pacific)
• SQL Migrations – Part 1 – Discovery, Assessment and Remediation: December 13, 2022 3:00PM – 4:30PM (Australian Eastern)
• SQL Migrations – Part 2 – Plan, Migrate and Optimize: December 15, 2022 3:00PM – 4:30PM (Australian Eastern)

For descriptions of each class, visit:

• TRAINING: “Learn Live: FastTrack for Azure”
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/events/learn-events/learnlive-fasttrack-azure/