Category: Hosted Services

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Office 365 to get enhanced Anti-spoofing capabilities

Enhanced anti-spoofing safeguards are rolling out for Office 365.

Microsoft services like OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Teams are closely guarded by ATP (Advanced Threat Protection). Besides, there are numerous feature updates available in Office 365 threat protection service to address the evolution and advances in the threat landscape. The addition of enhanced Anti-Spoofing capability in Office ATP for protecting against spoofed emails from external domains further strengthens this security framework.

Anti-spoofing in Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection

The newest anti-spoof features help protect organizations from external domain spoof. Office 365 recognizes emails from external domains having proper SPF, DMARC, and DKIM authentication settings as legitimate/authentic and therefore allow them to pass authentication, uninterrupted.

This normal process is however challenged when external domains do not have these settings properly configured. Without enforcement of these settings, domains show a high likelihood of being manipulated and maliciously spoofed, leaving customers vulnerable to phishing or spam attacks. The new external domain anti-spoofing capabilities help detect and block emails from external domains that do not have the following features,

Correct authentication configuration
An email infrastructure source with an unknown history

How does it work?

A newly enhanced filter in ATP first checks if the email from external domains, passes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC test. If not, the filter thoroughly checks for historical sending patterns of that domain and associated infrastructure. If any suspicious behavior is noted, ATP assumes the sender does not bear a good reputation and as such, proceeds to junk the message.

Also, a feature worth noticing about Anti-spoofing – The filter constantly evolves and enhances itself based on mail flow patterns it observes. ATP subscribers can access the spoof intelligence report in their Antispam Policy and take necessary actions if required.

How to access Compliance Manager by Office 365

Compliance Manager is now available

Compliance Manager is a cross-Microsoft-cloud services feature designed to help organizations meet complex compliance obligations, including GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, NIST 800-53, and HIPAA. Compliance Manger is rolling out and has been moved from Public Preview to General Availability.

How to access Compliance Manager?

Users can access Compliance Manager by signing into their Office 365, Dynamics 365, or Azure user account via the Service Trust Portal. This new compliance solution is designed to help organizations meet their data protection and regulatory requirements while using Microsoft cloud services. Compliance Manager enables users to perform on-going risk assessments, gain actionable insights to improve data protection capabilities, and simplifies compliance processes through its built-in control management and audit-ready reporting tools.

Compliance Manager is now generally available for Azure, Dynamics 365, and Office 365 Business and Enterprise subscribers in public clouds. Note that Office 365 GCC customers can access Compliance Manager, however, you should evaluate whether to use the document upload feature of compliance manager, as the storage for document upload is currently compliant with Office 365 Tier C only.

What do I need to do to prepare for this change?

By default, everyone in your organization with an Office 365, Dynamics 365 or Azure user account has access to Compliance Manager and can perform any action in Compliance Manager. To change the default permissions, at least one user must be added to each Compliance Manager role (see the instructions on our support page linked from Additional Information below). After a user is added to a role, the default permissions are removed and only users that have been added to a role will be able to access Compliance Manager and perform the actions allowed by that role.

Once you log into Compliance Manager you will see a number of assessments and what Microsoft has completed for the various assessments. You will also see what controls your organization are responsible for. You can export the assessment to excel if you need to provide it for an auditor or wish to save it for retention purposes.

Once in an assessment, you can update what your organization is doing to meet the requirements for the various supported standards. This gives you the ability to track your compliance activities. Some organization may already have GRC tracking software but they will find this tool useful if for no other reason to see the results of Microsoft Managed controls.

If Microsoft allowed you to have an assessment for your on-premises systems. Like a blank questionnaire, clients could use it might be able to replace a GRC app for some companies.

When updating the Customer Managed Controls you have the ability to upload documents, lookup the related controls, assign an assessor, a test date and document the test results.

Microsoft provides you with detailed guidance for customer actions and allows you to document your control implementation details along with a test plan and any response to the assessment.

There is a Compliance Score that, “is a new intelligent scoring feature that is calculated based on an analysis of industry standard control components. Compliance Manager analyzes controls for their the impact to the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of protected data, as well as external drivers in order to weigh controls based on their impact.”

We think this is a great tool especially for small to medium businesses and local governments. Most often these smaller organizations don’t have formal governance practices or necessary skills in-house. This tool could help them develop those processes. We also see this as a great tool or internal auditors to use. It gives businesses a place to document the testing methods and results.

Office 365: New capabilities for iPad and iPhone

New features make Office and OneDrive the best place to work on iPad and iPhone

More and more, people around the world are working on the go, changing locations and devices as they create and collaborate with others throughout their day. As they work across their PCs, Macs and mobile devices, they expect an uncompromising experience that is familiar yet optimized for the device they are using.

Microsoft is committed to providing best in class experiences on all devices, and today, we are proud to share with you a set of new Office capabilities across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive on iOS that will delight and make iPad and iPhone users more productive than ever before.

Real-time co-authoring in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on iOS – We live in a world where we’re often collaborating with multiple people in different locations and Office 365 provides the broadest and deepest toolkit for collaboration between individuals, teams, and entire organizations. Using real-time co-authoring, colleagues, friends, and family can contribute to and edit documents simultaneously in the Word, Excel and PowerPoint iOS apps. This allows you to know who else is working with you in a document, see where they’re working, and view changes automatically within seconds. The co-authoring experiences are also available in Office Online and the latest versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the PC and Mac, all made possible by storing your documents in OneDrive or SharePoint.

Drag and drop files anywhere with OneDrive – Sometimes your files can get scattered between different folders or even services and applications. Now it’s easier than ever to organize and rearrange your files. You can drag files in between folders in OneDrive and, if your teammates use SharePoint to work together, you can even drag OneDrive files to a SharePoint site giving them immediate access. On iPad, you can also drag files from other apps, such as iMessage, into your OneDrive and drag files out of your OneDrive to other apps.

Drag and drop content between Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive on iPad – One of the most common and powerful tasks when creating content is pulling in text, photos, graphs, and other objects from different sources. Now you can pull in content with ease on your iPad with drag and drop support in Office and OneDrive. Easily drag and drop objects from OneDrive or from one Office app to another.

OneDrive Files app support – Today we’re also announcing native support for the Files app in iOS 11. OneDrive integration with the Files app allows you to access, upload, edit, and save your content to OneDrive or SharePoint from apps that support Files app integration. You can also tag and favorite your OneDrive and SharePoint files from within the Files app.

OneDrive redesigned to find the files that matter – The OneDrive iOS app has been redesigned from the ground up with a new layout that uses your screen space more efficiently allowing you to find your files faster. It’s easier to scan across file names, see the information that matters to you, and sort files how you want. New metadata is visible in the list view, so you can easily identify new files and files that have been shared.

Universal link support for shared files – Being able to seamlessly share and securely access files is essential for teamwork. Previously when you received a link to a shared file, you would be directed to a browser and prompted to re-authenticate. Today, we are announcing universal link support, which will open the document directly in the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint iOS apps. Further, if you don’t have a supporting application for the file, you’ll be directed to the OneDrive app to preview the file.

Preview 130+ file types in your OneDrive app – You and the people you work with use a variety of different file formats, but when you’re on your mobile device you might not have access to the native applications for those files. Now, the OneDrive iOS app creates crisp thumbnails and supports large previews of over 130 file types, including Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, RAW, 3D objects, and high-precision DICOM images. OneDrive lets you open, view, and share all of your files without leaving the app.

New accessibility features for Word, Excel and PowerPoint on iOS 11
The VoiceOver rotor in iOS improves navigation and the accessibility of content. For example, you can use the built-in rotor on iOS to navigate line-by-line or word-by-word and change the speed at which VoiceOver speaks. The new Office-specific rotors also let people with vision impairments navigate more efficiently in Word across tables and links, slides in PowerPoint, and sheets in Excel.

Users can also leverage larger text options in accessibility settings to modify the text size in the core Office apps. Visit the support pages for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint to learn more.

You can use take advantage of these new capabilities in the coming days by updating the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive apps in the Apple App Store.

Stay Organized With Easy Access to Online Calendars

Stay organized and in control with 24/7 access with Personal or Group Online Calendar.

Never forget an appointment, birthday or anniversary again. Now it’s easy to keep track of family activities, events and important dates. Need help at the office? Personal and Group Online Calendar makes it a snap to share your calendar, projects and files so all your employees are informed and up to date. Find times when everyone is available to meet, manage company resources, and much more!

Overview

Easy, 24/7 Access – Access your online calendar anytime, anywhere you have an Internet connection.
Password Protect – Keep personal information and details of your calendar private and secure.
Upload Files – Share files with group members or individuals invited to an event.
Event Reminder – Schedule automatic reminder messages via email or pop-up notification.
Task Management – Create and manage your own personal “To Do” list – or keep track of business projects. Set start and end dates and track tasks to completion.
Task Sharing – For projects that require work from multiple people, Task Sharing keeps everyone “up to speed” on project status.
Email Integration – Send and receive meeting requests and easily add them to your Microsoft Outlook calendar.
NEW! Integrate with popular 3rd party calendars – Easily add your events to Google Calendar, iCal or even your iPhone calendar.
Email Invitation – Invite individuals to attend meetings or events.
Print Options – Choose from multiple print formats for your schedule: daily, weekly, monthly and more!
Schedule Resources – No more wasting time tracking down available meeting rooms or other equipment like laptops and projectors.
Check User Availability – Easily see when others in your group have free time.
Administrator Control – Delegate control by choosing which members have full administrative access to all Group Calendars.
Time Zones – Supports 547 Time Zones.
Holidays – Automatically add major holidays to your personal calendar. Choose from 14 holiday collections suited to various countries and nationalities – or create and customize your own favorite days!

3 Online Calendar Plans To Choose From

Online Calendar Plan

Call (888) 505-1532 to get started now

GoDaddy Hacked, Millions of Sites Down

GoDaddy.com, the largest domain name registrar on the Web, has been taken offline, and a self-proclaimed member of the Anonymous hacktivism collective is taking responsibility.

The administrators of GoDaddy confirmed on Monday that they were suffering from technical issues, which the website TechCrunch reports to be impacting a multitude of websites and their affiliated email accounts that are hosted through the service. Although the company has not discussed the specifics yet, a self-described member of Anonymous says that he or she is responsible, a claim that has not been verified yet.

On Twitter, user @AnonymousOwn3r writes, “the attack is not coming from Anonymous coletive [sic] , the attack it’s coming only from me” and that the the action is being carried out “to test how the cyber security is safe and for more reasons that i can not talk now.”

GoDaddy has tweeted, “We’re aware of the trouble people are having with our site. We’re working on it.”

On Friday, it was reported that the White House is preparing to roll out an cyber security Executive Order that will serve as a surrogate until Congress can come to agreement on a bipartisan legislation to protect America’s computer infrastructure.

Earlier this year, GoDaddy announced that they would be supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, a controversial legislation that if approved would have greatly changed the US government’s ability to monitor the Internet. The company eventually reversed their stance, but not before a massive protest resulted in many of their clients switching to other domain registrars. The boycott reportedly ended with thousands of GoDaddy’s millions of customers, including Wikipedia, cancelling their accounts.

Founded in 1997, Arizona-based GoDaddy.com is used by millions of customers worldwide, including a large number of small businesses. At 4 p.m. EST, GoDaddy tweeted, “Update: Still working on it, but we’re making progress. Some service has already been restored. Stick with us.”

Other social media accounts affiliated with Anonymous have not confirmed the validity of the alleged culprit’s claim and have largely distanced themselves from the hack. GoDaddy’s 24-hour tech support telephone line has also been inaccessible during the duration of the outage.

Hosted Web Server Maintenance

Our server will be coming down at 1 A.M on Friday, June 14th, 2013 as part of our planned maintenance for space efficiency. Due to the physical relocation of the servers, we cannot provide a precise time frame for this maintenance however we expect this to take between 2 to 3 hours. Our technicians have performed this maintenance several times and have established a process to minimize the outage period during the moves. We apologize for any inconveniences caused by this maintenance.

Maintenance Window: 1 A.M. – 6 A.M. (EST) on Friday, June 14, 2013.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

(856)745-9990 or support@sjtechies.com

Microsoft OneDrive for Business

OneDrive (formerly “SkyDrive”) in an essential tool for the Office 365 package. OneDrive provides safe data storage that can be easily accessed from virtually anywhere. Although, this storage option is safe, it is not practical for business use.

OneDrive for Business (formerly “SkyDrive Pro”) offers a administrative controls with a content management platform. OneDrive for Business allow IT Administrators/Departments to control the intellectual property of their business(es).

Improved features for OneDrive for Business include a menu bar to easily access frequent tools and controls, search bar with type-ahead feature to quickly find files and many more. Additional features such as, higher storage limits, encryption on stored data, data loss prevention features and many more will be released throughout 2014.

Currently, OneDrive for Business is included with Office 365 and SharePoint package plans. Microsoft announced that as of April 1, 2014 OneDrive for Business, as well as other services/software, will be available as a standalone cloud service for $5 a month per user.

Category: Hosted Services

Office 365 to get enhanced Anti-spoofing capabilities