| Welcome to April's Security Newsletter! |
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The theme of this month's newsletter is network security. These days there are plenty of security considerations to keep network architects and administrators busy including DMZ designs, firewall configurations, securing service accounts, protecting the network from the risks of unmanaged mobile devices—the list goes on and on. We have plenty of useful content in this month's newsletter to help, including a great new article on DNSSEC by Greg Lindsay from the Windows Server team.
We've also made some significant improvements to the Security Bulletin Search Tool. You can now filter bulletins by product, component, bulletin number, bulletin KB number, update package KB number, or CVE number. You can also search for bulletins within a specific date range, and download more comprehensive information about the security bulletins. Read the Security Bulletin Search Tool FAQ for more details. |
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 | | Best regards,
Tim Rains, Director
Microsoft Trustworthy Computing | |
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Microsoft Security Compliance Manager 2.5 Now Available
Manage configuration drift, address compliance requirements, and reduce security threats in your organization's IT environment, traditional data center, and private cloud. Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) 2.5 includes a number of new and updated security baselines including baselines for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 and Windows 7 Service Pack 1. |
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Trust in Computing Research Series
Microsoft recently kicked off a research project to examine some of the current trends in computing and technology and how they affect people's trust in technology: consumerization of IT, social networking, the growing use of smartphones for Internet connectivity, cloud computing, global position satellite (GPS) location data—all of these and more weren't even part of the landscape or discussions ten years ago. Check out the introduction to the series for more details on the project, then delve into specific insights on computing and the Internet and computing behavior trends by audience. |
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Mobile Computing: Be on the Lookout for Mobile Malware
Check out this month's edition of TechNet Magazine for an ethical hacker's view on the dangers of mobile malware and the steps you can take to protect your mobile workforce. |
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Two-Year Countdown: Windows XP and Office 2003 End of Support
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will officially end support for Windows XP and Office 2003. If you still have PCs running Windows XP and Office 2003 in your organization, learn why now would be a good time to start migrating those PCs to Windows 7 and Office 2010 (instead of waiting until the next versions of Windows and Office are available). |
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Security Tip of the Month: DNSSEC and DNS Amplification Attacks
A DNS amplification attack (aka DNS reflection attack) is a type of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that takes advantage of the fact that a small DNS query can generate a much larger response. Learn how, combined with source address spoofing, an attacker can direct a large volume of network traffic to a target system by initiating relatively small DNS queries so that you can better protect your network from this type of attack. |
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Windows Server 2008 R2: Certificates Drive RDS Security
Learn how certificates play a huge role in securing connections between Remote Desktop Services hosts and clients. |
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Tracking DNS Record Deletion
Have you ever faced a situation where few or many (important) DNS records disappear from a DNS zone and you were left to wonder who or what deleted those records? This post outlines a DNS auditing configuration that can help identify the root cause of DNS record deletion, or at least narrow it down. |
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Windows Networking: Secrets of Windows Event Auditing
The need for access control, regulatory compliance and network complexity makes event auditing more important than ever before. Learn how to configure Windows event logs to capture critical security events such as creating user account and security group membership changes. |
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IPv6 Survival Guide
Quickly locate technical articles, videos, deployment guides, and other resources—including the popular, "IPv6 Security Considerations and Recommendations"—with this TechNet Wiki survival guide. |
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Design Your PKI for DirectAccess
A DirectAccess deployment needs a public key infrastructure (PKI) to issue certificates to DirectAccess clients, the DirectAccess server, selected servers, and the network location server. Explore design considerations for DirectAccess in Windows Server 2008 R2. |
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Windows Server "8" Beta Networking
Explore new and updated networking technologies in Windows Server "8" Beta including enhanced support for DNSSEC, IPv6, remote access, and Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. |
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Reduce the Operational Risk When Defending the Open Network with Microsoft PKI
In an "open" network, where network resources exist inside and outside the corporate firewall, protection from malicious threats is a constant concern for system administrators. Proper identification, authentication, and authorization play an important role in the defense of open network resources such as websites, XML Web services, extranets, and remote access capabilities. PKI security technology, such as smart cards, machine certificates, wireless security, rights management services, and protected remote access, are all possible approaches to improve the security and productivity while working to reduce the operational risk to the network. This paper discusses the challenges inherent in securing the open network and provides details about a secure solution the problem: Microsoft PKI. |
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Network Access Protection using DHCP in Windows Server 2008 R2
In today's IT, data integrity and information security is the major concern among the system administrators thanks to the increasing number of highly sophisticated and coordinated attacks that can rip away (within hours) a company's reputation and customer trust that took years to build. This article will help you understand how Network Access Protection (NAP) can play an important role in reducing such attacks by providing system administrators with more flexible and granular control over who is able to access the network. |
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New Videos from the Cloud Fundamentals Series
Learn about industry collaborations, cloud-based security frameworks, cloud standards programs, and more with the latest videos from the Trustworthy Computing Cloud Fundamentals Series: |
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| This Month's Security Bulletins |  |  | |
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Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for April 2012
Critical Important |
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April 2012 Security Bulletin Resources:
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| Security Events and Training | | | |
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Security Development Conference 2012
May 15-16, 2012 – Washington, D.C.
Register today for the inaugural Security Development Conference 2012 (SDC 2012). Hosted by Microsoft, this event will bring together professionals from a variety of organizations to learn from security experts, build networks, and learn how to evolve their own SDL principles into practices. SDC 2012 will include information for leaders in security engineering, business decision makers, and management who are responsible for accelerating the adoption and effectiveness of SDL practices within their own organizations. |
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TechEd North America 2012
June 11-14, 2012 – Orlando, Florida
This year's Security & Identity track provides guidance and technical detail on Microsoft Forefront products, identity-based access technologies, Windows security technologies, and more. Explore the top reasons you should attend this year's conference and register today to secure your spot. |
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MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-642): Configuring Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure (2nd Edition)
Work at your own pace through a series of lessons and reviews that fully cover each objective of Exam 70-642. Then, reinforce what you've learned by applying your knowledge to real-world case scenarios and practice exercises. This official Microsoft study guide is designed to help make the most of your study time. |
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Windows Server 2008 Networking and Network Access Protection (NAP)
Get the official resource for deploying, administering, and troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 networking and NAP. This book and DVD provides detailed information about all major networking and network security services, including NAP, authentication infrastructure, IPv4 and IPv6, remote access, virtual private networks, IP security, quality of service, scalable networking, wireless infrastructure and security, DNS, DHCP, Windows Firewall, and more. |
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| Upcoming Security Webcasts | | |
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For IT Professionals:
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For Developers:
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