Microsoft 365: Administrators no longer receive passwords by email; unlicensed accounts are archived

Posted on 2024-07-31 by guenni

[German]A few more additions to Microsoft 365 in the last few days: Microsoft is burying the option for administrators to have a password sent to them by email when setting up or editing new Microsoft 365 user accounts. This option will be discontinued by the end of August 2024 at the latest. Microsoft also wants to automatically archive unlicensed OneDrive accounts with OneDrive for Business after 90 days. This will begin in 2024 (January to March).

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Microsoft Entra / MS 365 down (July 30, 2024)

Posted on 2024-07-30 by guenni

[German]Currently Microsoft is struggling with a hiccup in its cloud services. A reader informed me at around 2:29 pm (Central European Time) that Microsoft Entra had been unavailable since 2 hours. Here is a brief update on what is now known.

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Question: Where does Bitlocker store the recovery key in Windows?

Posted on 2024-07-30 by guenni

Windows[German]Bitlocker, the "unknown entity" I would like to paraphrase the blog post. It's about the question of where the Windows Bitlocker function actually stores the recovery key, which is needed from time to time. Before someone comes around with "in your Microsoft account", it's not always that simple. Blog reader Markus, who is an administrator, pointed out a special kind of observation in this context. Time to take another look at Bitlocker.

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Windows Server: Confirmed that July 2024 updates will break Remote Desktop

Posted on 2024-07-29 by guenni

Windows[German]With the security updates that Microsoft rolled out for Windows on July 9, 2024, there are problems with remote connections. I have received some reports that the Remote Desktop Gateway service is broken and regularly crashes under some Windows versions (Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022). Now Microsoft has officially confirmed these problems with remote connections.

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Exchange Online: Basic authentication for client transmission (SMTP AUTH) ends Sept. 2025

Posted on 2024-07-29 by guenni

Exchange Logo[German]I'm adding a topic to the blog that was announced by Microsoft back in April 2024, but hasn't yet received too much attention. A reader had already pointed this out to me some time ago. Microsoft will finally discontinue support for basic authentication with client submission (SMTP AUTH) in Exchange Online in September 2025. So anyone who uses this feature still has a year to react.

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Why ISL Online: Critical factors when choosing a remote desktop solution

[Sponsored Post]In the rapidly evolving IT world, choosing the right remote desktop software is critical for organizations that value security, ease of use and reliability. One provider of secure remote access that has been on the market since 2001 is ISL Online, which presents some considerations for choosing such software below. More ...

Possible Pinterest Dat leak with 6 Million affected user (July 2024)

Posted on 2024-07-28 by guenni

Sicherheit (Pexels, allgemeine Nutzung)[German]The Pinterest service has (probably) suffered a major data leak affecting its registered users. While it's not confirmed, security researchers from Surfshark have looked at the details and found that the USA and France are the most affected countries among the 6 million affected users. Overall are 6 million user accounts affected.

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CrowdStrike: Investigation report; amount of damages and compensation; attribution of blame

Posted on 2024-07-28 by guenni

Stop - Pixabay[German]Now that the initial dust has settled after the CrowdStrike incident, which paralyzed 8.5 million Windows systems following a faulty update, new information has emerged. CrowdStrike has presented an initial investigation report into what exactly happened. There are initial figures on the amount of damage and "compensation" has been announced by CrowdStrike. Microsoft points the finger of blame at the EU for not being able to secure everything better. And the BSI is calling on both CrowdStrike and Microsoft to do better.

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CrowdStrike incident: sensor failure as a previously unknown side effect?

Posted on 2024-07-27 by guenni

Stop - Pixabay[German]A faulty update to the CrowdStrike Falcon software brought around 8.5 million Windows computers to a standstill on July 19, 2024. The incident is already considered to be the world's largest computer failure to date and is likely to have caused billions in damage. Since Friday, administrators have been struggling to repair the failed systems and "clean-up operations" are underway. A blog reader contacted me at the weekend because, as an administrator, he had noticed some side effects that had not yet been mentioned publicly. Even after the repair of the BlueScreen behavior, Falcon Sensor agents may no longer be able to work. I'll put together some information in the blog post.

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Windows 11 22H2/23H2: OOBE Update KB5041655

Posted on 2024-07-27 by guenni

WindowsMicrosoft has released the Out of Box Experience Update KB5041655 for Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2 on July 25, 2024. This update improves the out-of-box experience (OOBE) of Windows 11 during installation. This update only applies to the Windows 11 OOBE process and is only available when OOBE updates are installed during the installation of the operating system. This installation is automatic if an Internet connection is available during the Windows OOBE process. (via)

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Windows 11 23H2/22H2: Preview Update KB5040527 (July 25, 2024)

Posted on 2024-07-26 by guenni

Windows[German]Microsoft has released the optional cumulative (preview) update KB5040527 for Windows 11 version 22H2 and 23H2 on June 25, 2024. This is an optional update whose fixes will be generally rolled out in the following month. For Windows 11 22H2, only the Education and Enterprise versions will receive the update.
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