Reminder: Bitcoins and the New Frontier (Cloud Computing) User Group Next Thursday.

November User Group Thursday 5th- Bitcoins and the New Frontier (Cloud Computing).

Starts: 5:45pm

Where: Microsoft Brisbane HQ Level 28

What started with a technology underpinning the Bitcoin digital currency has extended into other exciting areas. It is even branching into cloud infrastructure. This presentation will explore the rise of the Block Chain and how it applies to Etherium. You will understand why some of the smartest people in the room are calling the Block Chain “Web 3.0”.

Bio:
Wade Alcorn (@WadeAlcorn) is the Founder of Alcorn Group (http://alcorngroup.com), a leading security consultancy.  Wade has published technical papers on emerging threats and is the co-author of the internationally available and popular “The Browser Hacker’s Handbook”. He was awarded the AusCERT National “Award for Individual Excellence in the Field of IT Security” in 2011. Wade is also the creator of the BeEF open source browser exploitation framework, which is included in toolswatch.org‘s top 10 security tools.

Great prizes on offer!

Register Here

Presented by Alcorn Group

Microsoft Azure Cloud Security, Compliance and Transparency

Something that is generally forgotten during times of migration and transition is cloud security and who is responsible for what.

The first step on any journey to any cloud is security and compliance. Microsoft meets a vast array of industry and country specific certifications including the ISO 27001, and specifically (for Australians) the Australian IRAP certification. A first point of call for discovery when considering designs on Azure is the Microsoft Azure trust center. There is a vast amount of information on specific items such as: Compliance, security, privacy, and transparency which is a very important item.

Microsoft has a disclosure site where they release information on their transparency to the authorities.

In Australia in the last year there have been 2,226 requests for information from the authorities. Do you know how many requests resulted in disclosing content? Zero. Generally on most occasions Microsoft simply gives subscriber data saying go talk to the customer. This is how most requests are handled.

As a consumer of cloud services it is important to know where Microsoft’s responsibility stops, and it becomes the customer or the partners responsibility. Microsoft is responsible for the foundation layer; physical and virtual security and segregation of your services.

• Application security
• Operating System Security
• Data Security

At Melbourne IT (my employer) we have partners such as Trend Micro who can help fill this gap. Trend Micro has a purpose built deep security product which can manage multiple clouds and has multiple security features. There are multiple ways to purchase your license, with the easiest being per server per month/minute.

Aaron Whittaker @aaronw2003

November User Group Thursday 5th- Bitcoins and the New Frontier (Cloud Computing)

November User Group Thursday 5th- Bitcoins and the New Frontier (Cloud Computing).

Starts: 5:45pm

Where: Microsoft Brisbane HQ Level 28

What started with a technology underpinning the Bitcoin digital currency has extended into other exciting areas. It is even branching into cloud infrastructure. This presentation will explore the rise of the Block Chain and how it applies to Etherium. You will understand why some of the smartest people in the room are calling the Block Chain “Web 3.0”.

Bio:
Wade Alcorn (@WadeAlcorn) is the Founder of Alcorn Group (http://alcorngroup.com), a leading security consultancy.  Wade has published technical papers on emerging threats and is the co-author of the internationally available and popular “The Browser Hacker’s Handbook”. He was awarded the AusCERT National “Award for Individual Excellence in the Field of IT Security” in 2011. Wade is also the creator of the BeEF open source browser exploitation framework, which is included in toolswatch.org‘s top 10 security tools.

Great prizes on offer!

Register Here

Presented by Alcorn Group

Now I don’t need a Domain Controller?

This week Microsoft has released Azure AD Domain Services (Preview). You could describe this service as a Domain Controller As A Service (DCaaS).

First thing to note as this only works in the following regions here. As my Azure environment is in Australian data centers I simply had to make a new network in Southeast Asia.

Mahesh Unnikrishnan MSFT advised me this morning when the Preview became available.

This lab only takes 1-2 hours to complete following here.

Step 1: Create the ‘AAD DC Administrators’ group

The first step is to create a new AAD DC Administrators group. The group needs to be created with the exact spelling.

Then I added one members.

Step 2: Create an Azure virtual network

Next I created a new vNet in Southeast Asia.

Step 3: Enable Azure AD Domain Services

Notice below how the virtual network is blank. Originally I had a vNet so as step 2 stated if I had a vNet I could skip this step. Unfortunately I had to add a new vNet because my original vNet was in Australia (region currently not in preview, see link above).

Step 4: Update DNS settings for the Azure virtual network

Then I went back to my vNet and added DNS settings.

Step 5: Enable password synchronization

I didn’t configure sync, as the point of the lab is to test not requiring a Domain Controller. I created 1 ‘In Cloud’ user (Global Admin, so he could add machine to Domain).

Next I provisioned a new Windows 2016 TP3 machine in Azure (not sure if this works on older versions, I will test this next week). I added it to my new domain successfully (without a Domain Controller).

Aaron Whittaker @aaronw2003

Announcing a new User Group Sponsor

Brisbane Cloud is happy to announce that we have secured another sponsor. Adam Broadbent from Just People has confirmed that they have come on board as a full time sponsor.

Last nights session on Microsoft Operations Management Suit by James Crawshaw from MSFT was a huge success. Just People supplied beer and many great prizes.

Stay tuned for more great sessions on all things cloud.

Next session will be on Security by an ethical hacker. Please comment below or pm me for details on this upcoming session.