Entries tagged with forefront - TechNet Edge

IAG SP2 hits RTM - details under the cover interview

extreme — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:10:00 GMT

Uri Lichtenfeld gives us the inside story on the “why” behind IAG SP2. In an immediately preceding video on Edge, he gave us a quick overview and compete information on Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG).

Topics we cover:

Why we decided to choose Linux and Mac for endpoint mappers
Why you cannot download the software to install IAG on your own hardware
What you need to do to get the IAG SP2 virtual machine going
Considerations for utilizing an IAG SP2 virtual machine
Why we chose the new optimizers we did
How to get started with IAG SP2

Download the IAG SP2 evaluation virtual machine

SSL VPN comparison with IAG

extreme — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:01:00 GMT

There are many SSL VPN and other remote access solutions out there; we compare how IAG (Internet Application Gateway) stacks up and how it fits into the bigger picture. We interviewed an expert in IAG and remote access solutions, Uri Lichtenfeld, IAG product manager at Microsoft.

Topics covered:

Where DirectAccess fits in with IAG
How endpoint detection varies with IAG
How we generally stack up against the competition
Why your company might switch over to IAG if you already have an existing solution
Description of tunneling solutions IAG provides relative to competitors
How IAG can help save costs in your environment

For more info, visit the IAG homepage

Forefront Server for Exchange v2 features

extreme — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:03:00 GMT

Mike Chan, Product Manager for Forefront Server for Exchange (FSE), gives details around some of the new features in the next version of FSE and Stirling. Here’s a little more about how the interview breaks down:

[3:14] Exchange Hosted Filtering (EHF) vs Exchange on-premise - Decisions around, advantages of, and where we are headed with our solution
[7:03] White listing with FSE and Stirling – implementation, automation, and a “Super reputation service”
[13:30] Whiteboard session of mail flow with EHF and Stirling
How Stirling can help with transition between EHF & On-Premise.
Example of how Forefront Stirling uses ESAS to further secure your environment

Download the Beta software or VHDs
Learn more about Forefront Stirling

Forefront Stirling screencast and interview

extreme — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:59:00 GMT

Nic Sagez gives us a brief into to Stirling and then gives a screencast demo of a security compromise within an organization which has a Forefront Stirling infrastructure. The breakdown of the scenario is as follows:

User "Don" browses to a phishing site and installs a program
Hacker gains control of the client machine, disables Forefront Client Security (FCS) and User Account Control, sends a piece of malware using Don's email account
We (an administrator) access the main Stirling Console and view the Security Assessment summary report. We can see TMG detected the port scan and the automatic action and alert was taken.
We refresh the console again and see Stirling has reported the user has been compromised and another action happens automatically.
08:36 - We go back to the main console and then to the client to show how NAP remediated the client by turning back on FCS.
09:30 - We go back to the main console and see the security checks summary report and drill down into granular information about the client's vulnerability. Directly from the console, we are able to turn back on UAC.

After the scenario-relevant part of the screencast is complete, we also see:

11:19 - Create a security policy in the Stirling management console using things such as NAP, Internet Explorer, and Exchange.
15:25 - Bind this policy with target groups
15:53 - Show an enterprise security report generated by Stirling

Download the Beta software or VHDs
Learn more about Forefront Stirling

Forefront Stirling Policies : Feature of the Week

extreme — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:32:00 GMT

Even in Beta 1 of Forefront Stirling you can check out the security policy capabilities the product has. I know what you’re thinking – “whoopee, more policies”, but what you can do with the policies in Stirling are quite impressive.

What can you do with Stirling policies?

For each policy, you can easily specify granular compliance settings for Forefront Client Security (FCS), Forefront Server for Exchange (FSE), and various other security state assessments AND specify granular automated actions to be taken to remediate - all from a single console. Some ideas for what you might do with Stirling policies:

If a client doesn’t have the correct firewall or latest anti-malware updates, remediate this using NAP.
Scan email using two engines and when a virus is found to be sent via email, clean the virus and initiate a full client virus and anti-malware scan using FCS
Audit to verify your IIS 6/7 and SQL 2005 servers have appropriate security settings enabled
If a client is doing a port scan or quickly sending a large number of emails, quarantine their computer using NAP, block their outbound internet access through TMG, scan their email for viruses with FSE, and do a full virus scan with FCS

In updates past Beta 1, you can eventually expect even more capabilities and integration with other Forefront products.

How does it work?

There are two major components – the policy and the target group. The policy contains all of the settings you are checking for and/or the remediation steps. The target group can be a user, group, computer, OU, or domain. A policy can be bound to one or more target groups and precedence can be set to determine priority if there are conflicts in policy settings. Under the hood, you have Enterprise Security Assessment Sharing (ESAS) and SCCM doing the majority of the communication work related to the policies – which I’ll cover in more depth in future posts.

What’s the catch?

In order to get this functionality working, you’ll need to have the core Stirling infrastructure in place and then utilize the vNext for FCS and FSE installed (if you create policies related to these settings). Also, for the NAP functionality to work – you’re going to need to set up a NAP infrastructure separately.

GET STARTED
Download Beta 1 software or VHDs
Working with Stirling Policies

Virtualize your ISA or Forefront TMG servers

extreme — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:04:00 GMT

In the past, ISA has had very limited or no support on Microsoft's virtualization platform. Now, ISA and Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) is supported . I met up with Jim Harrison to get some guidance on what you need to think about when you virtualize your ISA/TMG servers. We quickly dive into a whiteboard session on the various ways you can configure Hyper-V / virtual server to work with ISA/TMG and dig into the advantages and disadvantages of each network configuration such as:

Performance
Management
Administration
Security

Some other things we talk about:

[15:12] Why placing TMG on the parent is a bad idea and how you should configure the parent partition
Configuration options of the actual ISA/TMG server
[22:11] Failover, Clustering, and Quick Migration with ISA / TMG in a virtual environment
[24:32] Configuration changes you should make for any host which faces the Internet

View the security considerations for virtualized ISA / TMG deployments guide / whitepaper Jim wrote.

See KB article 957006 which states ISA (and other) products are officially supported on Hyper-V.

Best practices for ISA server co-location with a DC

Ronald Beekelaar on Stirling and being your own boss

extreme — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:01:00 GMT

I met up with Ronald Beekelaar at TechEd and he tells us about what is new and gives some setup/install tips for Forefront Stirling. Additionally, we hear about Ronald's experience with having his own IT business. He tells us how he got started, how much freedom he has in his schedule, and recommendations on if you are interested in starting your own IT business.

For more information and to download Stirling:
http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/stirling/

TechNet Radio: Microsoft Forefront Client Security

erickingfrog — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:23:00 GMT

Listen to this episode of TechNet Radio and learn more about Microsoft Forefront Client Security. We discuss how Forefront Client Security improves overall performance and also talk about support for Hyper-V.

TechNet Radio: Microsoft Forefront Codename “Stirling” Overview (Part 2 of 2)

erickingfrog — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:06:00 GMT

In the second part of our overview on Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling,” we cover the next-generation versions of Forefront Client Security, Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint, and Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server (ISA), which is to be renamed the Forefront Threat Management Gateway. We also have our June 2008 Security Bulletin.

TechNet Radio: Microsoft Forefront Codename “Stirling” Overview (Part 1 of 2)

erickingfrog — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:56:00 GMT

Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling” is an integrated security system that delivers comprehensive, coordinated protection across endpoints, messaging, and collaboration applications. It also provide the network edge that is easier to manage and control. By delivering simplified management and providing critical visibility into threats, vulnerabilities, and configuration risks, “Stirling” helps you reduce costs and achieve greater insight into your enterprise security state. Attend this session to get an overview of this new security system from Microsoft.

Forefront Stirling – Public Beta Overview

extreme — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:30:00 GMT

With the launch of the 1^st public beta for Forefront Stirling on April 8^th, I thought it would be relevant to do a post this week on it. This release proves that the Stirling vision scenario in my previous blog article is becoming a reality. “Stirling” seems to be thrown around quite a bit and can be misunderstood, so let me 1^st clarify. Codename Stirling refers to the next wave of all Forefront products, scheduled to hit RTM in the 1^st half of 2009. This wave includes the “next version” of:

· Forefront Client Security (FCS)
· Forefront Security for Exchange Server (FSES),
· Forefront Security for SharePoint (FSS)
· ISA Server – new name Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG).

Additionally, this wave includes a server and single management console to interact with all of the above, commonly referred to as the “Stirling” server and “Stirling” management console. The console and server can be run on the same or separate machines. Down the road, we’ll have an official name to replace “Stirling” and “next version of”.

Ok, so what is some cool stuff to check out with the public beta?

Dynamic response capabilities – see how the forefront products share information and interact with each other.
Single management console and reporting for the entire technology suite except FSS - get a security state assessment for all of the connected machines & specify how you want to remediate through forefront policy.
Integration with NAP – use NAP to remediate your machines
Integrated malware and anti-virus protection – check out how it downloads & pushes out the updates
Use powershell to manage it – by default Stirling uses powershell behind the scenes, but you can do it yourself if you feel inclined.

What are some things you can NOT you do yet?

Install a topology which has more than one Stirling server
Install the Stirling server, console, or next version of FCS on Windows Server 2008
Install Terminal Services or a DC on the Stirling server
Install non-English versions

Get started

Download the Stirling beta here.
The most helpful pre-requisite page to install everything here.
Stirling homepage
TechNet technical documentation for deployment, operations, etc.
Stirling blog
Forefront team blog

NAP clickthrough

AdamBomb — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:26:00 GMT

Jeff Wettlaufer is the Sr. Technical Product Manager for System Center Configuration Manager. He has put together a video demonstration of the integration between Windows Server 2008, Configuration Manager and Forefront. In this video, a Windows Vista machine works through remediation, demonstrating the 3 different policies and their enforcement capabilities. In this video, the Windows Vista box is verified and remediated for Automatic Updates, Firewall Config, Forefront Anti Spyware presence and a Windows Update. Check it out!

NAP and Forefront

AdamBomb — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:01:00 GMT

If you've seen NAP demo'd in the past year or so, chances are the demo was shown with NAP in conjunction with the Windows Security Center, since by default that's the System Health Agent (SHA) included with Vista. NAP has an extendable architecture, which allows other providers to write their own SHA's so that NAP works with other products as well.
In this 9 minute demo, Jeff Sigman from the Nap team shows NAP working with Forefront Client Security (FCS) for enforcement and remediation. In his own words:

I recorded a video earlier today because of how excited I was to show off the latest development in the world of NAP. The NAP team has worked directly with the Solutions Accelerators team as well as the Forefront team to bring you integration between NAP and Forefront Client Security (FCS) 1.0. Once released, it will be a free download through the Solutions Accelerators TechNet site.

Configuración de "engines" en Microsoft Forefront for Exchange

el_rubens — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:36:00 GMT

Para todos aquellos que se preguntaban como configurar los motores antivirus en Forefront for exchange, nuestro amigo Oscar Correas, líder de la comunidad IT Pro Puebla e ITE virtual de Microsoft ha desarrollado este video donde nos muestra como llevar a cabo con éxito la configuración.

Gracias Oscar por esta aportación!!