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Questions about virtualization and security?

Yesterday, Donnie Hamlett, a Microsoft core infrastructure optimization specialist, gave a webcast and played a video of my TechEd presentation on virtualization and security. Some of the viewers had questions, and I offered to Donnie that they could Read More...

Posted 09 January 09 09:46 by Steve Riley | 4 Comments   
Filed under configuration, virtualization

Ethernet and WiFi and Bluetooth, oh my!

Customers have long requested a way to configure a computer to automatically disable its wireless NIC when its Ethernet is in use. Many third-party utilities can do this for you, but neither XP nor Vista have a built-in way to accomplish this, nor will Read More...

Posted 15 October 08 02:16 by Steve Riley | 19 Comments   
Filed under wireless, configuration, networking, group policy, Windows 7

Internet Explorer security levels compared

A pretty good question came across the newsgroups the other day. Someone was asking what are the differences between IE's "medium" and "medium-high" security settings. I did some digging, and found only this on MSDN: About URL security Read More...

Posted 16 September 08 05:19 by Steve Riley | 9 Comments   
Filed under configuration, Internet Explorer

Directly connect to your corpnet with IPsec and IPv6

Contrary to popular belief, the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Well, ok, no actual rumors, but hey, one can dream, huh? My spring calendar was full of events in Asia and Australia, then TechEd US seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere! Read More...

Posted 25 June 08 01:55 by Steve Riley | 26 Comments   
Filed under Windows Vista, NAP, authentication, TechEd, Active Directory, configuration, VPN, IPsec, networking, BitLocker, encryption, group policy, SSL/HTTPS

Microsoft IPsec diagnostic tool

IPsec is a wonderful technology for identifying computers and securing the exchange of data between them. I've written and spoken extensively about in the past. It is, however, a bit of a challenge to configure, especially if you're newly learning about Read More...

Posted 01 February 08 03:39 by Steve Riley | 2 Comments   
Filed under authentication, configuration, IPsec, networking, encryption

Changing the SSL cipher order in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista

Recently, the question of using AES for SSL has come up in the newsgroups and at some conferences. When IE makes an HTTPS connection to a web server, it offers a list of cipher supported cipher suites. The server then selects the first one from the list Read More...

Posted 06 November 07 09:37 by Steve Riley | 13 Comments   
Filed under Windows Vista, configuration, encryption, group policy, SSL/HTTPS

Curious about the ways Windows talks to the Internet? Here's your answer.

I was browsing through the Microsoft download pages today -- yeah, even we employees occasionally find little nuggets interspersed among the usual updates and such. I noticed a pair of whitepapers that will answer a common question I hear from many of Read More...

Posted 20 December 06 03:32 by Steve Riley | 1 Comments   
Filed under Windows Vista, configuration, networking

BitLocker command line interface

Last week at TechEd Europe I showed the BitLocker command-line interface. At other TechEds I've mentioned it but didn't show it. The CLI provides full control over BitLocker, including enabling it on any NTFS volume on the system (the Control Panel UI Read More...

Posted 25 November 06 08:39 by Steve Riley | 15 Comments   
Filed under Windows Vista, protection, physical security, configuration, BitLocker, encryption

Windows Vista vs. hotels

At many TechEds this year I've presented information about the new TCP/IP stack in Windows Vista. One of the important advances is its automatic performance tuning . With some of the early pre-release builds of Windows Vista, people were reporting problems Read More...

Posted 21 November 06 01:08 by Steve Riley | 13 Comments   
Filed under configuration, networking

Configure your router to block DOS attempts

Some time ago I had a discussion with a friend. He disagreed with my recommendations on how to configure a border router and the firewall behind it. I claimed that in the border router between you and your ISP, configure the six rules to block most denial Read More...

Posted 10 July 06 01:27 by Steve Riley | 13 Comments   
Filed under access technologies, security policies, risk mitigation, threats, protection, configuration

Should your ISA Server be in your domain? Film at 11!

So it would seem that a statement I made during TechEd US last week in Boston has mildly stirred a bit of controversy -- no surprise there, I guess, heh. One of my presentations gave an overview of what's new in ISA Server 2006 ( download your copy of Read More...

Posted 21 June 06 04:21 by Steve Riley | 10 Comments   
Filed under access technologies, protection, TechEd, ISA Server, configuration

When security breaks things

Now that the furor has waned, I want to comment on MS05-051. For those of you who don't memorize bulletin numbers (I am part of that set; Susan Bradley , for example, isn't, hehe), this is the security update that fixed a number of vulnerabilities found Read More...

Posted 08 November 05 10:05 by Steve Riley | 14 Comments   
Filed under security policies, risk mitigation, patch management, configuration

Securing Terminal Services over the Internet

In my presentation on remote access at TechEd, I gave three scenarios: web-based access to internal resources, published with ISA Server "desktop over the Internet" using Terminal Services and the remote desktop web connection full IP-based virtual private Read More...

Posted 28 June 05 09:54 by Steve Riley | 3 Comments   
Filed under access technologies, protection, TechEd, configuration, Terminal Server

Bug in the book: Appendix C, hosts file

Somehow this escaped our notice during the proof phase, but the hosts file that's printed in the book (and burned on the CD-ROM) is completely bogus. It actually blocks a number of very good sites that have anti-spyware software and even blocks MVPS.org, Read More...

Posted 28 June 05 09:49 by Steve Riley | 0 Comments   
Filed under spam, configuration, my book

New column -- Using IPsec for network protection

I'm now writing semi-regular articles for TechNet. These are part of the security management series, and they're also linked from the security newsletter. The first column is a two-parter about IPsec. Part 1 describes the technology: how it operates, Read More...

Posted 10 February 05 09:59 by Steve Riley | 6 Comments   
Filed under identity, authentication, access technologies, protection, configuration, IPsec

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