Working with device compliance for Windows Subsystem for Linux

This week is all about the device compliance capabilities for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). WSL is a feature of Windows that allows the user to run a Linux environment on their Windows device, without needing a separate VM or a dual boot. It’s designed to provide a seamless experience for users that want to use Windows and Linux at the same time. By default, Ubuntu is used as the Linux distribution. There are, however, more options such as Debian, Kali, and SUSE. For the IT administrator it’s good to have the ability to be able to check the Linux distribution and version that is used. That can be achieved by using device compliance policies, as there is now a section specifically focused on adding …

Read more

Configuring Google Chrome for usage with device-based Conditional Access

This week is sort of a follow-up on last week. Last week the focus was on configuring Mozilla Firefox for usage with device-based Conditional Access, while this week the focus is on configuring Google Chrome for usage with device-based Conditional Access. That is already a supported scenario for many years, but in the early days that would require the Windows Accounts extension. That, however, has changed, making it easier to configure without installing a specific extension in the browser. Nowadays, there is a setting available that can be configured to automatically sign-in user accounts backed by a Microsoft Cloud identity provider. So, that’s even easier to configure. Especially when knowing that Microsoft Intune has Google Chrome configuration options directly available via the Settings Catalog. Minor …

Read more

Combining the different layers of data security on personal Windows devices

This week is a continuation of my previous blog post about working with personal Windows devices. That post was focussed on the different options available for providing secure access to corporate data on personal Windows devices. This post is focussed on providing more details around using those different options actually as different layers in a single solution. All with the focus on providing secure access to corporate data on personal Windows devices, while still providing the user with as much flexibility and options to be productive. Besides that, using different layers of data security also enables the IT administrators to add more granularity to the solution. That makes the total solution less black-and-white. So, for example, not just block the ability of the user to …

Read more

Working with personal Windows devices

This week is kind of a follow up on my post of a couple of weeks ago about why enrolling personal Windows devices might be a really bad idea. That post was focussed on advising against allowing enrolling personal Windows devices into Microsoft Intune (or any other MDM provider). The logic follow up question would be: what are the alternatives? And that’s of course a fair question. This post will be about answering that specific question. And to be quite honest, the answer might come very close to a blog post of about four years around supporting unsupported platforms. The main difference will be what Microsoft has provided over the years. And that’s a lot, especially for the Windows platform. This post will focus on …

Read more

Troubleshooting MAM for Windows

This week is a short follow-up on a post of a few months ago about getting started with Mobile Application Management (MAM) for Windows. That post was really focused on getting started with MAM for Windows, while this post will be more focused on what’s coming after that. The concept and the basic configuration of MAM for Windows is pretty straight forward, once being familiar with the available configuration options. However, it gets more challenging when verifying the configuration and the behavior. Especially when there is not that much information available. The (location of the) log file is not really well documented, as is the process to verify the applied configuration. This post will provide answers to those questions. It will described were to find …

Read more

Enabling remote access for specific users on Azure AD joined devices

This week is sort of a follow-up on my previous posts about restricting the local log on to specific users. While those posts were focused on restricting the local log on, this post will be focused on enabling remote access for specific users. More specifically, remote access for specific users on Azure AD joined devices. That’s not something to exciting, but definitely something that comes in useful every now and then. Besides that, this was already possible – for a long time – but would often require the device to be joined to the same tenant and take out some security configurations (like Network Level Authentication). That’s no longer required – already for almost a year – as it it can now rely on Azure …

Read more

Getting started with Mobile Application Management for Windows

This week is all about Mobile Application Management (MAM) for Windows. A long awaited feature that will be a big help with addressing unmanaged Windows devices. MAM for Windows enables organizations to manage the app in a similar way as already possible on mobile platforms. So, making sure that there is a separation between personal and work data, and making sure that the chances of accidental data leakages getting slimmer. In some areas, especially when looking at browser access, it might feel similar to what could already be achieved by using app enforced restrictions in Conditional Access, or by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps in combination with Conditional Access. Big difference, however, is that MAM for Windows also includes the ability to use app …

Read more

Using authentication strengths in Conditional Access policies

This week is all about a nice feature of Conditional Access. Not a particular new feature, but an important feature for a solid passwordless implementation. That feature is authentication strengths. Authentication strengths is a Conditional Access control that enables IT administrators to specify which combination of authentication methods should be used to access the assigned cloud apps. Before authentication strengths, it was not possible to differentiate between the different authentication methods that can be used as a second factor. Now with authentication strengths, it enables organizations to differentiate the available authentication methods between apps, or to simply prevent the usage of less secure MFA combinations (like password + SMS). With that, it opens a whole new world of potential scenarios that can be easily addressed. …

Read more

Using Conditional Access for Remote Help

This week is a short post about a small nice addition to Remote Help. That small nice addition, however, can be an important piece towards the solid zero trust implementation within the organization. That addition is the ability to use Conditional Access specifically for Remote Help. That doesn’t mean, however, that Conditional Access was not applicable towards Remote Help before. When assigning a Conditional Access to all cloud apps that would (and will always) also include Remote Help. The main change is that it’s now possible to create a service principal for the Remote Assistance Service that can be used as a cloud app in the assignment of a Conditional Access policy. That enables organizations to create a custom Conditional Access policy specifically for Remote …

Read more

Excluding Azure file shares from Conditional Access policies requiring MFA

This week is another short follow-up on the last couple of weeks. While the last couple of weeks were all about configuring the authentication on Azure file shares and on mapping Azure file shares, this week is all about the exclusion for multi-factor authentication (MFA). During the initial post, about using Azure AD Kerberos authentication for Azure file shares, it was mentioned that Azure AD Kerberos doesn’t support using MFA for accessing Azure file shares. The steps to prevent that, just weren’t described. And based on comments and feedback, it’s good to still walk through the steps for configuring that exclusion. This post will briefly discus the challenge, followed with the steps to create the exclusion for Azure file shares. This post will end with the …

Read more