Microsoft's SSL-based VPN Solution
The US IT security company Whale is to cooperate with Microsoft to expand Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server to include an SSL-based VPN solution for encrypted network connections.
This emerges from a press release by Whale. Besides an application-level firewall and an expanded Web-cache function Microsoft's ISA Server also offers a VPN solution, which so far has been exclusively IPSec-based.
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22.12.2005 Pirate Bay to offer cheap, unlogged VPN
Back in July 2008, torrent tracker The Pirate Bay announced plans to encrypt the Internet. That hasn't happened yet, but they plan to offer a VPN tunneling service to the public starting April 1.
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24.03.2009 Windows Services for UNIX Version 3.5
Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 provides a full range of supported and fully integrated cross-platform network services for enterprise customers to use in integrating Windows into their existing UNIX-based environments.
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22.9.2006 Windows Live Services in BlackBerry
Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced an agreement to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on BlackBerry smartphones
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12.5.2008 Microsoft Services: Windows Is the Hub
Microsoft's chief software architect surely isn't its chief orator. Ray Ozzie's sentence construction makes his speeches great generalizations bereft of real details.
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25.7.2008 Gates: MS 'Must Act' on Web Services
Microsoft is not about to take the Web 2.0 revolution sitting down, says Bill Gates. In an internal e-mail sent out October 30 and obtained by BetaNews on Wednesday, Gates writes that Microsoft must change to take advantage of the evolution of computing from a software-based to a Web-based model.
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Microsoft System Center gets the services treatment
Microsoft officials werent kidding when they said they were working on a services complement to just about every one of the companys software products. The latest to get a Software+Services (S+S) makeover: System Center.
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1.10.2007 Microsoft Launches Windows Live Services
This new generation of Windows Live services will be available in 36 languages and 59 countries across the world.
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6.11.2007 New Windows Live Wave 4 services spotted
The first few details about the next iteration of Microsoft's set of Windows Live software and services, known as Windows Live Wave 4, are beginning to emerge. Two new services, Windows Live Documents and Windows Live Devices, are currently undergoing testing within Microsoft.
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10.8.2009 New Windows Live Services on the Microsoft Drawing Board
Microsoft is slowly but surely showing more of its planned software-as-a-service add-ons for Windows, most of which will be ad-supported.
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6.1.2006 Deploying Microsoft Windows Server Update Services
Comprehensive guidance on deploying Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), including a description of how WSUS functions, and descriptions of WSUS scalability and bandwidth management features, as well as step-by-step procedures for installation and configuration of the WSUS server.
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18.2.2006 Microsoft in $500 million business services push
said on Thursday it plans to spend $500 million over the next year trying to persuade businesses to use its software rather than hire International Business Machines consultants.
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17.3.2006 First Impressions: Microsoft Windows Update Services 3.0 Beta 2
YESS, Microsoft finally got it right and moved away from web interface to MMC where it should have been since the beginning. I've been complaining about this a lot, when I was MVP.
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15.8.2006 A security issue in Microsoft Windows Deployment Services?
Netanel Ben-Shushan from Israel writes: We've been talked about Microsoft's new tool for remote installation named Windows Deployment Services (or WDS), and Alex told me today that there's an important security issue in WDS.
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19.2.2007 Windows Server Update Services Choke on an Error
Microsoft's Windows Server Update Services infrastructure has managed to choke on an error and lock users out just ahead of the November release of security bulletins and adjacent updates.
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13.11.2007 Google removes Beta label from Gmail and other services
Its one little word - but its presence can make all the difference in the world.
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7.7.2009 Microsoft CEO sees Web services as top R&D priority
Microsoft Corp. plans to double spending on research and development at its MSN Internet unit as the company focuses on software services, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday.
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5.5.2006 New Microsoft data center powers Web services push
SEATTLE--In a century-old farming town in central Washington state, Microsoft has built a farm for the Internet age.
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17.4.2007 Microsoft decouples SharePoint Services from Windows Server 2008
The Windows Server team has decided to decouple its Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) collaboration/document workflow subsystem from Windows Server 2008.
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30.10.2007 Linux Cannot Connect to Vista SP1 over Cryptographic Security Services
Computers running open source Linux operating systems have problems connecting to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 machines when cryptographic security services are involved.
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4.6.2008 Anti-Spam Sites Block Microsoft Hosted Exchange Services
Microsoft's Exchange hosted mail services, designed to help businesses combat spam, have themselves been blocked by several anti-spam blacklists around the Web, CRN has learned.
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31.12.2006 Stop the Windows Vista Features and Services Harvesting User Data for Microsoft
There is a constant flow of communication between Windows Vista and Microsoft. A collection of features and services across Microsoft's latest desktop operating system exchange data with locations on the Internet, including those belonging to the Redmond company.
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19.8.2007Hole Found in Widely Used VPN
Gear
Bug makes VPN products
vulnerable to a denial of
service attack...
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16.11.2005Configuring Windows Server 2008 as a Remote Access SSL VPN Server (Part 3)
In the first two parts of this series on how to create an SSL VPN server on Windows Server 2008, we went over the basics of VPN networking and then
dived into the configuration of the server. At this point we are ready to finish things up by performing some small configuration changes in the
Active Directory and on the CA Web site. After making these changes, we will focus on the VPN client configuration and finish up by establishing the
SSL VPN connection.
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14.02.2008Microsoft Buys VPN, SSL
Company
Microsoft on Thursday said it
was acquiring Whale
Communications, a provider of
virtual private network (VPN)
and SSL solutions, as well as
Web application firewalls. The
company's technologies will
be integrated into
Microsoft's Windows Server
and ISA Server products...
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18.05.2006Configuring Windows Server 2008 as a Remote Access SSL VPN Server (Part 2)
If you missed the first part in this article series please read
Configuring
Windows Server 2008 as a Remote Access SSL VPN Server (Part 1) Thomas Shinder: In the first part of this article series
on how to configure Windows Server 2008 as a SSL VPN server, I went over some of the history of Microsoft VPN servers and VPN protocols. We finished
that article up with a description of the example network that well use in this and subsequent articles on configuring the VPN gateway to support SSTP
connections from Vista SP1 clients.
Before we begin, I need to say that I know that there is a step by step guide on how to
configure SSTP connections to Windows Server 2008 on the
www.microsoft.com Web site. The
problem with that article is that I felt it did not reflect a real world environment that uses an enterprise CA for certificate assignment. Because of
that, and some of the issues that were left out of the Microsoft step by step guide, I decided to do this article. I think you will learn a few new
things along the way as you follow along with me.
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30.01.2008Secure VPN tunneling protocol in development
Microsoft is working on a
remote access tunneling
protocol for Vista and
Longhorn Server that lets
client devices securely access
networks via a VPN from
anywhere on the Internet
without concern for typical
port blocking issues.
The Secure Socket
Tunneling Protocol (SSTP)
creates a VPN tunnel that
travels over Secure-HTTP,
eliminating issues associated
VPN connections based on the
Point-to-Point Tunneling
Protocol (PPTP) or Layer 2
Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) that
can be blocked by some Web
proxies, firewalls and Network
Address Translation (NAT)
routers that sit between
clients and servers.
The protocol,
however, is only for remote
access and will not supoort
site-to-site VPN
tunnels.
Microsoft hopes SSTP will
help reduced help desk support
calls associated with IPSec
VPNs when those connections
get blocked by firewalls or
routers. In addition, SSTP
won?t foster retraining issues
because it does not change the
end-user VPN controls. The
SSTP based VPN tunnel plugs
directly into current
interfaces for Microsoft VPN
client and server
software.
Microsoft plans to ship SSTP
support in Vista Service Pack
1 and in Longhorn Server. The
ship date for Vista SP1 has
not been set, but Longhorn is
expected to ship in the second
half of this year. SSTP will
be included in Longhorn Server
Beta 3, which is set to ship
in the first half of
2007.
Microsoft officials also say
they are working with partners
-- the company declined to
name -- on adding SSTP to
other client devices besides
Vista.
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20.01.2007Google to Purge Personal Data from Logs
In a significant change to
company policy, Google
announced late yesterday it
will begin systematic purges
of personally identifying data
from its search logs at least
18 months after it's
collected. The move could
quash some consumers' -- and
some governments' -- concerns
about its intentions to
harvest its now-colossal
database of personal
information...
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15.03.2007Using WEVTUTIL to Manage Event Logs
The time has finally arrived where Microsoft has spent the time and energy to provide us all with a useful Event Viewer. Windows Vista and Windows
Server 2008 come with a revamped Event Viewer, as well as some additional tools that really make using the Event Viewer something that is easy to
manage. In addition to the new subscription option that Event Viewer now possesses, there is a new command line utility, WEVTUTIL, which allows you to
control nearly every aspect of the Event Viewer logs.
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13.03.2008Security: What Microsoft Can Teach Apple
Is Apple's approach to Mac OS X 10.5 security about stupidity or arrogance? Maybe Apple needs to learn something from Microsoft.
Last night, I read an
Heise Security report about Leopard's
firewall being turned off by defaultor turning off a previously active firewall during the upgrade from an earlier Mac OS X version. I can confirm
that the upgrade flips off the firewall, and without warning.
There are other troubling changes going on under the hood, too. For
example, Apple's new Back to My Mac feature either turned on without my authorization or turned on during installation. I'm still early stages
testing and hadn't gotten around to this feature. I ran Leopard all day yesterday, periodically using Cisco VPN client to connect to my corporate
network. This morning, when I launched the VPN client, a Leopard popup warned that the new Back to My Mac feature and VPN cannot operate at the same
time; a handy link flipped off the service. But who turned it on in the first place?
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30.10.2007Microsoft's new VPN tunnel using SSL is coming
I am very happy to announce that SSTP will be first time released to all our TAP and techbeta customers via coming Vista SP1 beta and Windows Server
2008 RC0 release.
To get your hands dirty with SSTP, work with your Microsoft TAP contact if you are part of Windows TAP program.
If not, you can be a part of Windows techbeta program via enrolling to
http://connect.microsoft.com and get the Windows beta bits.
To do a SSTP pilot or lab deployment, all you
need is:
1) A machine running Vista SP1 beta or Windows server 2008 RC0 or later - acting as VPN client
2) A
machine running Windows server 2008 RC0 or later - acting as VPN server
Please enroll and get your set-up ready. Soon, we will
provide all the documents (like step-by-step guide) on our web site. For more questions on SSTP, see
http://blogs.technet.com/rrasblog/archive/tags/SSTP/default.aspx For any queries, feel free to connect with
us via our email address as given above
Samir Jain
Lead Program Manager (samirj@online.microsoft.com)
RRAS,
Windows Enterprise Networking
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13.09.2007Google to make search logs anonymous
Google has announced that it
will start making its records
about users' searches
anonymous after 18 to 24
months under a new policy. The
Mountain View,
California-based company
instigated the move on its own
after talking to "leading
privacy stakeholders" in
Europe and the U.S. Until now,
the search giant has
indefinitely retained a log of
every search with identifiers
that can associate it with a
particular computer. The new
policy, to be implemented
within the next year, is
intended to better protect
users' privacy.
Under the new policy, unless
Google is legally required to
retain them longer (under data
retention laws), server logs
will still be retained but
will be "anonymized" after
18 to 24 months so that they
can't be identified with
individual users, according to
a blog entry written by Peter
Fleischer, Google's privacy
counsel for Europe, and Nicole
Wong, the company's deputy
general counsel. Engineers are
working out the technical
details now. Google keeps the
server logs so it can improve
services and protect them from
abuse and security threats,
the company said. Each search
record includes the query, IP
addresses, and cookie details.
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15.03.2007Microsoft Sued Over VPN Technology
Software company VirnetX filed
suit against Microsoft
Thursday, accusing the Redmond
company of infringing on two
of its patents regarding
virtual private networking...
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15.02.2007Yahoo outdoes Google, will scrub search logs after 90 days
It's a race to the bottom, but in a good way. Yahoo today announced an "industry-leading approach" to online privacy under which it will anonymize
its log data after 90 days. The move comes only months after Google cut its own retention period for personal data by 50 percent, and it gives Yahoo
by far the strongest anonymization policy of the big three search engines.
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17.12.2008Top 5 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services
Via Tony Soper's blog:
1. Terminal Services RemoteApp applications appear no different than local applications, tightly
integrated with the task bar and new Windows Vista features like 3-D flip. Terminal Services RemoteApp helps improve the end user experience and
reduce training requirements.
2. Terminal Services Gateway provides a highly secure connection between internal applications and data to
users outside the firewall. It delivers critical applications and data to mobile employees without additional VPN infrastructure.
3.
Terminal Services Web Access helps simplify application deployment by making applications available from a web page or a SharePoint portal without
installing them on the local PC. Speed application deployment by quickly connecting users with the applications they need.
4. Terminal
Services Session Broker delivers session-based load-balancing to a Terminal Services Farm. Terminal Services Session Broker helps bring better uptime
and performance to your Terminal Services environment.
5. Terminal Services Easy Print leverages the client-side print driver (no server
side driver needed) to enable fast and reliable printing to a local or network-attached printer. End users can more productively work from remote
locations.
For More Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/terminal-services/default.mspx Terminal Server 2008 Technical
Resources:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/servermanager/terminalservices.mspx winbeta.org -
23.02.2008Configuring Windows Server 2008 as a Remote Access SSL VPN Server (Part 1)
Remote Access is one of todays big things. As an increasing number of people need access to information stored on work and home computers, the
ability to access that information from anywhere is critical. Gone are the days when you could say Ill get that information to you when I get to my
computer. You need that information now if you want to be competitive in todays business environment.
In the stone age of
computing, the way to remotely access information on your computer was to use a dial-up connection. RAS dial-up connections worked over regular POTS
(Plain Old Telephone Service) lines and had speeds that ranged up to around 56kbps. Speed was a major problem with dial-up RAS connections, but an
even bigger problem was the cost of the connections when a long distance number was required for access.
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08.01.2008F-Secure slams mobile spying application
Antivirus company F-Secure has severely criticised the security of a mobile spying application.
The Finnish security company said
that Retina-X Studios' Mobile Spy is "not built to be secure".
Mobile Spy is an application aimed at businesses wishing to
monitor their employees' Windows Mobile smartphone traffic. The full text of SMS messages can be recorded and logged to a "private account"
accessible by the business, as well as incoming and outgoing call numbers, and the URLs of websites visited.
F-Secure claims to
have found a way that anyone can access those private accounts. The antivirus company said that, if a user logs in to the Mobile Spy demonstration
account, and goes to view SMS logs, there are demonstration samples from a database of messages...
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02.10.2007The Difference Between Application and Session Layer Firewalls
In todays application centric interconnected environments, the next generation of firewalls (application layer firewalls) are required to reduce the
attack surface area.
The story so far, in a time long ago man first used trees and logs to protect their livestock within their
village, many potential threats like lions and other external tribesmen were deterred, but not stopped. As technology improved the nomads become
farmers and fences were developed that were made out of stone, these fences were not only superior to the wooden logs but were harder to circumvent.
Eventually entire villages were at the centre of the fortress, the high fortress walls were able to keep the livestock and population safe.
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25.06.2008Better Business Bureau gives failing grade to Linden Lab
Second Life creator Linden Lab logs 43 complaints over the past three years.
..
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26.02.2009Lawmakers Try to Stop the Sale
of Phone Logs
Proposed law would create
criminal penalties for the
sale of mobile, VoIP, and
landline phone records...
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19.01.2006Blogosphere Doubles Every Six
Months
If you think everyone and
their mother has a blog these
days, you're probably right.
Web log aggregator Technorati
released details of a study
Monday that showed that the
site now tracks some 27.2
million Web logs across the
Web...
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08.02.2006New Microsoft Services Leadership and Structure Streamlines IT Services and Support for Customers and Partners Worldwide
Q&A: Maria Martinez, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Services, discusses how restructuring of the companys Services division provides increased
and enhanced IT services and support capabilities to industry partners and customers...
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30.04.2008
