Russell Smith

Modern identity security has shifted dramatically, and according to identity experts Sean Metcalf of TrustedSec, the center of gravity has moved from network perimeters toward tokens, browsers, hybrid identity connectors, and cloud roles. In a wide-ranging conversation, Metcalf unpacked how both Active Directory (AD) and Entra ID continue to expose organizations to unnecessary risk, why…

This Week in IT, a hidden Windows shortcut flaw exploited for years finally gets patched, but how did attackers sneak their malware past security teams? Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 customers are about to get powerful Intune tools like Remote Help and just‑in‑time admin rights, but there’s a price hike on the way. And by…

Join Russell Smith as he sits down with Sean Metcalf, one of only 100 Microsoft Certified Masters in Active Directory and Identity Security Architect at TrustedSec. Craig Birch also joins the interview, Principal Technologist at ‪Cayosoft‬, for an in-depth conversation on the future of Identity and Access Management. In this episode, we cover: 🔗 Links…

This Week in IT, Microsoft unveils Agent 365 at Ignite, a new control plane that acts as the command center for every AI agent in an organisation. Users are pushing back against Microsoft’s plan to turn Windows into an “agentic OS,”, plus Microsoft announced major Copilot upgrades. Links and resources Episode overview Microsoft announced significant…

Microsoft has started to clearly outline what it means when it says Windows 11 is becoming an agentic operating system. WindowsCentral.com reported late yesterday that Microsoft is sharing details in a support document that show how AI will shift from being a collection of add ons to becoming part of the operating system’s core design….

Another year has passed and it’s time again for Microsoft Ignite. In this article, I’ll cover what IT Pros can expect to be announced. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Microsoft will be focusing on AI this year at Ignite. Windows is getting more attention but only because Microsoft sees its OS as the…

Windows 11 just unlocked full passkey support with 1Password and Bitwarden, meaning passwordless is about to get a lot more real. At the same time, Microsoft is pushing a security overhaul across Windows and Surface, claiming the work of 34,000 engineers. And Intune admins are getting new tools to diagnose failed enrollments and eliminate local…

An out-of-band WSUS security patch has back‑fired, disabling hotpatching on Windows Server 2025—find out how to avoid the problem if you haven’t already installed the buggy update. Then, Windows updates are throwing some machines straight into BitLocker recovery. And despite the end of support, Windows 10 is still running on more than 40 % of…

In this episode, I sit down with Alya Abbott, Chief Operating Officer of Zulip, the open-source team chat platform that’s changing the way organizations communicate. Alya shares how Zulip stands apart from competitors like Slack and Teams, offering organizations true data ownership, flexible self-hosting, and powerful topic-based threading for organized, efficient collaboration. The conversation is…

This Week in IT, what happens when a misconfiguration brings down Microsoft’s entire cloud stack? An Azure outage knocked out Outlook, Teams and even airline systems, exposing the fragility of our cloud dependence. Meanwhile, cyber‑criminals are hunting for misconfigured Azure storage accounts, and Microsoft’s newest Copilot agents promise to build your apps and workflows with…

What if you could protect your organization from the latest AD and Entra ID threats without expensive tools or complicated setups? In this interview, I talk to Dmitry Sotnikov and Craig Birch, about how Cayosoft’s free, agentless Guardian Protector tool is changing the game for organizations on a budget. Discover how Guardian Protector provides instant threat and change alerts,…

I asked Merill Fernando, the creator of Graph X-Ray, to talk me through how the tool came to be and some use case scenarios. Microsoft Graph is the unified API that connects data across Microsoft 365, from Entra ID and Teams to Exchange, Intune, and more. It’s the foundation for automation, reporting, and integration across…