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Microsoft is giving businesses more time to protect their Windows Server 2016 workloads as the platform moves closer to the end of support. With Azure Arc-enabled Extended Security Updates (ESUs) now generally available, organizations can continue receiving critical security patches without moving their legacy servers to Azure. Microsoft plans to end extended support for Windows…

Microsoft is reminding businesses that the biggest AI risks often stem from familiar security weaknesses rather than entirely new threats. The company has detailed new AI containment strategies to better control autonomous systems, limit potential damage, and build a stronger foundation for secure AI adoption. As AI agents become more autonomous, they can act faster…

Microsoft Entra ID sits underneath Microsoft 365, Azure, and thousands of enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. If users, groups, app registrations, Conditional Access policies, roles, or service principals are deleted or misconfigured, the impact is not limited to the identity team. Users can lose access to core business applications, administrators can lose privileged access workflows, and…

Microsoft will retire the MemberOf rule operator in Microsoft Entra ID later this year. This change will require organizations to update or replace affected configurations before November 2026. In Microsoft Entra ID, the MemberOf rule operator was introduced as a preview feature, allowing administrators to build dynamic groups, administrative units, or entitlement policies based on…

Microsoft is making Azure virtual machines more secure out of the box with the general availability of Trusted Launch as Default (TLaD) for new Generation 2 (Gen2) VMs and virtual machine scale sets. The update automatically applies key security protections to new deployments without adding cost or administrative overhead. Trusted Launch is a security capability…

Microsoft has announced the integration of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence (MDTI) into Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel. The goal is to provide threat intelligence directly within security analysts’ workflow rather than requiring a separate platform. Previously, security teams often had to switch between separate MDTI, Microsoft Sentinel, and Defender interfaces to collect threat actor information,…

Microsoft has made hybrid Exchange management easier with the general availability of Writeback for Cloud-Managed Remote Mailboxes in Exchange Online. The new capability enables administrators to manage mailbox attributes in the cloud while automatically synchronizing key changes back to on-premises Active Directory. According to Microsoft, many organizations with hybrid Exchange environments still have mailbox identities…

Microsoft has released version 7.9 of the Teams PowerShell module. This release strengthens authentication and introduces new governance controls for Microsoft Teams collaboration and meetings. The biggest platform change is that Connect-MicrosoftTeams now uses Web Account Manager (WAM) by default for authentication. Web Account Manager (WAM) is a built-in authentication broker for Windows that securely…

Entra Connect is well known as the application responsible for synchronizing on-premises Active Directory (AD) identities to the Entra Cloud. This service is not only integral to an environment’s operational health, it must be on your security radar as it straddles two trust boundaries and is the authority for your hybrid identities. All too commonly,…

Generative AI is reshaping enterprise IT spending, driving the strongest growth in cloud infrastructure services since 2018. As organizations race to build AI capabilities and expand computing capacity, cloud platforms have become the foundation of this transformation. According to new data from Synergy Research, worldwide spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $143.4 billion in the…

Microsoft is making passwordless sign-ins more secure and accessible for desktop users by extending Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) to compatible external fingerprint readers. This update enables hardware-backed biometric authentication on more Windows 11 devices, which helps protect sensitive data from sophisticated cyberattacks. Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) is an advanced security feature…

Seasonal hiring for many organizations means creating large numbers of workforce identities in a short space of time. New starters need immediate access to systems and data, often before IT has had an opportunity to get to know them. That pressure can introduce gaps in the onboarding process, not because IT teams don’t care about…