How much is keeping users on Archive User licenses costing your business and how much could you save if you used CloudM Archive instead?
Gone but not forgotten.
Even years after an employee has left your business, data compliance regulations such as GDPR and Freedom of Information requests require you to keep their data in some form.
You obviously don’t want to keep these legacy leavers on a full Google license as it is a) expensive and b) it means that if the former employee (or someone else) can access the account, they can use your business’s applications and access sensitive business data.
So, businesses like yours have had to find ways to keep the data (and allow it to be searchable and restorable) without allowing access, and preferably, cheaper.
Historically, they would simply change the user’s full license to a VFE (Vault Former Employee) license. This license SKU was free and archived the data to Vault. Perfect!
What is the issue then? Well, Google introduced the AU (Archive User) license as a replacement for the VFE, and charged for it (currently ~$60 per user per year). If you had 1000 users on a VFE, this would cost you $60,000…every year (+ any additional offboarded users you apply an AU license too).
Now, this is obviously cheaper and more secure than a full license. But, it’s not exactly pocket change when it’s coming out of your budget (especially when it used to be free).
How does CloudM Archive solve the issue? The only real legal requirements for data when an employee leaves is to make sure that it is stored somewhere, can easily be restored or retrieved (down to a single file or email) if required, and deleted after a set amount of time. CloudM Archive does all of that for you!
CloudM Archive will automatically send the data of any offboarded user straight to a Google Storage bucket that you own and control, as an optional step in our innovative Offboarding Workflow process. If the step is in the workflow for the user, you do not need to do anything except press a button to trigger the offboarding.
If you need anything back (e.g. you receive a Freedom of Information request), CloudM Archive allows you to see all the data stored in the Storage bucket, indexed by user, so you can quickly find and restore any and all the data you want, and you can restore it to any user within CloudM Manage. All in a matter of minutes.
Oh, and when the time comes when you want are legally obliged to delete the data, CloudM Archive will use data retention policies to automatically purge the data when it’s been stored for a set time. Remember John who left 7 years ago? Of course you don’t. You started 4 years ago. CloudM will remember to delete his data on time so you don’t have to (and so you don’t get hit with a massive data regulation fine too).
And, best of all, you don’t need to pay for a Google license (full or AU) for the user you just archived. You just need to pay for CloudM Archive and the cost of storing your data in your Google Storage buckets, which, even when combined, works out considerably cheaper than an AU license. We’ve done the math and some businesses could be saving up to 75%. Whether that’s Euros, Dollars, Pounds or Pesos, that’s gotta look good on your balance sheet.
The full Google license can even be removed from the user and returned to your license pool as part of the offboarding workflow, ready to be instantly reassigned. You will only ever need to pay for the licenses you actually use.
This all sounds great, right? But, what if it would actually work out cheaper to keep a specific power user’s data on an AU license instead of incurring the cost of storage? Well, we’ve got you covered as well. Simply create a Smart Team of Power / High Volume users and create a bespoke offboarding policy that has the “Apply Google Archived User (AU) license” step included.
CloudM Archive is already helping (and saving) organizations around the world, big and small. If you would like the opportunity to cut the costs and manual effort of keeping former employee data, why not have a quick 15 minute call with one of our expert CloudM Team.
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About CloudM CloudM is an award-winning SaaS company whose humble beginnings in Manchester have grown into a global business in just a few short years.
Our team of tech-driven innovators have designed a SaaS data management platform for you to get the most from your digital workspace. Whether it’s Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or other SaaS applications, CloudM drives your business through a simple, easy-to-use interface, helping you to work smarter, not harder.
By automating time-consuming tasks like IT admin, onboarding & offboarding, archiving and migrations, the CloudM platform takes care of the day-to-day, allowing you to focus on the big picture.
With over 35,000 customers including the likes of Spotify, Netflix and Uber, our all-in-one platform is putting office life on auto-pilot, saving you time, stress and money.
If you manage a Google Workspace domain, you will be very familiar with Organizational Units (OUs) and how they can be used to group users together, making managing a large number of employees significantly easier.
But, one of the disadvantages we found when using OUs was that, inherently, they were very structured and hierarchical – A user could only belong to one OU at a time.
If a user was in the Marketing OU, they would have access to all the shared Marketing resources. But, if you wanted to add the Marketing Team Lead to another “Manager” OU so you could assign a more complex offboarding policy, they would lose access to the Marketing resources. Far from ideal. Far from flexible.
So, we created a way to give you the flexibility to group users together, without breaking your OU structure, whilst assigning bespoke workflows and automations to meet the requirements of their role. We call these group types Smart Teams.
Let’s take a look at a “Manager” Smart Team, as an example, and explore some of the cool things you can do in CloudM:
You can make the Smart Team dynamic and set it so users that have a tag added to their profile (e.g. Manager) will be added to the group automatically.
You can set a bespoke Email Signature template for all Managers. For example, you may wish for your Management Team to have their personal LinkedIn accounts displayed instead of the company account.
You can automatically share access to Management calendars and documents.
You can set a different offboarding policy that might include additional steps (such as requiring manual confirmation or archiving data to a different Storage bucket).
You can set a custom Security policy that requires a Manager to use a more complicated, and secure, password to access CloudM (as they are more likely to have admin access to features).
Smart Teams aren’t just reserved for creating custom policies for Management, and you don’t have to make such wholesale changes as shown on the previous example.
In fact, some of the best uses of Smart Teams are when you want to make one small change to a few policies or share resources with a select group of employees.
You can add a custom footer to the bottom of the email signature of any user that is going to attend an event or convention, so that your customers, partners and suppliers that are attending know you will be there.
You can share calendars and documents with all your First Aiders, regardless of location or department.
You can set a quicker, less detailed offboarding policy for all temporary/seasonal staff.
Want to find out more?
Check out our Smart Teams video on YouTube and visit our CloudM website, or book a 15 minute discovery call to speak to one of our brilliant team.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About CloudM CloudM is an award-winning SaaS company whose humble beginnings in Manchester have grown into a global business in just a few short years.
Our team of tech-driven innovators have designed a SaaS data management platform for you to get the most from your digital workspace. Whether it’s Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or other SaaS applications, CloudM drives your business through a simple, easy-to-use interface, helping you to work smarter, not harder.
By automating time-consuming tasks like IT admin, onboarding & offboarding, archiving and migrations, the CloudM platform takes care of the day-to-day, allowing you to focus on the big picture.
With over 35,000 customers including the likes of Spotify, Netflix and Uber, our all-in-one platform is putting office life on auto-pilot, saving you time, stress and money.
Integrations are an oft-requested item from customers and prospects of JumpCloud. This is especially true with our Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who use many tools to run their business efficiently. One of the most common tools MSPs use are Professional Services Automation (PSA) tools. These PSA tools serve several purposes: CRM, project management, help desk management, billing, and invoicing (to name a few).
Most IT Admins start their day with a cup of coffee (at least they do in the US) and an email check-in for any urgent issues. They spend a great part of their day solving support tickets, responding to phone calls, and answering emails from end users in addition to trying to get ahead on any projects. However, the process to access the information they need to solve support tickets can quickly become untenable, which will always take away from strategic projects and initiatives.
Having different systems and communication tools to solve problems can in itself be very time consuming. In order to simplify that process, we built a native connector from JumpCloud to PSAs such that, when an important alert is generated on any of your clients, a ticket gets created in your PSA and assigned to a tech or a queue automatically. This helps technicians more quickly respond to client issues by centralizing the pertinent information they need in their preferred platform of action.
Helping Admins Stay on Top of Issues
JumpCloud’s open directory platform generates alerts that require an admin to take action and fix. Some common alerts include:
User Lockout: This is generated when a user has tried to login to their managed device with a wrong password too many times. They are now locked out and in need of being unlocked.
Password Expiration: A user’s password has gone past the organization’s threshold for number of days of usage.
Sudo Admin Access Granted: A user has been granted superuser access on a device or a group of devices. This access might need to be revoked to avoid accidental damage.
When such actionable alerts are generated, MSPs can configure them to automatically create tickets in their PSA. Then they can take pre-emptive action before the user calls or submits a support request.
Configuring the Integration
Here are the 3 things you need to do to set up an integration to your PSA from JumpCloud:
1) Authentication
ConnectWise Manage requires you to have a public key and private key combination in order to authenticate and set up the integration.
Map the companies in your PSA to the organizations in JumpCloud to ensure that the ticket is properly associated with the company that had the alert.
3) Configure and Enable Ticketing
Turn on ticket generation overall and configure the alert level. Every alert can be assigned a priority, status, source, due date and resource or queue assigned to.
Congratulations! You are good to go and should start receiving tickets in your PSA when important alerts happen.
Want to check out more integrations? Not a partner yet? Sign up here to trial JumpCloud For MSPs!
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
Identity is the new perimeter. Cyberattacks are becoming more advanced and cloud-focused. Identity providers (IdP) have responded by offering security controls that make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be proactive and mitigate these threats. Many SMEs use Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory (AAD), which has prescribed best practices to secure identities. Microsoft reserves several features for its most premium subscriptions levels. IT administrators must determine which subscription tiers, or mixture of supplemental services from an open directory, are most appropriate for their unique security requirements.
This article outlines the fundamentals of securing identities in AAD with emphasis on understanding what options are available and tailoring security controls to your organization. Provisioning and identity and access management (IAM) is the starting point, followed by centralizing the identity management lifecycle, adding appropriate controls, and auditing.
Identity and Access Control
There are three main paths for provisioning in AAD:
HR-driven onboarding.
Federating identity from AAD to cloud apps.
Inter-directory such as between the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) server role to access resources from your on-prem Active Directory domains.
Image credit: Microsoft
Provision, Manage, and Deprovision Access
Most Microsoft shops have Active Directory (AD). A sync tool called Azure AD Connect syncs users with AAD. Microsoft also accepts non-Microsoft identities for access control, but additional costs may be assessed. Some organizations may have deployed Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) prior to the advent of AAD.
There’s a significant potential for disruptions to system availability when identities are migrated from AD FS to AAD without deliberate planning. Avoid impulsive decision-making when you’re migrating users. Organizations that opt for a hybrid approach should harden Active Directory. This detailed guide offers recommendations about how AD should be managed and maintained for optimal security. Always limit administrative privileges in AD and avoid running day-to-day as a domain administrator.
Familiarize yourself with “join, move, and leave” planning processes and Microsoft’s concepts for identity governance. Automation is possible, but it’s designed for mid-size to large organizations. There’s no default auditing to avoid over-provisioning users or for when individuals leave. Due diligence is necessary to avoid security and compliance issues.
Critically Important AAD Best Practices
Verify that you’ve completed these steps before moving on.
Role-Based Access Control
AAD has built-in and custom user roles, and role-based access control (RBAC) is standard across all subscription tiers. This permits IT to follow the concept of least privilege and helps to establish a Zero Trust security approach, but it relies heavily on manual input and maintenance.
Ensure that you:
Minimize the number of privileged accounts.
Plan to manage, control, and monitor access.
Limit global administrator accounts and make use of other roles such as billing administrator, global reader, helpdesk administrator, and license administrator.
Limit global administrators and never sync high privilege accounts from AD.
Pay careful attention to external collaboration settings and consider restricting external users from being able to invite guests to shared files; third-party storage; as well as review and adjust global sharing settings for SharePoint Online and OneDrive. These changes impact end users, but make it easier to recognize the “official” channels.
Using security groups for users assists with application security and lowers administrative overhead. Microsoft limits this capability to AAD Premium 1 (P1) and Premium 2 (P2) accounts. However, always try to avoid assigning resources directly to users and use identity protection. Please note that Microsoft has documented multiple limitations to syncing AD groups with ADD groups. For example, AD primary group memberships will not sync over to AAD.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is vital for identity protection. AAD’s free tier only permits the use of the Microsoft Authenticator application. Admins have the option of only protecting the Azure AD Global Administrator versus all accounts, but it’s highly advisable to set up MFA for all users. Protect against MFA self-enrollment attacks by using a Temporary Access Pass (TAP) to secure the initial registration. Avoid mixing per-user MFA with Security Defaults and other settings.
Your budget may impact what’s possible. Microsoft assesses fees for all MFA verifications that happen with non-Microsoft identities and capabilities vary depending upon licensing levels.
Consider using additional context and “number matching” in Authenticator notifications to include the application name and geographic location in Push MFA prompts. This practice safeguards against “MFA bombing,” where attackers send repeated requests to exploit MFA fatigue. Attackers successfully hijacked Microsoft users’ sign-in sessions to bypass MFA at 10,000 organizations by using advanced phishing toolkits. Microsoft’s mitigation is to use certificate-based authentication and Fast ID Online (FIDO) v2.0 MFA implementations.
MFA through FIDO 2 devices and Windows Hello requires AAD P1 and P2. Additional hardware costs may apply. Some additional security controls include conditional access (CA).
Conditional Access
Microsoft recommends that all accounts deploy CA, but it’s also an extra cost and only available through P1, P2, or the E3 and E5 tiers for Microsoft 365 (M365) users. The standard M365 tier doesn’t include it. The overall licensing scheme is changing and can be bewildering.
There’s more than one CA implementation:
P1 enforces MFA in certain scenarios
P2 is risk based, learning user behavior to minimize MFA prompts
There are additional steps to consider for password management before we move on.
Configure Password Management
Microsoft has revised its password policy guidance to no longer expire passwords. It’s important to understand that SMEs that are regulated or don’t have MFA and CA configured shouldn’t do that. You may also consider changing passwords if you suspect an ID has been hijacked. CrowdStrike found that 71% of attacks are now malware-less and targeting cloud IDs. 75% of cloud breaches are due to compromised identities. A Zero Trust posture isn’t optional. Consider deploying Extended Detection and Response (XDR) from a vendor of your choosing or paying extra for Microsoft Identity Protection if you prefer the Microsoft stack.
Other best practices are:
Set up self-service password reset (SSPR) with two authentication methods. Note that using security questions might be risky, because attackers gather intelligence on employees that’s “open source” from the web or obtain information from third-party breaches elsewhere. Microsoft charges extra for on-premises write-back.
Use the same password policies everywhere (on-prem and cloud-based). Microsoft maintains extensive documentation on an agent-based approach to enforce AAD password protection on AD DS without exposing your domain controller to the web or forcing networking changes. Note that you have to be proficient in modifying AD settings.
Prepare for the Worst
Create an emergency access Global Admin account for when it’s necessary to “break the glass” during network outages and periods of system downtime. This account is excluded from CA and MFA. Always store these credentials appropriately and use a highly complex password.
Following the steps outlined above provides a strong foundation with the appropriate entitlements, attributes, and processes to prepare AAD for application provisioning.
Manage Connected Applications
Application provisioning is on a per user basis by default with group assignment to applications being reserved for P1, P2, or equivalent AAD subscribers. Ensure that applications don’t provision high access through RBAC. There are multiple options, and automation is available for application provisioning. The initial provisioning cycle populates users, followed by programmatic incremental updates that handle updates made through Microsoft Graph or AD.
Microsoft provides several options for attribute mapping from identities that originate from the “three paths” mentioned above via SCIM endpoints to cloud resources or the Azure AD Provisioning agent. The latter must run on the same server as your SCIM application. Microsoft also has options for one-way connections from AAD to LDAP or SQL database user stores, but those have several on-premise prerequisites. Provisioning users into AD DS isn’t supported.
Siloed identities complicate existing identity practices and infrastructure as well as increase technical overhead and the attack surface area. Enable single sign-on (SSO) to centralize identity management either through AAD or a system or service that integrates with it.
Enable Single Sign-On
SSO will improve security through modern authentication protocols, make life easier for your users, and reduce management overhead. Microsoft has imposed restrictions on the number of SSO applications per user on its free tier, but that policy may be changing. AAD provides pre-built integrations through the Azure AD application gallery in addition to SAML and OAuth 2.0 SSO protocols for manual settings. Microsoft doesn’t support the AAA protocol RADIUS, which many network appliances use for access control, so its SSO doesn’t access all of your resources. Consider using cloud RADIUS or install and configure the Microsoft NPS server role.
It’s possible for all AAD tiers to access native Windows apps via Kerberos, NTLM, LDAP, RDP, and SSH authentication in a hybrid deployment. However, identity protection features such as CA are limited to P1 and P2 products including Azure AD Application Proxy or secure hybrid partnerships integrations. These services will extend modern security to legacy apps.
Phishing Considerations
Microsoft’s default settings permit all users to access the AAD admin portal and register custom SSO applets. Attackers are wise to this workflow and exploit OAuth in phishing exploits, which may bypass MFA. The principle of least privilege mandates that users who don’t need access shouldn’t receive it. Strongly consider restricting user-driven application consent and setting permissions classifications to “low impact.” This also applies to group owners. Compliance boundaries are murkier and should be carefully assessed outside of the Microsoft ecosystem.
AAD can be complex and Microsoft has amassed Azure partners for advanced specialization. Blocks of time with consultants should be a budgeting consideration for any AAD project. This writer, a former IT director, needed consultants even when projects appeared straightforward.
AAD is capable of alerting you to suspicious OAuth authorization requests, but that requires an additional subscription to Microsoft Cloud App security, either standalone or through M365 E5. Other solutions such as CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection have this capability. JumpCloud is a CrowdStrike partner and integrates with its solutions through the CrowdStrike Store.
Now that you’re familiar with configuring users, groups, and applications, let’s review reporting.
Audit Your Security Regularly
You should always look for ways to improve in-house security and processes. If you can’t stop it, you should at least monitor it. Regularly audit your entitlements, users, and review activity reports. Taking this extra step helps make security a process as opposed to relying solely on products and services.
Ideally, you’ll be monitoring all privilege changes, suspicious activity, and signs of known attacks. AAD will provide you with several reports:
Basic security and usage reports are included among all subscription tiers
Advanced reporting is restricted to P1 and P2
SIEM reporting and Identity Protection require P2 (or equivalent) subscriptions
Some security capabilities may be more accessible and easier to deploy via JumpCloud, which integrates with AD, AAD/M365, Google Workspace, and Okta, or can function as a standalone directory. JumpCloud is focused on managing identities, in all places, as your security perimeter.
How JumpCloud Improves Upon Azure AD Best Practices
JumpCloud is an open directory platform that manages identities, access control, and devices. Devices are a method of granting access to an identity or application, so device management is included by default. That makes it possible to assemble high visibility telemetry data for reporting.
As previously noted, Microsoft requires its users to purchase additional subscriptions (Entra, M365 E3/5, AAD P1/2, and Intune for device management) to meet its recommendations for best practices. Standard AAD deployments fall short of Microsoft’s guidance, but some of its premium offerings may sell SMEs more features than they require or even want to purchase.
JumpCloud can help to fill in some of those gaps, and is easy to deploy, with deepening integrations for exporting AAD user groups. It’s designed for SMEs, so IT teams may benefit from having more control over what they’re buying (as opposed to not using what they pay for). The next section explores the specifics of how JumpCloud can improve AAD and help your organization to build the stack of its choosing out of best-of-breed apps and services.
IAM and SSO
Identities flow into JumpCloud from other directories, HRIS systems, or JumpCloud’s Cloud LDAP. Attributes, such as where users are located, who their supervisor is, or what team they belong to, simplify provisioning user access to IT resources such as applications and networks.
Group management is provided at no additional cost and leverages attribute-based access control (ABAC), enabling the system to continuously audit entitlements for Zero Trust access control. JumpCloud is introducing the ability to automate and apply membership suggestions to groups. RBAC is more of a manual process, which can lead to mistakes that over or under provision users. Group members can access resources through SSO protocols and more:
SAML
OAuth 2.0
OIDC
RADIUS
LDAP
JumpCloud provides delegated authentication that leverages AAD credentials and password policies for RADIUS. This capability extends Azure SSO to network resources such as Wi-Fi networks and VPNs while also reducing technical overhead and eliminating siloed identities. SSO applets launch from within the JumpCloud user console as a security control for phishing.
Environment-Wide MFA
JumpCloud Protect™, an integrated authenticator app for MFA, is designed to be frictionless. It provides application-based Push MFA and TOTP in addition to WebAuthn and U2F keys. More options for biometric authentication and passwordless log-in experiences are being added to the platform.
MFA can be configured for most SSO, LDAP, and RADIUS logins. It’s also integrated with CA.
Conditional Access
AAD identities can be protected by conditional access through JumpCloud as an add-on without purchasing P1 or P2 from Microsoft. Pre-built rules are available to enforce MFA for privileged user groups, restrict logins to specific locations, and to require device trust. Meaning, any identity + device that isn’t managed by JumpCloud won’t be able to access cloud apps. More granular conditions such as OS version and device encryption status are coming soon.
Password Management
A decentralized password manager and vault is available as an add-on through browser plug-ins and mobile apps to help SMEs implement complex passphrases for users. This feature assists with provisioning and revoking user access to reduce the risk of data breaches. Centralized password management also increases visibility for compliance peace of mind.
Device Management
JumpCloud is cross-OS, supporting:
Android: Support for policies and application distribution is coming in late 2022 and beyond.
Apple products: Mobile Device Management (MDM) is available for macOS and iOS devices, providing for application distribution, policies, and commands with the option for Zero Trust deployment. Policies are timely and in-touch with the needs of Mac admins, including addressing “Day 0” OS upgrade controls.
Linux: JumpCloud supports multiple Linux distros with multiple deployment options. It provides pre-built policies, including full disk encryption (FDE), and Sudo access for commands (with pre-built security commands through the Admin Console). IAM capabilities aren’t restricted to certain browsers; Microsoft mandates Edge for Intune device enrollment. Intune is an additional subscription beyond standalone AAD.
Windows: Anything an admin wishes to do is possible through security commands and a PowerShell module. Commands function through a queue. JumpCloud providespre-built GPO-like policies including fine-grained control over BitLocker, as well as a GUI for custom policies. There’s also software distribution, and more, with Windows Out of Box Experience (OOBE) coming soon to streamline onboarding remote workers.
Patch Management
JumpCloud offers cross-OS patching as an add-on. Patching is an important activity to mitigate the risk of security breaches that leverage 0-Day attacks with a healthy device state. Centralizing patch management helps to reduce costs versus purchasing a third-party patch management solution for Windows and all other operating systems. Browser patch management is arriving in Q4, 2022, and it will extend to reporting for management status.
Remote Assist
IT teams can extend opt-in remote support to users with Remote Assist. It’s free and works cross-OS. The only configuration that’s required is to have JumpCloud agents running on a device that’s bound to an identity from the open directory. It’s possible to:
Copy and paste between devices
Work in multi-monitor systems
Turn on audit logging
Reporting
JumpCloud’s emphasis on making identity the new perimeter is reflected in the telemetry that’s available from built-in reporting tools including Device Insights and Directory Insights. There’s a growing selection of pre-made reports, stored for analysis. SIEM integration is also possible.
Some of those include:
User to Devices
User to RADIUS Server
User to LDAP
User to Directories
User to SSO Applications
OS Patch Management Policy
Cloud Insights is an add-on to monitor Amazon Web Services (AWS) events and user actions. This makes compliance and data forensics easier for SMEs and helps to enforce least privilege in cloud infrastructure. Support for Google Cloud (GCP) will be introduced next for a multi-cloud strategy.
Avoid Vendor Lock-In and Do More with JumpCloud
JumpCloud is available to try with full functionality for 10 users and devices, and with 10 days of complementary chat support before charges are accessed. AAD users benefit from more freedom of choice, simpler deployment workflows, access to more sources, and lower costs.
Sometimes self-service doesn’t get you everything you need. If that’s how you’re feeling, schedule a 30-minute consultation to discuss options for implementation assistance, migration services, custom scripting, and more.
Similarly, managed service providers (MSPs) receive 10 free user accounts within the first organization that they create in the multi-tenant portal, JumpCloud’s dedicated MSP solution.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
With my newly started series about the Dark web (which will still continue) I had an idea about how I could ‘branch out’ for a bit, as there are some convergent things here that are of interest to us. The shared aspect of someone’s activity on the Dark web and your daily usage of your favorite internet browser does indeed boil down to two things – privacy and anonymity.
I want to expand a bit on that, and I will try to look at it from a few different angles, but for this article I want to talk about the usage of Public Wi-Fi for privacy, and anonymity.
Public Hotspots
When you’re on a public hotspot keep in mind that the owner of that hotspot is in fact Man in The Middle. This means that they can see your traffic, inject into your traffic, other users on the network can as well look at your traffic, attack you, even directly through your open ports. Also, this hotspot doesn’t need to be the hotspot you think you’re connecting to.
That’s a lot of different risks coming at you all at once. But how would you go on about dealing with this? And I don’t mean not using the hotspot; let’s say that for some reason we must use that risky public hotspot.
One good thing to do (as a best practice of sorts) is to disable whatever wireless technology you’re not using, for example, Bluetooth, 3G, etc. It will also save some battery. If you must, try using a hotspot that has WPA2, AES, and avoid any hotspot that’s using WEP, for example. Just run from those.
Also, use SSL and TLS for encryption because without end-to-end encryption a threat actor might inject packets and attack you or your browser. Generally, for anything that’s sent from your device, use encryption. This is somewhere where your VPN might jump in.
The idea here is that the whole OS you’re on is sending data that’s encrypted, because you don’t want some stuff that’s in the background not to go through the encrypted tunnel messing your whole operation up.
One other good thing to do is set up a firewall profile for public hotspots/networks.
Lastly, you can bring hardware into the mix by using a portable router/firewall and connect it to the hotspot. The above ideas are the same as for the hardware, to add a layer of security to your connection, and hardware achieves that through physical separation. Of course, this might not be the best option for you, but in that case, at least try to stick with the bare minimum setup, and use a VPN, close those ports and services you won’t be needing don’t make it easier for your friendly neighbourhood hacker to compromise you.
On the flip side, public networks/hotspots, like internet café’s, airports, hotels, etc, are a good way to protect your anonymity; given, if you set up correctly, and if those networks provide anonymous connection.
Since this internet connection isn’t registered to you, nor should have any connections to you, it is a good way to keep your anonymity.
The things you should do when you’re going to visit one of these public places to access Internet anonymously
This whole scenario (somewhat) implies that your adversary has significant resources, and the consequences would be dire for you. Even if that’s not the case, in my opinion, you can’t really overdo this stuff, as you can never be truly 100% risk-free and/or secure which is why this has a place on the discussion panel – in my opinion.
I am very interested in this topic, and for me this is all for educational purposes. Please be careful, know the risks, as well as your limitations, and please don’t do any illegal activity! I don’t want to bore you, nor to digress any more, but I feel the need to say this out loud, just in case.
You will also want to follow your OpSec rules (this is something I covered previously, but as a refresher I will add the list below too – slightly variated)
Don’t talk openly about stuff that’s important i.e., mission critical
Don’t trust anyone
Don’t contaminate your identities
Be paranoid (better now, than later)
Stay under the radar – if you’re a dissident, don’t tweet your political opinions, etc. – make yourself ordinary as you can
Avoid logging whatever you can; if you can – destroy it. It’s better to not have it than to keep it encrypted, no matter the algorithm keeping your stuff secure…
Everything should be encrypted, even non-sensitive data
Treat your OpSec as a very serious thing, as it is.
To get back on our topic, ideally, you will have no pattern when visiting said public places where you will be accessing the Internet. You will vary your distance, you will choose those places at random, you will look for the busier ones, where more users go through, if possible, also vary the times you visit the said public places. Also, don’t bring a phone that can be tied to your identity that you don’t want to be associated with your internet connection, as it will be.
Try to fit in, avoid talking too much, and avoid standing out. Try to sit where you can see everything, ideally keep your back to a wall. You want to see everything/everyone coming at you so you can theoretically react in time.
For an extra-paranoid option, wipe the prints from the table, glasses, whatnot, basically don’t leave your DNA.
Also, remember – if you don’t own the machine you’re on – you’re fully vulnerable if you’re using your own accounts or stuff like that! (In case of the Internet café’s where you use their computers, as everything can be logged). There are mitigations for this (like pre-encrypting your stuff before using the public PC for that), but I would advise you to just not opt for going this route. Just avoid this option like the plague, if at all possible.
Summary/conclusions/musings
Another thing to note is that you can access hotspots from a distance, and I intend to expand on that a bit more, but don’t mistake public hotspots for anonymizing services. You should still send your traffic through an encrypted tunnel and follow all the OpSec rules that are relevant for your own threat model.
Conclusion
This has been a short intro on public hotspots and how to behave when you’re out there in the wild and you care about your privacy, security, and anonymity. I will expand on this for quite a bit, as I intend to cover the above mentioned accessing of the hotspots from a distance, as well as many other tips and tricks you might find useful on your privacy, security, and anonymity journey.
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