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In this (long overdue) edition of from around the web we have a really simple (and largely free) tool to forward Windows logs, a guide on configuring Office 365 with some cool email security features and a super simple (barebones) digital signage package for the Raspberry Pi.

NXLog: Capture logs from Windows systems (in a nice way!)

With the centralised collection of event logs becoming a hot topic NXLog is certainly worth a mention as a tool that can (at the very least) capture Windows Event data and ship them up to a service like Graylog (even better NXLog can use the GELF format allowing the logs to be easily parsed by the server).

Options for Windows Server DNS logging and DHCP logging are also included with it’s feature set making for a very useful tool.

Configure Office 365 (without ATP) to do SPF, DKIM and DMARC

SFP, DKIM and DMARC (described in a little more depth here) are handy technologies to prevent the use of your own email domain by spammers/suchlike. This guide walks you through how to configure these technologies with direct reference to Office 365.

Screenly Open Source Edition: Barebones digital signage

Oddly included in the NOOBS package for the Raspberry Pi but not something I’ve come across in the past. The Screenly OSE (Open Source Edition) gives you a really easy way to display web pages and other content on a schedule from a simple web based management console. Given it’s simplicity I really find it handy when configuring PRTG Maps for large format displays.

For this weeks ‘from around the web’ we are looking at some very cool screens that I’ve just started working with for an Arduino project, some advice from the National Cyber Security Centre and a brilliant set of resources to build a plan to secure an IT environment.

Nextion displays for Raspberry Pi/Arduino
For a little while now I’ve been working on various little Arduino based projects (of note soil and general environment sensors); in looking to branch out to some more areas I’ve decided to build a ‘sensor array’ for my car and naturally will need some way to display all the data being captured. For this I came across the Nextion displays which come in a variety of sizes, have an easy to use application to design how the screen looks/works and only needs power + serial connectivity to work.

Hopefully pretty soon I’ll get some more detailed examples of this ‘sensor array’ on here.

Three random words or #thinkrandom
For a basic but handy document about how cyber criminals breach passwords and for advice on how to make better passwords look no further than this link from the National Cyber Security Centre.

CIS Cyber Security Best Practices
Sometimes organisations are just bombarded with advice on ‘where to start’ with Cyber Security, some might say start with logging, others perhaps just having an inventory of what you have or maybe having the very best firewall you can afford (pro tip it’s the second one!). To get some real answers that are sized appropriately for any organisation the Centre for Internet Security is the place to start.

A late one for this release of ‘from around the web’ after being on holiday for the last week – as the case always seems to be I’ve come out of the sun quite red. This week we have another step in the right direction to getting rid of passwords, some helpful templates for building a first config for a Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewall and an interesting (short) review of the Hubitat home automation hub.

New Azure Active Directory capabilities help you eliminate passwords at work
It’s been promised by Microsoft (and some others) for quite some time and it looks like another leap in the right direction has been made. With FIDO2 and devices like the YubiKey password less login on Windows 10 Azure AD domain joined devices is happening. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of the page!

iron-skillet
All the options within a PAN NGFW can seem quite daunting and while the out of the box settings for security policies will help they are far from best practice. That’s where the IronSkillet comes in handy to take some of that pain away and give you a serious starting point.

Smart Home Hub – Hubitat Review
For the people who don’t have the time (or know how) to invest in something like Home Assistant but aren’t up for relying on a connection to the ‘cloud’ for home automation then Hubitat may well be for you. I’ve been exploring home automation for quite some time (at the moment using LIFX and HomeSeer) and may well consider looking into Hubitat some more if/when I decide to expand on it.

In this new blog post series I’ll be looking at (normally a selection of 3) cool articles, news and other blog posts that I find interesting during the day. For this week we have PowerShell tricks, a detailed article on securing the Windows Firewall and an (old but very interesting) write up on the woes of network administrators when everything goes wrong.

PowerShell tricks: Splatting
New to me (always learning!) this trick allows you to populate the parameters for a PowerShell cmdlet in a table (makes for much neater formatting) to then pass into the cmdlet as a single object.

Endpoint Isolation with the Windows Firewall
The Windows Firewall may seem like a bit of a beast from time to time but this article makes some great points on how to build out a set of secure policies that can apply to pretty much any environment.

All systems down
A true disaster story – quite old (2003) but really worth a read to see what lessons you can take home.