Mandatory Encryption starting May 2, 2016

Beginning on May 2, 2016, the Security Team will be contacting sites and pushing the encryption software to windows laptop systems that are not encrypted nor have an ANS form filed.

Sites are strongly encouraged to have their systems 1) backed up and 2) hard drives scanned for errors PRIOR to encryption being applied to their remaining systems.

As a …

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SSL RC4 Cipher Suite Vulnerability

This GPO is now linked at the regional levels and will automatically be applied to all Windows desktop and server Os’s in Active Directory.

BWTST has created a GPO, “DI-BWTST Disable RC4 Cipher“, that will mitigate the vulnerabilities associated with SSL RC4 Cipher Suite that has recently raised as a top concern.

Recent searches discovered a two-fold approach of a Microsoft …

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Adobe Shockwave

Adobe Shockwave is a plugin used for multimedia playback in web browsers. Shockwave may no longer be necessary in most cases since other plugins such as Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR have become preferred alternatives to perform similar functions. Since this software still requires regular patching due to security vulnerabilities, BWTST recommends sites evaluate their need of Shockwave and remove …

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.NET Framework 4,4.5, 4.51 EOL January 1/12/2016

On August 7, 2014, Microsoft announced that support will end for .NET Framework 4, 4.5, and 4.5.1 on January 12, 2016 (.NET Framework Lifecycle). Customers and developers need to have completed the in-place update to .NET Framework 4.5.2 by January 12, 2016 to continue receiving technical support and security updates. Support for .NET Framework 4.5.2, as well as all …

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Change to BisonConnect Email Access

Effective Friday, January 15, 2016, the BisonConnect team will be implementing Strong Authentication for when you access your BisonConnect account from devices that are not connected to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) network.   Currently, you use Strong Authentication to log onto the DOI network whenever you’re in a DOI office or accessing the DOI network remotely (VPN).  This …

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Hyper-V 2012 R2 Presentation

Windows Server Hyper V

On Nov. 24, 2015 the TST held a Webex training session on Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2. If you were unable to attend you can download the slide deck and the Webex recording of the presentation here.

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Mac OSX 10.11 – El Capitan Release

Apple has released the latest version of Mac OS X, version 10.11, “El Capitan”

This is considered a minor upgrade to OS X, so relatively few upgrade issues are expected for this release.  Our initial tests were encouraging, and we announced that users were unlikely to encounter catastrophic issues if they upgrade to El Capitan.  Things are a bit more …

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iOS9 Release – Calendar Sync Issue

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
DOI has scheduled to lift the moratorium on iOS9 tomorrow, October 6, 2015 2:00pm ET.  Their testing has shown that there is still a known issue with BisonConnect and the iOS 9 native Calendar. Google is working at the highest priority to have this issue resolved.  Symptoms of this bug include missing calendar entries …

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