Starting on July 28, Microsoft is making TPM 2.0 hardware-based security layer a requirement on Windows 10 smartphones, PCs and tablets.
Microsoft is rolling out a change in minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10 PCs and mobile devices, and expects hardware makers to comply in order to make their devices more secure.
Starting Thursday, PC makers should include a hardware-based security feature called TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 in Windows 10 PCs, smartphones and tablets.
Killing the password
Microsoft wants to kill passwords with a bio-metric authentication feature called Windows Hello, in which users can log into a PC via fingerprint, face or iris recognition. A TPM 2.0 chip is important to Windows Hello as it generates and stores the authentication keys in a secure area.
TPM 2.0 could also make two-factor authentication via Microsoft Passport—which could use bio-metric and pin-based authentication—a common feature in Windows 10 PCs. The Passport feature could be used to log into websites, applications and other services.
Microsoft has said TPM isn’t needed for Windows Hello, but recommends the security layer to protect bio-metric login data. TPM chips can be hard to hack, and do a better job protecting sensitive information than the software-based mechanisms that would otherwise be used to protect Windows Hello login data.
TPM definitely provides a security improvement in laptops, and is an excellent protection for encryption keys and other critically important data needed for authentication on the PC, said Kevin Murphy, vice president of operations at security company IOActive.
“Since it is hardware based rather than software based, the keys are not exposed to the PC memory. PC memory is a common venue for attackers to scrape intellectual property resident in the memory, which is usually the main purpose of the attack,” Murphy said.
However, using the TPM does not protect the encryption keys from being manipulated by an attacker. If an attacker “owns” the machine—for example by spoofing an authorized user—the TPM will answer any request as it normally would to the legitimate user.
“It will not know the difference. The advantage in this scenario is that the attack is limited to the current attack and cannot steal the keys for a future attack,” Murphy said.
It is possible to break TPM chips, but it would be a difficult attack, likely requiring a tremendous amount of skill, equipment, time, and investment, Murphy said.
Disk encryption system BitLocker already uses TPM to secure encryption keys. TPM is also used for secure software updates, to protect virtual machines and to authenticate smart cards. Intel’s vPro remote management service relies on TPM for authentication ahead of remote PC repairs.
Building TPM into everything
TPM 2.0 will be a minimum requirement on all Windows 10 devices except for developer boards like Raspberry Pi 3, which runs the lightweight Windows 10 IoT Core.
The security feature isn’t new; in fact it’s been available for years, mostly in business PCs. Many new PCs already have TPM 2.0, with an exception being low-cost PCs. Some Windows laptops have the older TPM 1.2 standard. But PC makers will now be expected to comply with Microsoft’s new hardware requirements and include TPM 2.0.
HP’s Elite X3 Windows 10 smartphone—based on Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 820 processor—already has TPM 2.0. The feature isn’t listed in Acer’s Liquid Jade Primo or Nokia Lumia models, which have older components.
Microsoft has been trying to drive hardware and software changes in PCs, some of which have been controversial. Upcoming PCs based on Intel’s Kaby Lake chips—which could be released in the third quarter—will support only Windows 10, not prior versions of the OS.
The software company earlier this year said it would support Windows 7 and 8.1 on Skylake devices until July 17, 2017, but extended that for one year after attracting criticism for trying to force an OS upgrade to Windows 10 on users.
Microsoft has been working with hardware partners to implement TPM 2.0 across devices, a spokesperson said. TPM 2.0 maximizes security capabilities for Windows Hello, Passport, and helps secure 4K streaming video using DRM, she said.
”In the future, more key features will rely on it,” the spokesperson said.
TPM 2.0, a specification from Trusted Computing Group, was approved as an international standard by ISO/IEC (the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission) in June last year.
Author – Agam Shah
Not so long ago, hardware-centric solutions seemed to be the only answer to storage-related issues. If additional storage was needed or performance had to be improved, there was only one option – throw more hardware at the problem and hope it helped. In most cases, it worked, but in general it created vendor lock and silos of storage that needed special skills to manage. Is solving today’s storage problems by hoarding hardware solutions still the best approach in the modern world?
Previously, the server market was purely hardware driven with applications sitting on expensive, discrete physical servers in a scale-up architecture. But the emergence of server virtualisation and scale-out technologies has given traditional storage vendors a real problem. Storage vendors may acknowledge new technologies and even market them, but their revenue streams are mostly built on legacy traditional storage arrays.
As we are seeing in today’s declining hardware-centric environment, the industry’s move away from legacy hardware arrays and the support and services that go with them are pushing their revenues to a consistent decline. Ultimately it is not in their interests to allow existing customers to move away from traditional branded storage.
Protecting the bottom line
The truth is that the pressure of delivering shareholders’ profits and meeting revenue commitments is dictating the product strategy of traditional storage vendors. New storage technologies like software-defined storage (SDS) offer flexibility and scalability at lower pricing on commodity components. However, advocating a completely hardware-agnostic SDS option to their existing customers would result in lower revenue and profits for traditional storage vendors. They have financial incentives to keep customers locked in to traditional storage for as long as possible or provide a SDS solutions with a new licensing models that favor their own underlying hardware.
Time to break free?
The challenge with blindly throwing more hardware at a variety of IT problems limits organisations flexibility and leaves the customer with the only option of buying even more of the same solution. In terms of storage, IT teams are led to believe that if they want their data to move freely around on internal servers, it will need to be on the same branded hardware that they already have. However, the right software can offer other alternative solutions to this problem. An horizontal SDS layer hands power back to the organisations by sitting above various hardware resources and managing it all, no matter what brand it is.
Companies that have implemented massive scale-out data centres built on white box hardware solutions have quickly embraced the SDS model as it gives them scalability at a low cost, along with other benefits such as lower management and maintenance overheads. It is common to see this approach in large organisations where the amount of data being stored is high and likely to involve numerous disparate storage platforms.
Change of focus
As SDS platforms mature and provide more robust data services, it is getting harder to justify just buying more of the same from a hardware vendor. Organisations that take the plunge and opt for a software-first approach will benefit from greater choices when making their next purchasing decision as well as the freedom to pick the most suitable product, rather than be restricted to what is compatible.
As well as improving the bottom line of an organisation, software can be an intelligent layer that brings other benefits, such as data recovery, migration and optimisation of the data being stored. When organisations see the benefits and low costs of SDS, it will be hard for traditional vendors to justify their legacy hardware. A fully automated, remotely managed data centre that drives appropriate total cost of ownership (TCO) targets for profitability, can only be achieved through software management and hardware abstraction at every layer of the infrastructure from servers, to network to storage. Converting to a software abstracted storage ecosystem is the only way to truly drive TCO, lowering costs and providing visibility into performance and usage statistics of the storage transactions throughout the data centre.
Author – Farid Yavari
Website – http://www.itproportal.com/2016/07/26/sds-to-spell-an-end-to-a-hardware-focused-industry/
As charities contend with a drop in donations and remaining financially viable, they’re increasingly looking to technology to help. In fact, eight out of ten chief executives say they would be “investing in IT/new technology and online solutions”.
Getting the right accounting software can help charities to manage gift aid, understand the most successful sources of funding and get more detailed data to show their impact. We offer some advice about how charities can choose the right software and get the most of their investment.
Investing in software
Charities are always under pressure to keep infrastructure and administration costs low and any purchases need to be carefully considered.
However, a lack of investment can be equally problematic, as charities miss out on valuable data that could help secure new funding sources or provide information to help show their supporters how their donations are helping.
Accounting software can also help to minimise the impact of some of the key challenges facing charities today:
- Financial sustainability: accounting software can help you to understand the financial status of your charity and to make better informed decisions thanks to the data it provides.
- Drop in public and government donations: while the software can’t create more donations, it can help you to analyse your most successful sources of funding, so you can focus on areas that are working well and minimise your costs in acquiring new donors.
- Administration time and costs: many tasks that need to be handled manually can be automated with the right software, freeing up your team for income generation or managing services.
- Measuring impact: with the increased focus on demonstrating the positive effect that charities make, having access to the right data is essential. The Charity Finance Group said that “public trust and confidence are essential for an effective and successful charity sector, and high standards of financial management and performance reporting are an important part of maintaining this.”
- Legislation: keeping up to date with the volume of charity regulations takes time. The right accounting software ensures you’re compliant and helps you report your figures correctly.
Choose the right software
With so many advantages, it’s clear that the right software can make a big difference. But there are a growing number of packages available, so it’s important that charities follow the right process in choosing one that suits them.
From developing a specification through shortlisting and trials to making the purchase, it pays to be clear about what you are looking for. Each charity’s needs will be different but here are the key things that will apply in most cases.
Designed with charities in mind
Charities have different needs from general businesses and need to be able to track donations, gift aid declarations and ensure their accounts comply with Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), including providing a Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA), which replaces the Profit and Loss statement used by companies.
Choosing software that has been optimised for charities ensures you’re complying with legislation and have the information you need.
The right data
It’s important that you understand the data and reports you need for your organisation. Any software you choose should be flexible enough to fit your requirements, and simple to use.
Available anywhere
With many fundraisers out at events or with supporters, choosing charity software that lets them stay connected is really helpful. Choosing software that is available through the cloud means they can update information from anywhere with an internet connection.
Other employees can make use of this feature too. From your finance director to your chief exec, everyone can be assured that they will always have access to the figures they need.
Trusted provider
You need to know that your data is safe and your software provider can ensure that you stay compliant as new legislation is introduced. Choosing an established charity software company means they’ll be there to support you, now and in the future.
Many times we have found ourselves wanting to ‘test’ entering transactions, running reports and adding new accounts without using our ‘real’ data but not implementing it on our live Sage 200 company.
This is where a Test Company comes into play!
What you need to know…
This is essentially a company where we are able to test, play, amend and delete data that we have entered into Sage.
Whether you are:
- Questioning the end result from a transaction
- Unsure of the result from changing a setting
- Carrying out training with new employees
- Experimenting with a new process
- Trying to improve on your Sage knowledge
A test company is a great resource that enables you to cover all of these and more.
Setting up a test company is easy. If you don’t already have one, we highly advise that you set one up.
Fortunately, we will be covering that today.
How to set up a Test Company
Prior to setting this up , a few key pieces of information are required.
You will need:
- Access to System Admin
- Access to the SQL Server
- The current live company database name.
Firstly: Head to System Admin > Select Companies from the columns on the left hand side.
From here you will need to make a note of the database name assigned to your current live company.
With this then you need to head to the SQL Server and create a backup of that database.
Once the backup is complete you need to restore this as a new database.
Once this is completed, you will need to create a new company within system admin.
We would suggest that you call the company name the same as your live company, only with test at the end like so:
- Live company name = Small Soldiers LTD
- Test company name = Small Soldiers LTD Test
This ensures the two companies are never selected in error.
You should now open Sage and select the test company from the list of companies, then that is your test company all set up.
Getting the most out of your Test Company
To ensure you are getting the most out of your test company, we suggest you regularly update it.
Similar to the installation of the test company, updating it is simply taking a backup of the live data. The only difference is we are going to restore the backup over the existing test company’s database.
When the process is complete and you have successfully completed your backup and restore, it will be fully up to date.
So, there we have it. I hope you were able to follow all steps easily… Until the next time!
Author – Jade
Website – http://itassolutions.co.uk/benefits-setting-test-company/
Excel is a powerful digital tool but many people find it challenging to use. However, according to Newcastle upon Tyne-based IT company Bowe Digital, using a few handy hints can make all the difference.
Bowe Digital Ltd are a fully accredited Sage Business Partner and Sage Developer in Kingston Park, Newcastle, just off the A1.
As a North East Sage Business Partner, specialising in the provision and installation of Accounting, Manufacturing and CRM software, Bowe Digital Ltd provides IT solutions tailored to clients’ precise needs.
Bowe Digital can supply, support and install Hardware, Software and Peripheral Equipment that a business might require, from a simple PC workstation to complex Wide Area Networks. They also provide tailored training, consultancy and continued support from experienced IT professionals.
