In this issue
Ask Our Readers: Windows 10 screen lock settings not working (responses). Get Power Automate Desktop! MFA in one simple step? Printer security tips. Where’s my hard drive? Defending against (some) ransomware attacks. FTP is dead — Long live FTP. Plus lots more — read it all, read it here on WServerNews!
Automation can make your life easier. Unless you’re a robot of course, in which case you’re forced to work 24x7x365. What a life. Photo by Lenny Kuhne on Unsplash
Ask Our Readers: Windows 10 screen lock settings not working (responses)
In our last issue of WServerNews we published the following question from reader named Andrey who works as the Director of Technology for a company:
I’m having a heck of a time with Windows Screen Lock settings. Tried just about everything I can think of. Power Settings, etc. It’s very inconsistent. It appears that “too much’ activity is happening for the Windows 10 1909 OS to lock the screen. I updated the machine to Windows 10 20H2 and it locks as long as no one is touching the mouse or keyboard unlike the 1909. This is a stickler that required us to shorten the time frame it locks the screen after to help with compliance but boy would I love to solve this issue as it even has our ‘experts/consultants’ stumped, essentially blaming Microsoft.
I asked Andrey to describe it for us in more detail. He replied as follows:
Thank you for getting back to me. Basically the computer will not lock on the usual 10 minute timer. This is a Win 10 1909 OS. We determined that it appears that Microsoft defines an IDLE Lock as CPU and GPU have to be under a certain threshold. In the past it seemed that it would be triggered simply from no keyboard or mouse activity. I tried updating to Win 10 20H2 OS on this same laptop and it started locking very consistently even with high CPU usage as long as the mouse or keyboard isn’t touched. The other issue is we tried adjusting the power settings to force the lock and it appears to trigger the network disconnect at the same time when it locks, dropping connections to applications, etc. Essentially, it appears that the simply Screen Lock settings don’t work in Windows 1909.
Wayne Hanks responded with the following suggestion:
With regards to the screen locking, I did find that because of the power settings on the network cards, they will disconnect the network when the machine goes into power save mode. Many of the standard network cards have a power saving setting that turns off network connectivity when they go into sleep mode. I have found I need to disable the ability for the computer to turn off the device to save power. There is an option in the actual network card settings to disable this however:
So maybe that’s was causing the problem on the affected machines.
Another reader named Rick Sawyer had a different take about the issue Andrey raised:
Unless the user is returning immediately, windows key+L. Works great and programs and functions run smoothly in the background until other power settings take effect.
When I pointed out to him that Andrey was asking why the desktop doesn’t lock *automatically* after the configured amount of no user interaction on keyboard/mouse i.e. Andrey wants the computer to lock after a period of inactivity if for example the user leave their computer unlocked and goes for coffee, Rick added:
Got it. I think each IT admin has different feelings and each organization has different requirements. I come from a federal background where if you got up from your system and could not “see” it you were required to lock the screen either by pulling your access card or windows L. Understanding location and services makes it where individuals should be responsible for the security, if required, of the machine and not rely on technology to “cover” for them.
Rick actually has a pretty valid point, namely that technology in isolation isn’t usually the full solution for a *business* problem like securing users’ computers in a corporate environment. Corporate policies, both communicating them and enforcing them, is also often needed, or may even be the preferred approach for the organization to implement.
Anyways, if any other readers have some thoughts on this matter please email us.
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Editor’s Corner
This issue’s ponderings from Editor Mitch Tulloch…
Get Power Automate Desktop!
Anyone who runs a business knows the benefit of being able to automate frequently performed tasks. And since much of our work nowadays is done on Windows computers, being able to automate tasks you perform on your PC can save you significant time and money. Not all of us a programmers however, and until recently most task automation programs have either been tools that record mouse clicks and keypresses as macros or involve significant learning curves for programming in order to use them effectively.
Now however there’s Power Automate Desktop which was released last fall by Microsoft and which I’ve finally gotten around beginning to look at. Power Automate Desktop targets home users, small businesses and even larger enterprise companies and helps users who need to perform rule-based tasks on their computers. If you’re tired of performing the same task over and over on your Windows 10 computer, you should take a good look at Power Automate Desktop and perhaps give it a try. The following YouTube videos may whet your appetite a bit:
Automate tasks from your desktop with Microsoft Power Automate Desktop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acXGoQU9lwc
Power Automate Desktop for Windows 10 Intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwEdG1JAiqk
How to start with Power Automate Desktop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVYIlBsros
How to use Microsoft Power Automate Desktop – Full tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_KpBC8fwo
Learn to Use Power Automate with Examples | Create Bulk PDF Files | Planner to Outlook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUsik0FGzI0
Top 25 Power Automate flow tips and tricks for 2021 – hidden gems and new features
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O68-cc-QNo
If any of our readers have tried out Power Automate Desktop and have begun using it in their work or business workflow, let me know — thanks!
MFA in one simple step?
Everyone is talking about going passwordless these days, but most organizations seem to be focusing on using MFA (multi-factor authentication) and most often 2FA (two-factor authentication) in the form of type your password and then enter the PIN you receive as an SMS message on your cellphone.
Yuk!!!
I *hate* how slow it is to log on to a site or service when I need to confirm my password with an additional PIN that I receive on my cellphone. And it’s not very secure either.
So then I got a message recently from Robert Griffin the CEO and co-founder of MIRACL who state on their Twitter feed that “We replace insecure passwords, complex 2FA and expensive SMS texts – with a simple PIN – blocking 99.9% of attacks against enterprise or B2C customer accounts.”
This I gotta see!
So Robert points me to a couple of cool little videos about their service:
The first video is under a minute in length and demonstrates how fast MIRACL is compared to logging on using your usual Google account. The second video explains in 2 minutes some of the technology behind how a MIRACL login works.
The question though is, how can this be MFA if you only type one thing (your PIN)? Robert had a good answer to that:
Great question. We have used our patented split key cryptography to create MFA.
First, using identity based encryption we generate a key that is unique to the user, device and application.
Then we destroy the key by subtracting from it the PIN that the user selects. The result is a key shard which is left on the registered device and a PIN which exists in the user’s head and in no database anywhere.
The PIN is either manually entered as a knowledge factor whereupon it re-creates the unique key by combining with the key shard as a possession factor. Alternatively Biometrics / inherence can be used by storing the PIN in the vault and applying a biometric to authenticate.
We can also split the key with a location, a time of day or other factors to add to the two factors.
People obsess over getting a web page to load in <0.5 seconds yet they demand users login via a process that takes 30 seconds. It makes no sense. This addresses that problem.
This is pretty cool and it’s something I plan on looking into further. What do our readers think about it? Email me!
Printer security tips
I recently came across a couple of tips for securing network printers and I thought I’d share them here for readers who manage IT in business environments. The first tip applies mainly to mid- and large-sized enterprises and involves creating a separate VLAN for your print devices to isolate them from everything on your network except your print servers, which of course you need to be careful to secure and maintain as well.
The second tip applies to businesses of any size: keep the firmware of your print devices updated. Naturally this only applies to print devices whose firmware can be updated as some makes and models don’t support firmware updating. Then there’s the question of whether the vendor actually releases firmware updates for their devices. The moral here is that if you’re planning on purchasing network printers for your business, do some research first to find out whether the printer vendor actually supports their devices by releasing patches for them when vulnerabilities are discovered in their firmware.
For what it’s worth HP is pretty good in this regard, see this page on their Support site for example:
https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c03847902
Generally you need to go to your printer vendor’s support website and search for each printer model to find out whether they support firmware updating.
Where’s my hard drive?
Finally (and speaking of HP) the following post by Susan Bradley caught my eye awhile back:
So I opened up an HP and where’s the hard drive? (AskWoody)
https://www.askwoody.com/2021/so-i-opened-up-an-hp-and-wheres-the-hard-drive/
It’s hard to keep up with everything happening in tech these days, and that new development in PC storage totally passed me by as I haven’t bought a new PC or laptop for a couple of years for our business. For a quick introduction to NVM3 SSDs check out the following resources:
NVMe SSDs: Everything you need to know about this insanely fast storage (PCWorld)
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2899351/everything-you-need-to-know-about-nvme.html
Best SSDs 2021: From Budget SATA to Blazing-Fast NVMe (Tom’s Hardware)
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ssds,3891.html
The best NVMe SSD in 2021 (PCGamer)
https://www.pcgamer.com/best-nvme-ssd/
Maybe it’s time for an equipment refresh around here — if I can afford it.
Got comments about anything in this issue?
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Please tell others about WServerNews!
Enjoy this issue of WServerNews and feel free to send us feedback on any of the topics we’ve covered — we love hearing from our readers! And please tell others about WServerNews! It’s free and always will be free — and they can subscribe to it here. Thanks!!!
Tip of the Week
>> Got any IT pro tips you’d like to share with other readers of our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
Defending against (some) ransomware attacks
Gotta share this fascinating tip from Brian Krebs on his blog:
Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate (KrebsOnSecurity)
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/try-this-one-weird-trick-russian-hackers-hate/
I didn’t take it seriously at first, but then I thought “Why not?” Brian’s suggestion is simple to implement as long as you understand how to switch between keyboard languages on your Windows PC.
Be sure to read the post’s comments too as they’re…interesting.
Admin Toolbox
>> Got any admin tools or software you’d like to recommend to our readers? Email us your recommendations!
dtSearch®-Instantly Search Terabytes. Doc. filters for popular file types, emails, databases & web data; 25+ search options; Win/Lin/Mac C++/Java/.NET Core APIs; Azure/AWS FAQs. Enterprise/dev evals
CopyQ is a clipboard manager with advanced features:
Scoop is a command-line installer for Windows:
https://github.com/lukesampson/scoop
CPU-Z is a free all-in-one CPU monitoring tool:
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
Factoid: FTP is dead — Long live FTP.
Our previous factoid was this:
Fact: Nostalgia Drives Users to ICQ
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/dropping-whatsapp-nostalgia-drives-users-to-icq-11611502516
Question: What old software do you still have a nice warm fuzzy feeling towards, and why? Could it be FTP? Gopher? Netscape? VisiCalc?
Several readers responded to this one such as Dennis Nichols who succinctly said:
Alta Vista. Borland’s Delphi.
There was definitely a time when Alta Vista was my de facto site for searching the World Wide Web as it was called at the time. As for Borland, I never used Delphi but Borland C++ was my main programming language for a short period when I was working on some projects.
Martin Urwaleck from Vienna, Austria also weighed in on this topic with the following reminiscence:
Hi Mitch, for me it was Turbo Pascal. At that time we devoted 90% of our programming to solve problems and 10% into the UI – today it’s the other way round…
LOL sometimes I think that Microsoft’s mantra as far as developing the Windows operating system is that as well i.e. put 90% of the dev team effort into snazzing up the GUI.
Email us if you have other tech nostalgia you’d like to share.
Now let’s move on to our next factoid:
Fact: FTP is 50 years old.
Source: https://www.filestash.app/2021/04/16/ftp-is-50-years-old/?ICID=ref_fark
Question: How many of our readers still use FTP? When was the last time you used it, and for what? And for a BONUS QUESTION: Has *anyone* reading our newsletter ever been able to get FTP over SSL (i.e. FTPS) working properly for IIS on Windows Server? Argh!
Email us your answer and we’ll include it in our next issue!
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Conference Calendar 2021
NOTE: Conference dates and locations (real/virtual) are subject to change
European Collaboration Summit — June 14-16 in Wiesbaden, Germany
https://www.collabsummit.eu/en/
Microsoft Inspire — July 14-15 (virtual)
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/inspire
Black Hat USA — Jul. 31-Aug. 3 in Las Vegas
https://www.blackhat.com/upcoming.html#usa
Open Source Summit — Aug. 4-6 in Vancouver, Canada
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-north-america/
DEF CON 29 — Aug. 5-8 (location TBA)
European Cloud Summit — Sept. 27-29 in Frankfurt, Germany
https://www.cloudsummit.eu/en/
Open Source Summit — Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Dublin, Ireland
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-europe/
VMworld — Oct 5-7 (virtual)
https://www.vmworld.com/en/index.html
Black Hat Europe – Nov 8-11 (virtual)
https://www.blackhat.com/upcoming.html#europe
Podcast Corner
Getting Started using Power Platform with Sandy Ussia (RunAsRadio)
Multivendor EVPN? Nope (Heavy Networking)
https://packetpushers.net/series/weekly-show/
VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (Virtually Speaking)
https://www.vspeakingpodcast.com/
Spectrum Analysis (Clear To Send)
The politics of cybersecurity (Risky Business)
https://risky.biz/netcasts/risky-business/
New on Techgenix.com
Job stress causing some IT admins to shut off security alerts
Stress comes with every IT job. But what we see because of the pandemic and the growing number of cyberthreats is different and frightening.
https://techgenix.com/it-job-stress/
IT Book Corner: AI, security for CISOs, and IT in the next decade
In this edition of IT Book Corner, we feature some good reads on AI, cybersecurity for CISOs, and what IT pros can expect in the next decade.
https://techgenix.com/it-book-corner/
What is desktop-as-a-service — and who are the top DaaS providers?
Desktop-as-a-service is a cloud-based offering that delivers desktop and virtual machines through the Internet to employees located anywhere.
https://techgenix.com/desktop-as-a-service-daas/
Review: Remote application server Parallels RAS 18
Parallels RAS version 18 has added a number of very compelling new features and capabilities. Here’s our review of this popular remote application server.
https://techgenix.com/review-parallels-ras-18/
Key test automation innovations to streamline software development
With the ever-growing demand for automation, there is always a need for new test automation tools to support the development lifecycle.
https://techgenix.com/key-test-automation-innovations/
Fun videos from Flixxy
Stipa-Caproni: Italy’s ‘Flying Barrel’ from 1933
Luigi Stipa’s experimental airplane with an ‘intubed propeller’ – the ancestor of the jet engine.
https://www.flixxy.com/stipa-caproni-italys-flying-barrel-from-1933.htm
The Magic Of Geometry
This coaster cannot fit through this square hole. Are you sure?
https://www.flixxy.com/the-magic-of-geometry.htm
Celebrities in Japanese Commercials
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, George Clooney and Bruce Willis in Japanese commercials.
https://www.flixxy.com/celebrities-in-japanese-commercials.htm
Best Parking Sensor Ever (Funny Video)
You could call it ‘best barking sensor.’ A smart Golden Retriever helps his owner to park the vehicle.
https://www.flixxy.com/best-parking-sensor-ever-funny-video.htm
More articles of interest
5 DevSecOps best practices to prioritize
Successful DevSecOps isn’t just about secure code — it’s securing the flows of data through code, methods and tools. Review these five security tips to button up your DevOps work.
Compare Nutanix Frame vs. Citrix Managed Desktops
While Nutanix isn’t as invested in the end-user market as Citrix, both desktop-as-a-service vendors offer benefits for business use cases. IT must evaluate which is the better fit.
What admins should know about Microsoft Windows Terminal
There’s a new terminal that puts a different spin on the traditional command-line tools used by Windows administrators with extensive functionality and customization options.
Horizon Bancorp adds Zerto to its portfolio
Zerto reduced Horizon Bancorp’s recovery times and improved reporting for auditors. Zerto’s cloud-to-cloud replication also helps as Horizon increases its cloud usage.
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