Learn how your organization can effectively develop and improve strategies for working remotely during the COVID-19 crisis. 

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Interlink's CTO and Vice President, Mike Wilson, participated in an online roundtable discussion with experts in medicine, finance, employment law, IT, and public relations regarding some important ways you can prepare your business to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus. (You can view the entire roundtable webinar here!) While most of us haven’t felt the direct impact of someone we know becoming infected, most are experiencing indirect impacts. Many employees have been sent to work from home, schools have closed, major community events have been postponed, and travel plans are canceled - just to name a few.

In this article, we summarize some of the key IT takeaways that can help you maintain business continuity while balancing business risk versus IT security. It is our goal at Interlink to offer aid and assistance to businesses and organizations struggling with transitioning, even temporarily, to a remote office setting. 

Make sure your organization is ready for changes to Conditional Access Baseline Protections!
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Recently, Microsoft announced an update to Conditional Access policies regarding security. Read to learn what will be replacing Security Defaults, and how to turn it on!

Baseline Protections Update  

Microsoft currently has Baseline Protection Policies in place with Conditional Access in order to protect organizational accounts. Baseline Protections will stop being enforced on February 29th, 2020 and be replaced with Security Defaults. Security Defaults are a set of basic identity security mechanisms recommended by Microsoft. New tenants will automatically have these enabled, but existing tenants will require action. When enabled, these recommendations will automatically be enforced in your organization. Administrators and users will be better protected from common identity-related attacks – but you must be sure to enable these features! View the Microsoft announcement Introducing Security Defaults, which explain this.

If you are currently using Conditional Access and want to set up the equivalent policies in place of baseline, contact us today!

Learn how to take advantage of these services from Azure Active Directory!
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Recently, Microsoft started to offer a free cloud-based Azure Active Directory Multi-Factor Authentication. In addition, you can gain many premium features such as branding, password protection, hybrid identities, group access management, conditional access, and identity protect & governance with different paid versions. Read on to find out which version is best for your organization and how a deployment will best optimize your organization!

What is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)?  

At the basic level, Multi-Factor Authentication has added security in a two-step verification process. This introduces a significant challenge to attackers because even if an attacker manages to learn a user’s credentials, it is useless without also having an additional authentication method. The combination of these can be a trusted and not easily duplicated device (such as a registered cellphone), biometrics like facial recognition or fingerprint access, or a domain-joined PC.

Learn how to take advantage of these services from Azure Active Directory!
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Which Azure Active Directory Plan is Best for Me?  

Azure Active Directory comes in four editions:

1. Free
2. Office 365 Apps
3. Premium Plan 1
4. Premium Plan 2

The Free edition is included with an Office 365 subscription. If you are interested in upgrading to a Premium version, contact us today and we will walk you through which plan is best for you and how to deploy/govern this upgrade! View a detailed list of Azure AD plans and pricing details.

Utilize Cortana, your AI personal productivity assistant, to catch up on what’s new in your inbox.

Cortana will play aloud your inbox while you are on the go, so you have more time to be productive in your day!

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Recently, Microsoft Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making many strides in innovation for companies and individuals. They have asked themselves, “How can we help people change the world for good?” Microsoft 365 is leading the charge to put people at the center and use intelligent, personalized experiences to transform productivity.

What is Play My Emails in Outlook for iOS?

Microsoft has introduced Play My Emails in Outlook for iOS, with Android following later, to read aloud out of your emails using natural language with Cortana. The user interface is specifically designed for people on the move, to help users stay organized, and be productive wherever you are. You can use one finger or voice commands to swipe to the next message, or act on a message – making this app easy to use whether it is on a commute or as you get ready in the morning!