CISA Releases Security Advisory for Hillrom Welch Allyn Cardiology Products

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

CISA has released an Industrial Controls Systems Medical Advisory (ICSMA) detailing a vulnerability in multiple Hillrom Welch Allyn cardiology products. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages technicians and administrators to review ICSMA-21-343-01: Hillrom Welch Allyn Cardio Products for more information and apply the necessary mitigations.

Meet a recent Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador graduate: Bethany Jepchumba

Meet a recent Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador graduate: Bethany Jepchumba

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

This is the next segment of our blog series highlighting Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors who achieved the Gold milestone and have recently graduated from university. Each blog in the series features a different student and highlights their accomplishments, their experience with the Student Ambassadors community, and what they’re up to now.  


   


Today we meet Bethany Jepchumba, who is from Kenya and recently graduated from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology with a degree in Business Innovation Technology Management.


 


Student_Developer_Team_0-1639006457262.png


 


Responses have been edited for clarity and length.


 


When you joined the Student Ambassador community in September of 2019, did you have specific goals you wanted to reach, such as a particular skill or quality?  What were they?  Did you achieve them? How has the community impacted you in general?  


Coming from a non-technical background, tech communities had a profound impact on my journey in tech. I wanted to spread the technology gospel to all and have more learners join in, so I joined the Student Ambassador community,


 


As a Student Ambassador, what was the biggest accomplishment that you’re the proudest of and why?


I managed a Data Science and Artificial Intelligence community in Kenya with a co-lead in 2020 where we conducted 10+ events created to skill up beginners. We had over 500 learners in three months during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Additionally, I was an organizer of the first Microsoft Student Summit Africa in 2020. The event was a collaboration between Student Ambassadors from Kenya and Nigeria and received a total of 3,000+ RSVPs. There were 3 different tracks: Artificial Intelligence, Power Platform, Web Development. My main role was leading the team in designing the conference, moderating sessions, and preparing the speakers. I also stepped in to do an Introduction to DevOps session without any prior preparation when our speaker could not join the call.


I also led a team of five to win a five-week Game of Learners hackathon that had 60 participants. Winners were awarded one-on-one mentorship sessions with different industry professionals, including one with Microsoft’s Donovan Brown. I also delivered a workshop to 100+ on Manipulating and Cleaning Data to the Microsoft Reactor Community.


 


What are you doing now that you’ve graduated? 


My journey in the Student Ambassador community pushed me to empower the next generation of techies.  Currently, I am a Program Coordinator Associate at Andela, a unicorn that matches global companies to remote talent in Africa.  I enable the skilling of over 50,000 learners through partnerships with global companies such as Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and Facebook.


 


If you could redo your time as a Student Ambassador, is there anything you would have done differently? 


In the program, I did my best, and I gave my best. If I could go back, I would do more of what I was able to accomplish, and I’d collaborate and speak up more.


 


If you were to describe the community to a student who is interested in joining, what would you say about it to convince them to join?


There is a lot of swag, free azure credits, and certification vouchers for Student Ambassadors. You will get to make long-time friends and have access to Microsoft Cloud Advocates. The opportunities in the program are limitless, and you get to craft your own experience.


 


What advice would you give to new Student Ambassadors?


Collaborate. There is power in working together. If you have an idea for an event or engagement you want to organize, include others–the more the merrier. Make Microsoft Teams your friend, learn how to navigate it, and you will not miss any important collaborations. Lastly, ensure you have at least one Student Ambassador engagement per month. Whether it is publishing a blog, speaking at an event, hosting your own sessions, or doing a certification. Ensure that you constantly take advantage of the program and all it offers. Remember, all the efforts you put in the program will be rewarded in equal measure.


 


Do you have a motto in life, a guiding principle that drives you?


“Do what you love, love what you do, and with all your heart give yourself to it.”


– Roy T. Bennett


 


What is one random fact few people know about you?


One thing in my bucket list is to visit an upside-down house, either in South Africa or the UK. I still cannot believe they exist.


 


Good luck to you in the future, Bethany!


 


Readers, you can keep in touch with Bethany on LinkedIn, GitHub, Instagram, Twitter, or on her blog.


 

Cisco Releases Security Advisory for Multiple Products Affected by Apache HTTP Server Vulnerabilities

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Cisco has released a security advisory to address Cisco products affected by multiple vulnerabilities in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.48 and earlier releases. An unauthenticated remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review Cisco Advisory cisco-sa-apache-httpd-2.4.49-VWL69sWQ and apply the necessary updates.

CISA Releases Guidance on Protecting Organization-Run Social Media Accounts

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

CISA has released Capacity Enhancement Guide (CEG): Social Media Account Protection, which details ways to protect the security of organization-run social media accounts. Malicious cyber actors that successfully compromise social media accounts—including accounts used by federal agencies—could spread false or sensitive information to a wide audience. The measures described in the CEG aim to reduce the risk of unauthorized access on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

CISA encourages social media account administrators to implement the protection measures described in CEG: Social Media Account Protection:

  • Establish and maintain a social media policy
  • Implement credential management
  • Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • Manage account privacy settings
  • Use trusted devices
  • Vet third-party vendors
  • Maintain situational awareness of cybersecurity threats
  • Establish an incident response plan

Note: although CISA created the CEG primarily for federal agencies, the guidance is applicable to all organizations.

Azure SQL News Update: A Year in Review

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Data Exposed streams live regularly to LearnTV. Every 4 weeks, we’ll do a News Update. We’ll include product updates, videos, blogs, etc. as well as upcoming events and things to look out for. We’ve included an iCal file, so you can add a reminder to tune in live to your calendar. If you missed the episode, you can find them all at https://aka.ms/AzureSQLYT.


 


You can read this blog to get all the updates and references mentioned in the show (including the awesome speakers we had on!). Since we did things a little differently this month, here’s the special December update which contains the year in review (i.e., all the big updates this year across Azure SQL, SQL Server, and Azure Arc):


 


SQL Server on Azure VMs


Featuring Ajay Jagannathan














Public Preview



General Availability



·       SQL Assessments


·       Ebdsv5 series



·       Microsoft Defender for SQL


·       New marketplace images


·       adutil tool for AD authentication


·       Multi-subnet configuration



 


Azure SQL Managed Instance


Featuring Niko Neugebauer














Public Preview



General Availability



·       Long term retention


·       Maintenance windows


·       Log replay service


·       Cross-instance message exchange with Service Broker


·       Increased storage limit of 16 TB for Business critical


·       Link feature for Azure SQL Managed Instance


·       Windows (Kerberos) auth


·       BULK INSERT and BACKUP/RESTORE with Managed Identity creds


·       User-defined Managed Identity


·       Service endpoint policies


·       Premium-series hardware generations


·       Transactional replication



·       ML Services with R and Python support


·       ML Services custom runtime support


·       GREATEST and LEAST T-SQL functions


·       Granular permissions for DDM


·       Service-aided subnet configurations


·       Parallel backups for better performance


·       Azure Resource Health to troubleshoot connectivity


·       Available in Azure Resource in Terraform registry


·       Increased storage limit of 16 TB for General Purpose


·       Change differential backup frequency to 12 or 24 hours


·       Cross-instance distributed transactions


·       Azure Active Directory only auth


·       AAD Auth for Linked Servers


·       New instance delete flow for virtual cluster


·       Scalar UDF inlining


·       Move instance to a different subnet



 


Azure SQL Database


Featuring Andreas Wolter














Public Preview



General Availability



·       Maintenance windows


·       Blockchain in Azure SQL DB with SQL Ledger


·       Change Data Capture


·       Query Store Hints


·       Hyperscale


o   TDE with BYOK support


o   Geo-replication


o   Named replicas


o   Storage redundancy options


·       Zone redundancy for Serverless


·       Purview (RBAC) (Private Preview)


 



·       Azure SQL Auditing for Log Analytics, Event Hub, and Microsoft Operations


·       Granular permissions for DDM


·       GREATEST and LEAST T-SQL functions


·       Azure AD user creation on behalf of Azure AD Applications


·       Always encrypted with secure enclaves


·       Private Link for Azure SQL Data Sync


·       New server roles for Azure SQL Database


·       New learning path: Build serverless, full stack apps in Azure


·       New learn module: Deploy IoT solutions with Azure SQL Database


·       Azure Active Directory only auth


·       Change differential backup frequency to 12 or 24 hours


·       Azure Resource Terraform registry


·       Scalar UDF inlining


·       Database copy for Hyperscale


·       Azure SQL Database Tips



 


Updates across Azure SQL














Public Preview



General Availability



·       Azure Monitor SQL Insights



·       Microsoft Defender for SQL



 


Migrations














Public Preview



General Availability



·       Assess and migrate at scale from VMWare with Azure Migrate


·       Migrate from Azure Data Studio to VM/MI


·       Connect to Oracle and convert Oracle data objects to Azure SQL from ADS



·       SSMA 8.20-8.23


o   Automatic partition conversion


o   Improved conversions


o   New generation of reports


o   Enable load statements from file


·       DAMT 0.3.0 including support for DB2


·       DMA 5.4-5.5


o   New SKU recommendations


o   Enable elastic model


o   Improved UI


·       AMP to AMMP


·       aka.ms/datamigration Guides



 


Azure Arc-enabled Services


Featuring Buck Woody














Public Preview



General Availability



·       Azure Arc-enabled PostgreSQL Hyperscale



·       Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instances


·       Directly-connected mode


·       Managed Identities


·       Point-in-time-restore and In-place upgrades (with a –dry-run option for PITR)


·       Logs and Metrics automatically uploaded in Directly-Connected mode


·       Updated CLI and Azure Data Studio extensions



 


SQL Server


Featuring Bob Ward


Last but certainly not least, the biggest announcement in the SQL Server space was, of course, the private preview of SQL Server 2022, the most Azure-enabled SQL Server release yet. New functionality includes Synapse Link support, Link feature to Azure SQL Managed Instance for DR, and new performance enhancements (with no code changes!). Get all the details at https://aka.ms/sqlserver2022.


 


Anna’s Pick of the Month


My pick of the month is Data Exposed! Marisa Brasile and I are working constantly to get you the information you need when you need it from the SQL Engineering team. So, as we round out the year, Marisa came on to tell us about all the series you might’ve missed (there’s been a lot!).


 


Live Series:



 


Mini-series:



 


Special:



 


Until next time…


 


That’s it for now! Be sure to check back next month for the latest updates, and tune into Data Exposed Live the first (or second) Wednesday of every month at 9AM PST on LearnTV. We also release new episodes on Thursdays at 9AM PST and new #MVPTuesday episodes on the last Tuesday of every month at 9AM PST at aka.ms/DataExposedyt.


 


Having trouble keeping up? Be sure to follow us on twitter to get the latest updates on everything, @AzureSQL


 


On a personal note — in 2021 we kicked off the News Updates series as well as Data Exposed Live. Thank you for joining us on this journey of learning, sharing, and growing. We hope you have a wonderful end of the year, and we can’t wait to see you in 2022!


 


We hope to see you next [YEAR], on Data Exposed :)


–Anna and Marisa