W10Privacy is a smarter Windows 10 telemetry blocker

If you’ve tried more than your share of Windows 10 telemetry blockers recently, then we know just how you feel, but wait -- W10Privacy is more interesting than most. No, really.

There’s a lengthy list of tweaks you can apply, for instance -- approaching 100 -- all neatly organized across several tabs: Privacy, Telemetry, Network, Services and more.

While the competition often leaves you uncertain what a particular option will do, W10Privacy has some very clear descriptions : "Do not let apps use my camera", "Do not let apps access my name, picture and other account into", and so on.

If that’s not enough, hovering the mouse over that action displays a tooltip with more information.

W10Privacy gives you quite fine control over some areas. There’s not just a vague "block telemetry" option: instead you can choose to "block IP addresses of known Microsoft telemetry servers" through either a firewall rule or your HOSTS file, in both full-strength and lightweight versions.

Each action is color-coded, too, as either green (safe to set), amber (check carefully) or red (don’t do this unless you’re really sure), reducing the chance that you’ll cause some major problems.

There are some useful bonus features, too, including the ability to uninstall most of the standard Windows apps.

The program does have various issues. There’s no way to disable/ enable a group of settings at once; there’s no "Cancel" option if you hit "Set changed settings" by mistake; the interface and general implementation need a lot of work.

Still, there’s nothing here that can’t be fixed, and W10Privacy’s explanations of what each tweak does are well worth having. It’s also small, portable and entirely free, so if you’re interested, just grab a copy and give it a try.

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Hitch your IT career to a rising star with DevOps certification

Hitch your IT career to a rising star with DevOps certification

Savvy IT industry watchers have probably been noticing something called “DevOps” come gliding into view for a while now, striking regular pings on the scope of anyone scanning for either hot trends or spiking salaries. Even proponents of DevOps, however, sometimes struggle to define it in layman’s terms, a challenge that anyone who has ever tried to explain development methods like Agile or Scrum to someone outside of IT will understand. Beneath the jargon, however, there’s an important development model that is quickly gaining in popularity. If you’re involved in IT, then this is something that’s probably worth taking the time to understand.

What is DevOps?
DevOps is a compound of “development” and “operations.” It’s a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration, integration, automation, and measurement of cooperation between software developers and other information technology professionals. DevOps is often shown graphically as three overlapping circles consisting of Development, Quality Assurance, and Information Technology Operations, with DevOps being the area of overlap that ties all three circles together.

DevOps is so much more, however, than the intersection of three circles. It’s often the intersection of five or ten circles — it just depends on the company that the DevOps is supporting. DevOps spans the entire delivery pipeline. This includes improved deployment frequency, which can lead to faster time to market, lower failure rate of new releases, shortened lead time between fixes, and faster mean time to recovery in the event of a new release crashing or otherwise disabling the current system. Simple processes become increasingly programmable and dynamic when using a DevOps approach, which aims to maximize the predictability, efficiency, security, and maintainability of operational processes. Automation often supports this objective.

DevOps integration targets product delivery, quality testing, feature development, and maintenance releases in order to improve reliability and security and provide faster development and deployment cycles. Many of the ideas (and people) involved in DevOps come from the enterprise systems management and agile software development movements.

DevOps aids in software application release management for an organization by standardizing development environments. Events can be more easily tracked as well as resolving documented process control and granular reporting issues. Companies with release/deployment automation problems usually have existing automation but want to more flexibly manage and drive this automation without needing to enter everything manually at the command-line.

Ideally, this automation can be invoked by non-operations employees in specific non-production environments. The DevOps approach grants developers more control of the environment, giving infrastructure more application-centric understanding.

The adoption of DevOps is being driven by factors such as:
● Use of agile and other development processes and methodologies
● Demand for an increased rate of production releases from application and business unit stakeholders
● Wide availability of virtualized and cloud infrastructure from internal and external providers
● Increased usage of data center automation and configuration management tools
● Increased focus on test automation and continuous integration methods

According to David Geer, 42 percent of IT pros surveyed had adopted or planned to adopt DevOps development approaches (Information Week, 2014 DevOps Survey). That number ballooned to 66 percent of U.S. companies using DevOps approaches by the time of a Rackspace survey only 10 months later. With DevOps clearly taking over the coder’s realm, most programmers will eventually have to yield to and master this mindset.

What does DevOps mean for a programmer’s profession?
There's a lot of interest in DevOps in the IT world right now.DevOps introduces developers to operational requirements and the tools and methods necessary to ensure that the code they create is immediately functional, of high quality, and fit for the production environment. With solid training in these tools and methods, developers should find their talents highly sellable in a career world that is increasingly favorable to DevOps practitioners.

Adam Gordon, CTO of New Horizon Computer Learning Centers of south Florida, sats that important developer skills for DevOps environments include automating configuration management (infrastructure lifecycle management) using vendor-neutral tools such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible, SaltStack, and Docker. These tools integrate with a host of popular platforms and software including Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services, CFEngine, Cisco, Eucalyptus, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Bluemix, Jelastic, Jenkins, Linux (various distributions), Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, OpenSVC, Rackspace, Rightscale, Salt, SoftLayer, Vagrant, VMware, and a rapidly expanding number of examples.

Some of the most popular vendor-specific DevOps platforms include those from Microsoft and VMware, says Gordon. Microsoft’s DevOps-related products include System Center with its System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). These Microsoft developer tools enable functions such as automated configuration management, monitoring, and custom management pack development. VMware tools such as vCloud Air (vCloud Hybrid Service) bridge the VMware development platform to tools such as Puppet and Chef, according to Gordon, while the vRealize cloud management platform automates infrastructure and application delivery, monitoring, analytics, and management.

Finally, Red Hat Linux developers will find that learning to deploy this distribution can be useful for work in Red Hat-related DevOps environments.

Does everyone love DevOps?
No, not everyone. Take Jeff Knupp, for instance. In an April 2014 blog, Knupp claims that DevOps is “killing the developer.” Allow me to quote directly from Mr. Knupp’s post:

“There are two recent trends I really hate: DevOps and the notion of the ‘full-stack’ developer. The DevOps movement is so popular that I may as well say I hate the x86 architecture or monolithic kernels. But it’s true: I can’t stand it. The underlying cause of my pain? This fact: not every company is a start-up, though it appears that every company must act as though they were.

“DevOps is meant to denote a close collaboration and cross-pollination between what were previously purely development roles, purely operations roles, and purely QA roles. Because software needs to be released at an ever-increasing rate, the old ‘waterfall’ develop-test-release cycle is seen as broken. Developers must also take responsibility for the quality of the testing and release environments.

“The increasing scope of responsibility of the ‘developer’ (whether or not that term is even appropriate anymore is debatable) has given rise to a chimera-like job candidate: the ‘full-stack’ developer. Such a developer is capable of doing the job of developer, QA team member, operations analyst, sysadmin, and DBA. Before you accuse me of hyperbole, go back and read that list again. Is there any role in the list whose duties you wouldn’t expect a ‘full-stack’ developer to be well versed in?

“Where did these concepts come from? Start-ups, of course (and the Agile methodology). Start-ups are a peculiar beast and need to function in a very lean way to survive their first few years. I don’t deny this. Unfortunately, we’ve taken the multiple technical roles that engineers at start-ups were forced to play due to lack of resources into a set of minimum qualifications for the role of ‘developer.’ ”

“Imagine you’re at a start-up with a development team of seven. You’re one year into development of a web application that Xs all the Ys, and things are going well, though it’s always a frantic scramble to keep everything going. If there’s a particularly nasty issue that seems to require deep database knowledge, you don’t have the liberty of saying, ‘That’s not my specialty,’ and handing it off to a DBA team to investigate. Due to constrained resources, you’re forced to take on the role of DBA and fix the issue yourself.

“Now expand that scenario across all the roles listed earlier. At any one time, a developer at a start-up may be acting as a developer, QA tester, deployment/operations analyst, sysadmin, or DBA. That’s just the nature of the business, and some people thrive in that type of environment. Somewhere along the way, however, we tricked ourselves into thinking that because, at any one time, a start-up developer had to take on different roles, he or she should actually be all those things at once.

“If such people even exist, ‘full-stack’ developers still wouldn’t be used as they should. Rather than temporarily taking on a single role for a short period of time, then transitioning into the next role, they are meant to be performing all the roles, all the time. Most good developers can almost pull this off.”

Certifications in DevOps
The DevOps certification realm is taking root quickly. One organization that is out in front of the pack, however, is Amazon Web Services. If you want to make a strong move into DevOps, then consider any of the following credentials.

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Description
The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam validates technical expertise in provisioning, operating, and managing distributed application systems on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include the ability to:

● Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
● Understand, implement, and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
● Define and deploy monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
● Implement systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS platform
● Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes

Prerequisites
Required Prerequisite: status as AWS Certified Developer – Associate or AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

Eligibility
● Two or more years’ experience in provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments
● Experience in developing code in at least one high-level programming language
● Experience in automation and testing via scripting/programming
● Understanding of agile and other development processes and methodologies

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
170 minutes to complete the exam
Exam available in English
Exam registration fee is $300

DevOps is a hot trend in software development right now.AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
Description

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate exam validates technical expertise in deployment, management, and operations on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include:

● Deploying, managing, and operating scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS
● Migrating an existing on-premises application to AWS
● Implementing and controlling the flow of data to and from AWS
● Selecting the appropriate AWS service based on compute, data, or security requirements
● Identifying appropriate use of AWS operational best practices
● Estimating AWS usage costs and identifying operational cost control mechanisms

Prerequisites

No prerequisites; recommend taking System Operations on AWS
Eligibility

● One or more years of hands-on experience in operating AWS-based applications
● Experience in provisioning, operating, and maintaining systems running on AWS
● Ability to identify and gather requirements to define a solution to be built and operated on AWS
● Capabilities to provide AWS operations and deployment guidance and best practices throughout the lifecycle of a project

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
80 minutes to complete the exam
Available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $20
Exam Registration fee is $150

AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Description

The AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam validates technical expertise in developing and maintaining applications on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include:

● Picking the right AWS services for the application
● Leveraging AWS SDKs to interact with AWS services from your application
● Writing code that optimizes performance of AWS services used by your application
● Code-level application security (IAM roles, credentials, encryption, etc.)

Prerequisites
No prerequisites; recommend taking Developing on AWS
Eligibility
● One or more years of hands-on experience in designing and maintaining an AWS-based application
● In-depth knowledge of at least one high-level programming language
● Understanding of core AWS services, uses, and basic architecture best practices
● Proficiency in designing, developing, and deploying cloud-based solutions using AWS
● Experience with developing and maintaining applications written for Amazon Simple Storage Service, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service, Amazon Simple Notification Service, Amazon Simple Workflow Service, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and AWS Cloud Formation.

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
80 minutes to complete the exam
Available in English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $20
Exam Registration fee is $150

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Description
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam validates advanced technical skills and experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platform. Example concepts you should understand for this exam include:

● Designing and deploying dynamically scalable, highly available, fault tolerant, and reliable applications on AWS
● Selecting appropriate AWS services to design and deploy an application based on given requirements
● Migrating complex, multi-tier applications on AWS
● Designing and deploying enterprise-wide scalable operations on AWS
● Implementing cost control strategies

Prerequisites
Status as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Eligibility
● Achieved AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
● Two or more years’ hands-on experience in designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS
● Abilities to evaluate cloud application requirements and make architectural recommendations for implementation, deployment, and provisioning applications on AWS
● Capabilities to provide best practices guidance on the architectural design across multiple applications, projects, or the enterprise

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
170 minutes to complete the exam
Exam available in English and Japanese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $40
Exam Registration fee is $300

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Description

Intended for individuals with experience in designing distributed applications and systems on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include:
● Designing and deploying scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on AWS
● Lift and shift of an existing on-premises application to AWS
● Ingress and egress of data to and from AWS
● Selecting the appropriate AWS service based on data, compute, database, or security requirements
● Identifying appropriate use of AWS architectural best practices
● Estimating AWS costs and identifying cost control mechanisms

Prerequisites
None, but it is recommended that candidates take the Architecting on AWS and AWS Certification Exam Readiness Workshop
Eligibility
● One or more years of hands-on experience in designing available, cost efficient, fault tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS
● In-depth knowledge of at least one high-level programming language
● Ability to identify and define requirements for an AWS-based application
● Experience with deploying hybrid systems with on-premises and AWS components
● Capability to provide best practices for building secure and reliable applications on the AWS platform

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
80 minutes to complete the exam
Available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese
Practice Exam Registration fee is $20
Exam Registration fee is $150

There's a lot of interest in DevOps in the IT world right now.AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
Description

The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional exam validates technical expertise in provisioning, operating, and managing distributed application systems on the AWS platform. Exam concepts you should understand for this exam include the ability to:
● Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
● Understand, implement, and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
● Define and deploy monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
● Implement systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS platform
● Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes

Prerequisites
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
Eligibility
● Two or more years’ experience in provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments
● Experience in developing code in at least one high-level programming language
● Experience in automation and testing via scripting/programming
● Understanding of agile and other development processes and methodologies

Exam
Multiple choice and multiple answer questions
170 minutes to complete the exam
Exam available in English
Exam registration fee is $300

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Cybersecurity 101: Protect your home or personal network

Intrusion detection systems. Network firewalls. Behavioral analysis. Encryption. The toolkit of the modern information security professional is full of complex, advanced technical controls designed to protect enterprise networks against increasingly sophisticated attacks. How should home users protect themselves — without investing thousands of dollars in specialized security equipment — against cybercriminals who want to steal sensitive personal information?

Fortunately, there are simple and inexpensive steps that every home user can take to build a robust, layered defense that will protect them against most of the malicious threats that jeopardize the security of their systems and personal information. Let’s take a look at five simple ways that you can keep your network secure without breaking the bank. Think of these recommendations as being a Cybersecurity 101 course for the average home computer user.

Use a Firewall
Businesses spend thousands of dollars on sophisticated firewalls designed to keep malicious threats out of their protected networks. Firewalls sit at the border between a private network and the Internet, enforcing rules that regulate the traffic allowed to cross that border. Enterprise-grade firewalls are expensive and require extensive configuration to precisely define the types of traffic that should be allowed to enter the network unsolicited. For example, a business firewall would typically allow connections from the Internet to the company’s web server.

Fortunately, home users don’t need a sophisticated firewall because they don’t have sophisticated networking needs. Unless you’re running public web servers in your home, your firewall policy should be very simple: Don’t allow any unsolicited connections to your network. You probably already have a firewall built-in to the Internet router provided by your service provider. Even better, it’s probably already configured to enforce this simple “deny everything” firewall policy.

Take the time to understand what type of router is sitting at the border of your home network. Find the instruction manual for that model router and use it to verify that the firewall function is enabled and blocking all unsolicited connection requests. This will go a long way toward keeping the bad guys out of your network.

Install and Update Antivirus Software
Antivirus software is still one of the tried-and-true ways to protect your network against malicious threats. Signature-based software runs on your systems, scanning them constantly for any signs of malicious software. When antivirus software detects a threat, it acts to immediately neutralize it by removing the software entirely or, if that’s not possible, quarantining it in a safe location until you can take further action to clean your system.

You can’t just simply install antivirus software and walk away, however. The manufacturers of antivirus software release new updates on a daily basis to combat recently discovered strains of malicious software. If you haven’t updated your software in a few years, it’s next to useless as a defense against modern threats. Take a few minutes to verify that all of the systems on your network have current antivirus software and that they’re configured to receive daily signature updates from the vendor.

Keep Computers Patched
Whether you’re running Windows or Macintosh systems, you need to apply security updates on a regular basis to keep your systems secure. Microsoft and Apple release patches whenever they become aware of a security vulnerability in their operating systems. If you don’t apply those patches, attackers will likely discover your vulnerability and exploit it to gain access to your network and data.

Fortunately, it’s easy to keep your computers patched. Both Mac OS X and Windows provide automatic updating mechanisms that check every day for new security patches and automatically apply them to your systems. You just need to ensure that this functionality is turned on and your computer will take care of all of the work.

Encrypt Wireless Networks
Your wireless network is the easiest path for an attacker to gain access to the systems in your home. You should use strong WPA2 encryption to protect your network and configure it with a strong password known only to authorized network users. If you have no encryption, or use the outdated WEP encryption standard, it’s equivalent to leaving your front door unlocked and open, waiting for intruders to wander by and steal your belongings.

Configuring wireless encryption is usually very easy. Check the manual for your wireless access point. You’ll probably just need to select WPA2 encryption from a drop-down menu and then enter a strong passphrase used to access the network. Once it’s up and running, reconfigure all of your devices to use the new encrypted network and the contents of your communications will be safe from prying eyes.

Encrypt Sensitive Files
You don't have to be a genius to protect your home network.One oft-forgotten risk is the physical theft of computing devices. If an intruder steals a computer out of your home or a thief grabs your bag on the subway, you may lose physical possession of the computer. It’s one thing to lose a couple thousand dollars because of the device theft, but it’s far worse to lose your tax returns, credit card statements and other sensitive information that might be stored on the device.

You can protect yourself against the loss of sensitive information by encrypting the contents of your computer. Even if the computer falls into the wrong hands, the thief won’t be able to access your encrypted personal information without knowing your password. Both Windows and Mac systems offer free built-in encryption technology that you can easily enable. FileVault on Macs and BitLocker on Windows provide an easy way to protect the contents of your hard drive from prying eyes. Just make sure that you know your own password so that you don’t lock yourself out from access to your personal files!

Conclusion
Securing a home network is far simpler than securing the complex corporate networks that offer public services, but it still requires effort. Take the time to assess your network by verifying that your firewall is active, installing antivirus software, applying security patches, using WPA2 on your wireless network and encrypting your sensitive files. The few hours you might spend securing your network today may prove themselves worth the effort when they successfully protect you from hackers down the road!

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Exam 77-418 Word 2013

Exam 77-418 Word 2013

Published: February 28, 2013
Languages: English
Audiences: Information workers
Technology: Microsoft Office 2013 suites
Credit toward certification: MOS

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft
Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.


Create and manage documents
Create a document
Creating new blank documents, creating new documents using templates, importing files, opening non-native files directly in Word, opening a PDF in Word for editing
Navigate through a document
Searching for text within document, inserting hyperlinks, creating bookmarks, using Go To
Format a document
Modifying page setup, changing document themes, changing document style sets, inserting simple headers and footers, inserting watermarks, inserting page numbers
Customize options and views for documents
Changing document views, using zoom, customizing the quick access toolbar, customizing the ribbon, splitting the window, adding values to document properties, using show/hide, recording simple macros, assigning shortcut keys, managing macro security
Configure documents to print or save
Configuring documents to print, saving documents in alternate file formats, printing document sections, saving files to remote locations, protecting documents with passwords, setting print scaling, maintaining backward compatibility

Preparation resources
Basic tasks in Word 2013
Create your first Word 2013 document (training)
Move around in a document using the navigation pane

Format text, paragraphs, and sections
Insert text and paragraphs
Appending text to documents, finding and replacing text, copying and pasting text, inserting text via AutoCorrect, removing blank paragraphs, inserting built-in fields, inserting special characters
Format text and paragraphs
Changing font attributes, using find and replace to format text, using format painter, setting paragraph spacing, setting line spacing, clearing existing formatting, setting indentation, highlighting text selections, adding styles to text, changing text to WordArt, modifying existing style attributes
Order and group text and paragraphs
Preventing paragraph orphans, inserting breaks to create sections, creating multiple columns within sections, adding titles to sections, forcing page breaks

Preparation resources
Insert fields
Copy formatting using the format painter
Add a page break

Create tables and lists
Create a table
Converting text to tables, converting tables to text, defining table dimensions, setting AutoFit options, using quick tables, establishing titles
Modify a table
Applying styles to tables, modifying fonts within tables, sorting table data, configuring cell margins, using formulas, modifying table dimensions, merging cells
Create and modify a list
Adding numbering or bullets, creating custom bullets, modifying list indentation, modifying line spacing, increasing and decreasing list levels, modifying numbering

Preparation resources
Insert a table
Convert text to a table or a table to text
Change bullet style

Apply references
Create endnotes, footnotes, and citations
Inserting endnotes, managing footnote locations, configuring endnote formats, modifying footnote numbering, inserting citation placeholders, inserting citations, inserting bibliography, changing citation styles
Create captions
Inserting endnotes, managing footnote locations, configuring endnote formats, modifying footnote numbering, inserting citation placeholders, inserting citations, inserting bibliography, changing citation styles

Preparation resources
Add footnotes and endnotes
Create a bibliography

Insert and format objects
Insert and format building blocks
Inserting quick parts, inserting textboxes, utilizing building locks organizer, customizing building blocks
Insert and format shapes and SmartArt
Inserting simple shapes, inserting SmartArt, modifying SmartArt properties (color, size, shape), wrapping text around shapes, positioning shapes
Insert and format images
Inserting images, applying artistic effects, applying picture effects, modifying image properties (color, size, shape), adding uick styles to images, wrapping text around images, positioning images

Preparation resources
Quick parts
Change the color of a shape, shape border, or entire SmartArt graphic
Move pictures or clip art

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70-695 Deploying Windows Desktops and Enterprise Applications

70-695 Deploying Windows Desktops and Enterprise Applications
Published: January 23, 2015
Languages: English
Audiences: IT professionals
Technology: Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2
Credit toward certification: MCP, MCSE

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.

Implement the Operating System Deployment (OSD) infrastructure (21%)
Assess the computing environment
Configure and implement the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit, assess Configuration Manager reports, integrate MAP with Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, determine network load capacity
Plan and implement user state migration
Design considerations, including determining which user data and settings to preserve, hard-link versus remote storage, mitigation plan for non-migrated applications, and wipe-and-load migration versus side-by-side migration; estimate migration store size; secure migrated data; create a User State Migration Tool (USMT) package
Configure the deployment infrastructure
Configure Windows Deployment Services (WDS), install and configure Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), identify network services that support deployments, select Configuration Manager distribution points, support BitLocker
Configure and manage activation
Configure KMS, MAK, and Active Directory–based activation; identify the appropriate activation tool

Implement a Lite Touch deployment (18%)
Install and configure WDS
Configure unicast/multicast, add images to WDS, configure scheduling, restrict who can receive images
Configure MDT
Configure deployment shares, manage the driver pool, configure task sequences, configure customsettings.ini
Create and manage answer files
Identify the appropriate location for answer files, identify the required number of answer files, identify the appropriate setup phase for answer files, configure answer file settings, create autounattend.xml answer files

Implement a Zero Touch deployment (20%)
Configure Configuration Manager for OSD
Configure deployment packages and applications, configure task sequences, manage the driver pool, manage boot and deployment images
Configure distribution points
Configure unicast/multicast, configure PXE, configure deployments to distribution points and distribution point groups
Configure MDT and Configuration Manager integration
Use MDT-specific task sequences; create MDT boot images; create custom task sequences, using MDT components

Create and maintain desktop images (21%)
Plan images
Design considerations, including thin, thick, and hybrid images, WDS image types, image format (VHD or WIM), number of images based on operating system or hardware platform, drivers, and operating features
Capture images
Prepare the operating system for capture, create capture images using WDS, capture an image to an existing or new WIM file, capture an operating system image using Configuration Manager
Maintain images
Update images using DISM; apply updates, drivers, settings, and files to online and offline images; apply service packs to images; manage embedded applications

Prepare and deploy the application environment (20%)
Plan for and implement application compatibility and remediation
Planning considerations, including RDS, VDI, Client Hyper-V, and 32 bit versus 64 bit; plan for application version co-existence; use the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT); deploy compatibility fixes
Deploy Office 2013 by using MSI
Customize deployment, manage Office 2013 activation, manage Office 2013 settings, integrate Lite Touch deployment, re-arm Office 2013, provide slipstream updates
Deploy Office 2013 by using click-to-run (C2R)
Configure licensing, customize deployment, configure updates, monitor usage by using the Telemetry Dashboard

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From start to finish, inside a PayPal Phishing scam

One of the world's most targeted brands...

PayPal is one of the most commonly targeted brands for Phishing, nearly equal to banks when it comes to potential financial gain for criminals.

Today, we're revisiting the concept of how to spot a Phishing email by focusing on a recent Phishing campaign that's targeting PayPal customers. We'll start by pointing out visual cues that will help you avoid becoming a victim, but we'll also go thorough the scam completely so you can see what it looks like.

It starts with an email
This is what the Phishing email looks like once opened.

Phishing remains one of the fastest and easiest methods of personal compromise. With this type of attack, criminals play a numbers game. The more messages they send, the more likely someone is going to fall for the scam.

Even if the victim count is low, the cost of a Phishing campaign is next to nothing on the criminal's end – a single victim often covers all costs.

Sadly, dozens of people are likely to be scammed in a given campaign, so Phishing has become a turnkey business for most criminals. Each campaign is different, often targeting personal information, financial information, or in this case - both.

Moving on, let's examine some of the visual cues that will debunk this alleged warning.

Email addresses
Notice that the support address isn't a PayPal address. That's important.

But after that, the "via" marking in the "From:" field is Google's way of telling you that the email you're reading was sent from an account other than the one listed. If this were an actual email from PayPal, Google wouldn't offer this visual cue.

"Gmail displays this information because many of the services that send emails on behalf of others don’t verify that the name that the sender gives matches that email address. We want to protect you against misleading messages from people pretending to be someone you know," Google explains.

In this case, the criminal compromised a website and used the webhost's server to send the message. If this message arrives outside of Gmail, the fact that the sender doesn't use a PayPal address is the first clue that something isn't right.

Other than that, the email's subject is all wrong too. It's attempting to stress a point and relay a false sense of urgency, but the fact that it doesn't name "account" in question increases the odds that curiosity will get the better of you and you'll open the message.

Message Body: Where the Phishing scam will either live or die
To the untrained eye, the message is letting you know that your PayPal account is limited, and that there is a time limit for resolution. Again, this is injecting a false sense of urgency – and if you rely on PayPal, the fact you might lose access to your account is a serious issue.

The message explains itself as a security measure, and warns that your PayPal account might be in danger of compromise, resulting in theft. Ironic really, because theft is the name of the game here. Once more, the criminals are pressing fear as the main motivator. The fix is simple; just confirm your information by following the link.

To the trained eye, the message is a false as can be. First, PayPal will always use the registered account name when addressing messages, so they'll never address a security email simply as "PayPal Customer."

Second, the message itself is just an image. The criminal created a link to their domain, and used an image instead of the text link that most everyone is used to on the Web.

Using the image helps the message bypass many basic spam filters. The fact that the message was relayed through a compromised account that had never sent spam before also helped it avoid detection.

Turn back now...
If for some reason a person were to click the link, the URL displayed would be the final torpedo needed to sink this Phishing scam. There is no HTTPS and the domain clearly IS NOT a domain controlled by PayPal.

Please note, that the URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

The following images are what the Phishing scam will look like in action. Each slide will explain what's happening on screen.

Usernames and passwords
Entering your username and password into the field from the previous slide triggers a number of checks by the Phishing script that created this domain. However, at this stage your PayPal username and password have been stolen.

But the scammer isn't done.

This screen should be familiar to anyone who uses PayPal. If so, there's a reason for that. The color in the images, the way the website is designed, and the URL bar that's full of letters and numbers are all there to fool you into thinking you're on PayPal's website.

But remember, you're not, and the missing HTTPS is proof that PayPal isn't involved here.

Again, the URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

Confirmation required
Once the loading screen goes away, the second part of the scam starts. Remember, at this stage your PayPal username and password have been compromised. However, in the criminal's opinion, why stop there?

If you fell for the first part, the crook running this scam feels that you'll fall for the second part too, which focuses on personal and financial information.

This might get old, but it's important. The URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

Tell us a little about yourself
After the loading screen, you'll be asked to confirm information. If you agree, you'll see this screen. Here the criminal is able to build a profile on your information. The data collected here can be sold, or used to further additional scams – including identity theft.

Given that the scam needed information, CSO provided a false name, the address for Hoboken City Hall in New Jersey, and a phone number to book a room at the Holiday Inn.

But the criminal isn't done.
This might get old, but it's important. The URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

Credit cards
Now that the criminal has your personal information, this form will look for some financial data – namely your credit card details.

This page, as well as all the others, has been designed to look exactly like PayPal. For those that are trained to look for a padlock, but forget where it is, the message at the bottom of the page is there for reassurance. But nothing on this page is secure.

Again, the URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

Banking data
The last bit of information the criminal will ask about is banking data. This form serves two functions; first it collects the login data and account number for your bank. The second is that it enables the crook to see if you're recycling passwords.

Assuming the PayPal password is the same as the bank; it's a good indicator that you're using the same password everywhere. If not, the crook can use this information to run a number of additional scams and leverage the collected details to compromise other accounts under your control.

The URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

End of the line
This is the end of the scam. The entire thing was designed to make you feel as if you were dealing with PayPal the entire time. However, at this stage your banking information, personal information, credit card details, and PayPal account have all been compromised. There's no going back.

The keep things moving, this page will remain for a few seconds before you're forwarded to the final stop.

The URL shown in this image was live at the time this article was written, do not visit it. The webhost has taken the domain offline, but this URL could be pointed to a new location in the future.

It's as if nothing happened
The final stop in the scam is the actual PayPal website. If you look at the address bar the URL has an HTTPS and the area where the padlock exists has both the company name and is green.

Again, the previous slides you've seen were all part of the scam. So the fact that the legitimate PayPal website is on the screen now means nothing; the forms were all submitted and somewhere a criminal is abusing your information in a number of creative ways.

When it comes to Phishing, avoiding them 100 percent of the time can be tricky. However, it isn't an impossible task. When in doubt, don't click anything in the email and visit the website in question (e.g. PayPal) directly.

Remember, email is the last method banks or financial firms will use to contact you in a majority of cases. Online, pay attention to the address bar and look for HTTPS when you're about to enter personal or financial information into a form.

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Exam 70-695 Deploying Windows Desktops and Enterprise Applications

Exam 70-695 Deploying Windows Desktops and Enterprise Applications

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Do you have feedback about the relevance of the skills measured on this exam? Please send Microsoft your comments. All feedback will be reviewed and incorporated as appropriate while still maintaining the validity and reliability of the certification process. Note that Microsoft will not respond directly to your feedback. We appreciate your input in ensuring the quality of the Microsoft Certification program.

If you have concerns about specific questions on this exam, please submit an exam challenge.

Implement the Operating System Deployment (OSD) infrastructure (21%)
Assess the computing environment
Configure and implement the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit, assess Configuration Manager reports, integrate MAP with Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, determine network load capacity
Plan and implement user state migration
Design considerations, including determining which user data and settings to preserve, hard-link versus remote storage, mitigation plan for non-migrated applications, and wipe-and-load migration versus side-by-side migration; estimate migration store size; secure migrated data; create a User State Migration Tool (USMT) package
Configure the deployment infrastructure
Configure Windows Deployment Services (WDS), install and configure Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), identify network services that support deployments, select Configuration Manager distribution points, support BitLocker
Configure and manage activation
Configure KMS, MAK, and Active Directory–based activation; identify the appropriate activation tool

Implement a Lite Touch deployment (18%)
Install and configure WDS
Configure unicast/multicast, add images to WDS, configure scheduling, restrict who can receive images
Configure MDT
Configure deployment shares, manage the driver pool, configure task sequences, configure customsettings.ini
Create and manage answer files
Identify the appropriate location for answer files, identify the required number of answer files, identify the appropriate setup phase for answer files, configure answer file settings, create autounattend.xml answer files

Implement a Zero Touch deployment (20%)
Configure Configuration Manager for OSD
Configure deployment packages and applications, configure task sequences, manage the driver pool, manage boot and deployment images
Configure distribution points
Configure unicast/multicast, configure PXE, configure deployments to distribution points and distribution point groups
Configure MDT and Configuration Manager integration
Use MDT-specific task sequences; create MDT boot images; create custom task sequences, using MDT components

Create and maintain desktop images (21%)
Plan images
Design considerations, including thin, thick, and hybrid images, WDS image types, image format (VHD or WIM), number of images based on operating system or hardware platform, drivers, and operating features
Capture images
Prepare the operating system for capture, create capture images using WDS, capture an image to an existing or new WIM file, capture an operating system image using Configuration Manager
Maintain images
Update images using DISM; apply updates, drivers, settings, and files to online and offline images; apply service packs to images; manage embedded applications

Prepare and deploy the application environment (20%)
Plan for and implement application compatibility and remediation
Planning considerations, including RDS, VDI, Client Hyper-V, and 32 bit versus 64 bit; plan for application version co-existence; use the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT); deploy compatibility fixes
Deploy Office 2013 by using MSI
Customize deployment, manage Office 2013 activation, manage Office 2013 settings, integrate Lite Touch deployment, re-arm Office 2013, provide slipstream updates
Deploy Office 2013 by using click-to-run (C2R)
Configure licensing, customize deployment, configure updates, monitor usage by using the Telemetry Dashboard

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