October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this year’s theme is See Yourself in Cyber, which focuses on the individual’s role in cybersecurity. This month, the JumpCloud blog will focus on helping you empower everyone in your organization to do their part regarding cybersecurity. Tune in throughout the month for more cybersecurity content written specifically for IT professionals and MSPs.
When we think of cyberattacks, we tend to envision the biggest and most disastrous ones — ones that involve well-known companies, expose tons of important data, and cause some serious fallout and public mistrust. While these attacks are real and dangerous, they’re not the only ones out there.
The reality is that cyber attacks affect businesses of all sizes and in all industries. Sometimes, our focus on the big ones can eclipse the less flashy ones that are just as dangerous to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In fact, a 2021 survey found that over 42% of small business respondents had experienced a cyber attack within the last year.
Mounting a viable defense starts with understanding what you’re up against — and even understanding the basics of common threats and defense measures can go a long way. The following are six of the most common attack vectors that can hit SMEs.
1. Ransomware
Because the largest ransomware attacks tend to dominate news cycles, many people don’t realize that ransomware attacks on SMEs are common as well. In fact, 50-70% of ransomware attacks are aimed at small businesses.
What Ransomware Looks Like for SMEs
Ransomware generally follows the same basic principles in attacks of all sizes: adversaries seize and lock a company’s data or assets and promise to return them upon payment of a ransom. For large enterprises, these ransoms can reach into the millions. For SMEs, they are often smaller — ransoms as low as $10,000 are common. While this may sound like a silver lining for SMEs, there’s a darker motive at play: adversaries know SMEs will pay them.
For established enterprises with decades of built-up resources, six-figure ransoms and the downtime associated with an attack are painful, but not often a death sentence. For SMEs with tighter resources, this isn’t always the case — the downtime and loss of data access alone can be crippling for a tightly-run SME. To adversaries, this means SMEs will fight to get their data back — so they demand a “reasonable” ransom and can expect with near-certainty that the SME will pay it. According to research, more than half of them do.
The Ramifications
The ramifications of a data breach to your employees, customers, partners, and reputation are grave: a Ponemon study found that 65% of consumers whose data was breached lost trust in the company that experienced the breach.
What’s more, paying the ransom doesn’t guarantee that your data hasn’t been compromised or shared when under the adversary’s control. Of the 59% of SMEs who said they had paid a ransom in a survey, only 23% got all their data back.
In fact, paying up can endanger your organization further: it tells hackers that you are willing and able to pay ransoms to reclaim your data. And now that they’re familiar with your defenses and architecture, they’ll have an easier time attacking you again. Unfortunately, repeat attacks are highly likely — either from the same criminal organization, or from another organization that the attackers sold your information to.
2. Supply-Chain Attacks
Most of us are familiar with supply chain attacks, where an infection starts with a large corporation and spreads as it comes into contact with other businesses through the supply chain. And while we’re likely to hear about supply-chain attacks on large businesses, news sources don’t always report on their trickle-down effects on smaller businesses in the supply chain.
How Supply-Chain Attacks Affect SMEs
In supply-chain attacks, SMEs aren’t usually direct targets, but rather casualties resulting from a larger breach. Thus, large supply-chain attacks have ramifications on many of the target organization’s partners, customers, or vendors. In REvil’s attack on Kaseya’s VSA software, for example, many of those impacted were SMEs that used the product. In another example, the famous SolarWinds breach was originally believed to have affected a few dozen organizations. It actually impacted over 250.
3. Phishing and Its Variants
Some of the most basic and low-effort tactics remain common — and effective — infiltration methods. Phishing remains one of the top three threats SMEs face, even despite increasing organizational awareness around it.
The reason phishing is still so common is two-fold:
It is effective for adversaries. From the cybercriminal’s point of view, phishing is relatively easy to deploy, and it often yields lucrative results. It takes few resources and minimal skill to launch phishing attacks, and yet they continue to dupe employees into sharing credentials, network access, and other sensitive (and, for cybercriminals, profitable) information and assets.
It preys on human error. Unlike many other attack vectors that leverage vulnerabilities in systems, phishing uses social engineering to take advantage of human nature (and human error) to gain initial entry. It only takes one mistake to allow an attack to take hold — and the average organization has a 37.9% phishing test fail rate.
Targeted Phishing in SMEs
Cybercriminals have refined tactics to mount more targeted and precise attacks with different types of phishing. Spear-phishing, for example, involves background research to convincingly target individuals rather than bulk-sending a list to a group of recipients. This personalization and specific targeting makes spear-phishing attempts harder to spot — like the popular scam that involves posing as the target’s boss in a text or email. These messages often use conversational language and use the names of the target and the boss, which can make them quite convincing.
Some adversaries take this type of attack a step further with whaling, which uses spear-phishing tactics to target company executives. Because executives have extensive access to systems and data, whaling is particularly popular — especially with SMEs, where scarce resources could hamper their ability to adequately train leaders on security and phishing awareness and best practices.
4. Software Vulnerability Exploits
Leveraging software vulnerabilities is a common way to gain access into an organization’s systems. Often, exploited vulnerabilities are known and even have patches available. In fact, many of the top exploited vulnerabilities were found years ago — for example, a Microsoft Office vulnerability found in 2017 continues to plague businesses that haven’t kept up with their patches. In a Ponemon survey, 60% of respondents who had experienced a breach said it could have occurred through a known vulnerability that had a patch available, but the organization hadn’t applied it.
Why SMEs Are Vulnerable
Routine patching is a critical basic cyber hygiene activity, and it is highly effective at blocking this type of attack. However, large-scale organizations are more likely to have formal patch management solutions in place than SMEs, which can make SMEs an easier target. In a 2022 JumpCloud survey, only about half of SME respondents said they were confident that their organization’s patch management strategy was sufficient to protect against known vulnerabilities.
5. Account Takeover
As businesses move to the cloud and dispersed infrastructure becomes the norm, identity has increasingly come to define the new perimeter. Because identity permeates every element of the infrastructure, it has become a common infiltration point. In fact, the number of password-stealing attacks on SMEs around the world increased by almost 25% from 2021 to 2022, and nearly 80% of attacks leverage identity to compromise credentials.
How ATO Attacks Work
In account takeover (ATO) attacks, adversaries gain access to the network by taking over a user’s account. Account access can be gained through various means, including password-stealing ware, social engineering, and using (often, by purchasing) the credentials of already-breached accounts. Once the adversary has taken over the account, they can access resources and move around the network under the guise of a legitimate user. This makes account takeovers difficult to detect.
6. Advanced Persistent Threats
SMEs that work with large enterprises may be more susceptible to advanced persistent threats (APTs), which are sophisticated attacks carried out stealthily over an extended period of time. APTs typically consist of infiltration, lateral movement toward targeted data or assets, and exfiltration. APTs can start from any ingress point, and can enter through methods as simple as a phishing attack or stolen password.
For example, an adversary could gain the credentials of an employee with base-level permissions through a phishing scam, then take over the account to analyze the network and gather permissions, access and store the target data, and finally exfiltrate it to sell for profit.
APTs are harder to detect in sprawled IT environments, which are common in SMEs that have grown quickly. IT sprawl limits the ability to fully carry telemetry data from one element to another, which makes infiltration and lateral movement hard to detect.
Shoring Up SME Security
Because cybersecurity attacks on SME attacks don’t always make headlines, SMEs often underestimate their vulnerability and underinvest in security. However, adversaries have something to gain from just about any business; SMEs face many of the same threats that enterprises do.
The attacks above are some of the most common, but SMEs face a multitude of threats via many different vectors. And while it’s impossible for anyone to achieve 100% immunity from threats, it’s possible for SMEs to develop a strong, reliable security program that deflects most attacks.
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and this year’s theme is See Yourself in Cyber, which focuses on the individual’s role in cybersecurity. While cybersecurity can feel complex and inaccessible to the average person, the reality is that everyone has a role to play in security, from executives to the IT team to end users. This month, the JumpCloud blog will focus on helping you empower everyone in your organization to do their part regarding cybersecurity. Tune in throughout the month for more cybersecurity content written specifically for IT professionals and MSPs.
Many organizations spend quite a bit of time onboarding new employees and making sure they have access to everything they need; however, the same care is often lacking when it comes to offboarding. Whether a long-time employee suddenly leaves on bad terms, a contractor is no longer being utilized for some period of time, or an employee goes on leave, improper offboarding or suspension of that user’s permissions and access poses significant risk for your organization.
Offboarding and deactivating a user’s identity can be a manual and time-consuming process, yet it is also very time-sensitive and sometimes requires IT admins to be available at a moment’s notice. Not every employee gives notice prior to leaving, and unforeseeable events can happen that force admins to scramble at the last minute to deprovision that user’s access to company resources.
This process becomes even more difficult if your organization needs to provide access to IT resources for temporary workers like contractors and interns, or has full-time employees that may need to be temporarily offboarded or have their IT resource access suspended rather than be permanently offboarded due to personal events like marriages, births, family care, overcoming an illness or injury, and more.
Most Companies Struggle With Offboarding
Improperly offboarding employees is a dangerous game to play, yet, according to TechRepublic, 48% of organizations said they are aware that former employees still have access to corporate networks. Further, 20% of organizations say they’ve experienced a data breach that’s linked to former employees.
These stats tell us that improperly offboarded employees are a predominant threat to organizations; however, the tools and resources needed to fix this issue aren’t there. The missing link here could be a lack of time, no simple way to quickly offboard or suspend user access to all IT resources, and/or lack of insight into the security risks posed by inadequate processes. It puts a spotlight on the notion that offboarding is as much a security issue as it is an operational one for IT.
Another important finding from TechRepublic is:
Half of IT leaders said that ex-employees’ accounts remain active for longer than a day after their departure, 32% said it takes a week to deactivate an account, and 20% said it takes a month or more. Another 25% said they don’t know how long accounts remain active once the employee has left the company.
These percentages pose a significant problem for the organizations that fit into these stats. It only takes one angry ex-employee, one ex-employee that’s simply being careless with the handling of their credentials, or one employee on leave that still has active access to make damaging changes in some shared resource, even though they weren’t there for the last best practices discussion.
Case Study: Improper Offboarding and Compliance Violations
Here’s a real world example of how improper offboarding of employees and contractors can lead to considerable compliance violations, substantial fines, and the subsequent loss of public trust.
Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC)
In 2018, Pagosa Springs Medical Center found itself at the epicenter of a major HIPAA violation which ended up costing them $111,400 — all because they did not properly offboard a terminated employee.
After their termination, the former PSMC employee retained remote access to PSMC’s web-based scheduling calendar, which contained patients’ electronic protected health information (ePHI). The investigation revealed that PSMC impermissibly disclosed the ePHI of 557 individuals to this former employee.
HIPAA calls out the need for a formal offboarding process under the security rule section – § 164.308(a)(3)(ii)(C): “Implement procedures for terminating access to electronic protected health information when the employment of a workforce member ends.“
HIPAA is just one standard that can easily be violated due to improper offboarding — there are many others out there with similarly severe consequences for non-compliance.
A Quick Offboarding Checklist
Even at organizations where offboarding is seen as a fairly quick process, i.e. less than a couple of hours, the risk of that ex-employee or another bad actor taking advantage of existing access is still prevalent.
TechRepublic also found that 70% of IT decision makers surveyed said it can take up to an hour to deprovision all of a single former employee’s corporate application accounts. Keep in mind, this does not include revoking an employee’s access to their devices and networks.
To combat this and improve your organization’s security posture, it’s helpful to put steps in place that improve offboarding efficiency. One of these steps should include an offboarding checklist to ensure that no loose ends are left after an employee’s de
parture.
Your offboarding checklist should include deactivation of access to:
All applications
Productivity tools:
Ex. Google Workspace and Slack
CRM tools:
Ex. Salesforce and Zoho
Cloud Infrastructure
File shares
Devices
Corporate Networks
VPN
RADIUS
Or, if WiFi access is not centrally managed, periodically refresh the Corporate WPA2 passphrase
And ensure return of equipment
Questions to Consider When Improving Offboarding Workflows:
Does HR inform you in a timely manner when an employee leaves your organization?
If an employee is terminated or leaves abruptly, are you able to deactivate their identity immediately?
Are you able to suspend the identity for contractors who leave the company and may return?
What about employees on medical leave who may return?
Improving Employee Offboarding
Sticking to an offboarding checklist to ensure all access is revoked is extremely important, but what’s just as important is the process in which everything is deactivated. Not only are manual offboarding processes time-consuming, but they also leave a lot of room for human error.
While working to improve and standardize your entire offboarding workflow, we also recommend that you establish routine communication with HR around onboarding and offboarding, as well as find an identity provider (IdP) to streamline the process.
Establish Routine Communication With HR
If you’re not already in continuous communication with HR regarding employees coming and going, you need to establish a better process between departments. HR should let you know when an employee is scheduled to leave or immediately notify IT when someone leaves abruptly. HR should also inform you in advance when an employee is scheduled to return from leave or their contract is renewed.
Though many project management tools exist to help alert internal stakeholders about new tasks, and some HRIS systems can even directly integrate into your core directory service to fully automate this process, this communication can be quickly achieved by creating an email alias or group with select individuals from HR and IT. Whenever someone across the organization alerts HR of a change in employment, they can CC this email alias to give IT the necessary “heads up” they need to act quickly.
Find the Right Identity Provider
When choosing an identity provider, find one that has the following capabilities:
Allows you to automate deactivation of a user’s identity
Once you set the date/time of deactivation, your IdP should take care of the rest
Lets you easily and quickly revoke access to ALL resources
Deactivating a user’s identity should revoke access to applications, devices, networks, and any other resources that user had access to
Simplifies user activation and reactivation
If an employee returns from leave or a contractor’s contract is renewed, you should be able to quickly and easily reactivate their identity in a just few steps
Includes integration capabilities with common HRIS software
Fixing the communication disconnect between HR and IT and implementing the right identity provider will allow you to securely and efficiently revoke access and re-provision access as needed, through just a few clicks.
JumpCloud’s Offboarding and User Suspension Features
Using JumpCloud® as your primary IdP allows you to quickly deprovision user access to virtually all of their IT resources. Our scheduled suspension features allows you to schedule a date and time for user deactivation which revokes access to applications, devices, networks, and any other IT resource their account has permissions for.
If the user in question will be returning, you can use this capability as a temporary suspension, and the user can later be reactivated; what’s more, they’ll receive updated permissions and access to new or changed resources as determined by their associated user, device, and policy groups automatically once reactivated. If the user in question will not be returning, use this feature to schedule their deactivation and then fully remove their account when appropriate (as dictated by compliance regulations or internal policy).
The JumpCloud scheduled user suspension feature simplifies and automates the deactivation workflow for scheduled permanent offboarding, as well as temporary suspension of contractors, freelancers, and employees on leave. This feature lets you revoke access to all resources, not just corporate applications. All of this works together to improve your overall security posture and ensure that your organization remains compliant with relevant standards.
All of this coupled with the fact that JumpCloud integrates with HR software like Workday and Bamboo, as well as provides API-based integration with other tools, provides a seamless onboarding and offboarding experience for IT admins.
Protect your organization from data breaches and compliance violations
This feature can be found within the JumpCloud Admin Console — find it under User Management > Users. Try it for free for up to 10 users and 10 devices by creating a JumpCloud Free account. Enjoy all of the functionality of the JumpCloud Directory Platform, including scheduled user suspension, and see if JumpCloud is the right IdP for your organization!
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
Security-minded system administrators prioritize taking all the necessary measures to safeguard confidential and protected data. The compromise of a device can prove costly if it contains sensitive company information, especially when organizations have compliance requirements. Disk encryption is one of the best ways to mitigate this risk.
Encryption is the process of encoding data. Data is converted from plain text to ciphertext using a special mathematical algorithm that renders the data unreadable unless the encryption key is provided. This key should always remain a secret to the person authorized to access the data.
There are two major types of encryption in a computer: Full Disk Encryption (FDE) and File Level Encryption (FLE).
Full Disk Encryption
In full disk encryption, also known as hard drive encryption, the entire hard drive or volume — including all the files — is protected. During booting, a passphrase or secret key is required to unlock the drive before logging in with your user account credentials.
Implementing FDE guarantees data privacy and security for all the files from unauthorized users or anyone with malicious intent. Learn more about the benefits of FDE, and five reasons you should consider requiring it in your organization.
File Level Encryption
As the name infers, file level encryption happens at the file system level. This type of encryption targets individual files and directories, but not the entire hard disk.
Both full disk encryption and file level encryption can be used simultaneously to achieve a higher level of data protection.
In this tutorial, we will focus on how to enable full disk encryption on Ubuntu 22.04 using LUKS.
What Is Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS)?
LUKS is a standard hard drive encryption technology for major Linux systems including Ubuntu. It is a platform-independent disk encryption specification and the de facto disk encryption standard for Linux systems.
LUKS was originally developed for Linux systems and is used in nearly all Linux distributions. It is also a popular encryption format for network-attached storage (NAS) devices. It encrypts entire block devices, making it an ideal choice for encrypting SSD, hard disk drives, and even removable drives.
In addition to offering FDE, LUKS allows users to create and run encrypted containers with the same level of protection as LUKS full disk encryption.
With LUKS, disk encryption can be enabled during the installation of an operating system. In fact, full disk encryption is only achieved during the installation of the Ubuntu Desktop operating system. It encrypts all the partitions including swap space, system partitions, and every bit of data stored on the block volume with the exception of the Master Boot Record (MBR).
How to Fully Encrypt Data on Ubuntu 22.04
If you already have a running instance of Ubuntu 22.04 and you want to enable full disk encryption, you’re required to reinstall it. You cannot fully encrypt it once it is installed. You can only encrypt directories or partitions post-installation.
If you forget your encryption passphrase, all your data will be inaccessible. As such, it is recommended to pick one that you can easily remember or store on a password vault or manager. Better yet, if you have used a complex password, you can note it down somewhere and keep it under lock and key.
Additionally, before starting this process, be sure to backup any critical data that could potentially be lost during the reinstallation process.
Getting Started
We will skip the few installation steps on Ubuntu 22.04 and head straight to the “Installation Type” step that requires you to select your preferred disk partition mode.
Two options will be presented. The first one (the default option) is “Erase disk and install Ubuntu” which wipes out all the existing data and automatically partitions the drive. The second option is “Something else” which is used to manually configure the disk partitions yourself. Please note that you will not be able to enable full disk encryption by selecting the second option.
Select the first option: “Erase disk and install Ubuntu” and click the “Advanced features” button as indicated.
Once you click the “Advanced features” button, a pop-up appears. Be sure to select “Use LVM with new Ubuntu installation” and the “Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security” options.
Then click “OK.”
Next, assuming you have already backed up any important data, click “Install Now.”
Disk encryption requires a security key in order to access your files each time your device boots. In this step, provide a strong security key or passphrase.
You can also enable a recovery key which enables a user to access the encrypted disk if they forget their password, or if the disk needs to be installed on a new device.
Then click “Install Now.”
On the pop-up dialogue that appears, click “Continue” to write changes to the disk.
From here, continue with the installation process until the end, and finally, reboot the system. Provide the security key that you generated and hit ENTER prior to logging in.
The secret key unlocks your drive thereby granting you access to your system.
From here, you can log in to your new Ubuntu installation by providing your user account’s password and pressing ENTER.
Conclusion
In this guide, we walked you through the implementation of full disk encryption using LUKS on Ubuntu 22.04. FDE provides a robust way to safeguard your data in case of theft or accidental loss of your device.
Encryption is just one approach to ensuring the privacy and safety of your data. Therefore, you should not relax enforcing other data protection measures such as firewalls, identity and access management (IAM), and Zero Trust controls such as multi-factor authentication (MFA).
JumpCloud’s open directory platform is available to easily implement full disk encryption throughout your entire fleet. Pre-built policies make it possible to achieve full disk encryption for Windows and macOS devices, with granular control and visibility for BitLocker.
Linux devices can also be managed and monitored for encryption status. To see how this works, along with a number of other device security and management features, sign up today to get started. JumpCloud is free to use for up to 10 users and 10 devices; we also provide 24×7 in-app support for the first 10 days of use.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
As businesses continue returning to the office, more and more MSPs are being pressed to ensure that employees are able to return with minimal pain. Wi-Fi connectivity is often the very first issue that users will run into in a new office setting, so MSPs are finding that they must revisit how they handle the security of the wireless networks that they manage.
Common Wi-Fi Security Vulnerabilities
It’s very likely that your customers have their Wi-Fi set up with a guest network for visitors to use and a pre-shared key that employees are given on the first day of their employment. However, this authentication method is only marginally better than having no password at all and is very dangerous if the Wi-Fi provides access to domain-associated resources.
Addressing Connection Concerns
Being that your customers’ Wi-Fi keys are likely older than COVID-19, there has never been a better time to switch to a tried and tested solution: RADIUS. With RADIUS configured, network authentication takes place against a directory that has been configured to allow a user’s existing login credentials (username and password) to grant and revoke access to network resources.
RADIUS adds a much needed layer of security between users and a Wi-Fi network, while also bringing added convenience to your customers’ wireless networks. While RADIUS comes with a plethora of benefits, implementation can feel intimidating — but, it doesn’t have to be!
Using JumpCloud’s Cloud RADIUS Feature
In order to set up RADIUS for a client, you will need a directory to use as the source of truth for user authentication, and JumpCloud has the perfect solution for you. Here at JumpCloud, we leverage our powerful open directory platform to offer a high-quality, easy-to-use Cloud RADIUS solution that our customers love, giving them cloud-directory-fueled authentication and MFA to keep their networks secure and efficient.
Utilizing the Full Functionality of JumpCloud Alone
In addition to its Cloud RADIUS feature, implementing JumpCloud’sopen directory platform opens the door to a variety of other important features such as SSO, MDM, software deployment, and policies to help manage your users and endpoints.
In effect, with JumpCloud, you will not only be able to address your clients’ immediate network security and user experience needs, but you’ll also be able to position your services in a new way. You’ll be able to offer current and potential customers a more forward-facing and expansive service using all of JumpCloud’s capabilities — including helping clients consolidate their technology stack or adding much needed features into their IT infrastructure.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “That’s great, but I am not in a position to migrate directory services. I simply want to deploy RADIUS to improve Wi-Fi and VPN authentication, and I already have customers using Azure Active Directory (AAD).”
Well, I have some good news for you: you can leverage your existing Azure AD environments in harmony with JumpCloud thanks to our new feature: RADIUS Authentication with Azure AD Credentials.
Using JumpCloud’s RADIUS Feature With Azure AD
Surprisingly (or maybe ironically?) enough, the implementation of RADIUS with Azure AD is reliant upon on-prem resources, with physical servers needing to be allocated to perform the required tasks. JumpCloud is a strong proponent of equipping MSPs and IT professionals with world-class tools to get their jobs done effectively, which means we focus on creating solutions for problems like this.
This means that we’ve made it so you can leverage JumpCloud’s Cloud RADIUS feature while maintaining Azure AD as the source of truth for your directory needs, effectively giving you the best of both worlds, with no on-prem setup necessary. This means that your customers can enjoy secure networks while improving ease of access to networks among their credentialed employees. On that same note, what this means for you, is that you now have a cloud-based RADIUS solution that can be implemented for any of your customers without gutting their existing directories.
Getting Started With Cloud RADIUS
Here are some guides to help you begin launching Cloud RADIUS across your MSP business and your clients’ orgs.
Check out some of the benefits that JumpCloud’s RADIUS solution will give to your clients:
Improved user experience that only requires a single, unique password to connect to networks and resources to get work done both in the office and remotely via a VPN.
Streamlined user onboarding and offboarding due to the activation or deactivation of a single set of secure credentials compared to many different usernames and passwords.
Fewer help desk tickets related to the pain associated with changing a PSK (pre-shared key) for a Wi-Fi network.
Simplified compliance that’s easier to prove by getting rid of a shared network password that anyone can get ahold of.
Easier network access for your techs. They’ll no longer be scrambling to figure out Wi-Fi passwords when performing site visits (this will also drastically lower the chance of a tech needing to huddle to one corner of a closet to get the single bar of LTE signal available for their hotspot to connect to your documentation service to find the Wi-Fi password. Definitely not speaking from personal experience. Sidenote: Why did they stop putting a network port on laptops?).
Ultimately, the largest benefit of having Cloud RADIUS from JumpCloud implemented is that you now have a solution that can be easily replicated across your entire customer base. Whether you’re working with a company that has never touched a directory service before (which JumpCloud can easily help with), or a customer that has been holding onto that 12 year-old server for dear life, JumpCloud is here to help you modernize your customers’ infrastructure.
With Cloud RADIUS, your service offerings around network management can fully revolve around a single authentication standard, your hardware vendor of choice, and a unified support approach that will delight your customers.
JumpCloud for MSPs
At JumpCloud, we are serious about setting MSPs up for success when working with in-office, hybrid, and fully remote clients. To do this, we have developed a dedicated platform for MSPs, called JumpCloud for MSPs.
JumpCloud for MSPs is an open directory platform that enables our partners to centralize identity, authentication, access, and device management capabilities under one umbrella without having to tear and replace any existing infrastructure.
About Version 2 Digital
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
Can JumpCloud integrate with my organization’s identity source of truth? What about our HRIS solution?
We hear this type of question more and more from small and medium enterprise (SME) IT admins. The question is not surprising, given that the SME segment is the fastest growing segment in the global HR market: SMEs accounted for over 60% of that market share in 2020, according to Verified Market Research.
Being able to answer “yes” when someone asks us whether JumpCloud can integrate with their identity source and HRIS platform is vital — particularly because user identity management now affects both IT and HR. As a shared concern, it is increasingly important to ensure there are efficient, consistent, and, whenever possible, automated identity lifecycle management processes between these two departments, regardless of the HR and IT solutions in place.
With the latest updates to the JumpCloud identity management custom API connector, the answer to “Can JumpCloud integrate with my identity source or HRIS solution?” is increasingly “yes.”
What is the JumpCloud Identity Management Custom API connector?
The JumpCloud custom API connector provides an open and flexible way to integrate JumpCloud with a broad number of identity sources. This includes HRIS, human capital management (HCM), compensation, and benefits platforms, as well as other cloud directories. JumpCloud can integrate with many leading HR solutions, like ADP, BambooHR, and Workday, as well as many other HRIS and non-HRIS solutions.
How Does It Work?
From the JumpCloud Admin Portal, an IT admin completes a configuration template that defines the authentication method, API endpoints, and the attribute mappings needed to create the integration between JumpCloud and the application serving as the identity source. Once that configuration is verified, the integration is activated and available to use to import user identities directly into JumpCloud from the identity source, connecting the HR and IT worlds.
User Identity Lifecycle (Co-)Management
HR and IT have always shared the objective of high employee satisfaction and productivity from onboarding to offboarding. How each department achieved this objective used to be distinct, with minimal overlap of responsibilities and concern.
Now, however, identity management is a collaborative effort between HR and IT. HR assumes the responsibility of creating and keeping the person’s identity current, as well as triggering onboarding and offboarding flows. IT is more focused on assigning and maintaining the appropriate access and permissions throughout the user’s lifecycle. This includes access to all the resources a person needs to be productive during their entire tenure with the organization, as well as deprovisioning the user’s identity and access when they leave.
This shift in responsibilities has created the need for information to flow from an organization’s identity source to JumpCloud. In the past, JumpCloud has offered integrations and automations from JumpCloud to applications. Now, JumpCloud is using the same types of integrations and automations to transmit information from identity sources to JumpCloud. This allows JumpCloud to act as a pass-through of the user identity information.
However, many of these identity sources do not have integrations to JumpCloud. Without an integration, both IT and HR must perform multiple manual, insecure, error-prone processes. These processes have the potential to negatively impact employees’ ability to do their jobs and create security vulnerabilities.
To fill this gap, JumpCloud offers several options for integrating with these identity sources in the JumpCloud Admin Portal. The solutions range from specific integrations built by JumpCloud (such as Personio, Workday, Google Workspace, and M365) to open solutions: the custom SCIM connector and the custom API connector. All of these options support employee onboarding (joiners).
In addition, we have added support for keeping a user’s profile in-sync as changes are made in the identity source (movers) and for deprovisioning identities when a user’s status is set to inactive in the identity source (leavers).
With each addition to our open and flexible integration options, our answer to the question of whether JumpCloud integrates with an organization’s chosen identity source gets closer and closer to a universal “yes.”
Explore the Integration Options
To explore JumpCloud’s available integration options, go to the JumpCloud Admin Portal and navigate to Directory Integrations > HR Directories > +. If you don’t have a JumpCloud account, you can try it for free for up to 10 users and 10 devices by creating a JumpCloud Free account. Sign up to explore how JumpCloud enables you to make work happen — from anywhere, on any device, and with the platforms you choose. Make Work Happen™ on your terms.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
This morning, like many before it, I woke up and thought, “Today is the day I come up with some magical blog post idea that changes someone’s world!” I showered, threw on my Global Panini attire and a pair of Uggs slippers, cooked up an omelet, and made a pourover (my new obsession).
I plodded downstairs to the office and fired up the computer. I opened a new document, raised my hands to the keyboard and — nothing. Complete brain freeze.
It’s hard to be amazing week after week. I know you feel this too. You have IT projects that are stacked up. Your boss is on you week after week to make their world more secure without adding friction for the users. Or your MSP is feeling stagnant and you need to come up with some new services to offer — or figure out how to offer your current services in a different way.
The week over week of having to be “on” all the time…it diminishes your ability to be creative after a while. Problem-solving becomes what keeps you from getting out of bed each morning instead of driving you to be 1% better every day. I get that. I hear you loud and clear.
The Block is Real
This creativity block thing is real. Very real. And if you were just doing IT for the fun of it — creating a playspace for yourself — you wouldn’t have to worry. But, folks, this IT thing is what you get paid to do. You can’t just say, “too bad, so sad” and head off to the zoo, y’know?
Over here in the MacAdmins community, we have a great Slack instance where people are doing amazing things and being really creative. You go there, looking for something – a solution, some inspiration, a new job – but you’re still left uninspired. And you wonder why. Could be burnout. Could be general tiredness. Could be something else – let’s explore.
Brainstorming
At a recent standup (yes I now speak the language Agiletongue) I asked for a lift from my brilliant and creative teammates. Ideas, people, I needed ideas! It didn’t matter how outrageous they were. In fact, the more outrageous, the better. Anything is a springboard. As we’ve talked about previously, brainstorming requires a plethora of input and little to no judgment.
And as a response to my request I got….nuthin. No ideas. Not a one. I wonder if it’s just the heat of this unbelievably hot summer cooking our brains or if people are just plumb wore out from current events. No clue, but nobody had any ideas for me.
The next day, though, someone pinged me with an idea. “What about recipes?” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said.
I work for a tech company. Our product does (amongst other incredible things) device and identity management. IT stack centralization. MDM and security management. Automation. With my IT background, I hear the word “recipe” my brain goes to GitHub and shell scripts and munki and other IT management types of things. But, alas, that is not what they meant.
They meant real recipes. Food recipes. Don’t get me wrong, I like food. It’s an important part of my day to day life. But, hmmm…was this a weird ploy to turn this into a happy homemaker column? I was both confused and a little offended but I stuck with the discussion knowing that I’d find out if I just let them talk.
How Does That Fit Into Tech?
Little by little the discussion started to make sense.
Us admins are under a lot of pressure to be perfect all the time. For many (if not all) of us, one mistake can cost our companies their reputation (not to mention financial and productivity loss). In some cases, if a mistake is big enough, it could cost our jobs or our client. So if you weren’t feeling stressed before you started reading this, you probably are now. Sorry!
One way to get past the stress is to get up from your chair, step away from your desk, and get active doing something that is not related to tech (if stepping away won’t get you in trouble, that is).
Thinking about other things is a great way to open channels that allow you to come up with solutions. We’ve all experienced this — our best ideas come in the middle of the night; or the middle of a shower.
Points to anyone who, by now, has accurately predicted where this is going.
A Story and a Treat
Mom baked every item on this table.
Growing up in my house meant that there was a plethora of home-baked goods. I don’t mean, a few store-bought cookies. I mean my mother baked. Daily. And there were always people over who didn’t live in this house.
The counter always had a few different kinds of cookies, a cake, maybe brownies, and on special occasions there were eclairs in the fridge. There were always bowls and beaters waiting to be licked clean and getting to the frosting bowl first meant you had to hide behind a locked door, lest someone steal it right out of your hands.
But one particular tradition we had was that on our birthday we got to choose our favorite dinner and our favorite cake. Mom wasn’t the best cook (I won’t say food was overcooked and dry and we’re probably lucky we didn’t all get food poisoning regularly, but…oh, I guess I will say it), but she could definitely bake.
So my choice was always spaghetti with meatballs (safe and really hard to mess up) and mom’s chocolate banana layer cake. I used to call it my migraine cake because every time I’d eat it I would end up with a migraine. Also, it was worth it every single time. I don’t do that anymore because now I know that my post-cake morbidity was due to celiac — but I can still taste it in my memory.
Here It Is
And, so, it is with a full heart and a now-hungry tummy that I gift you this recipe. Posting it here serves two purposes:
Getting up and doing something completely different from your work frees up your brain and refreshes your spirit.
Eating something delicious can reduce your stress level. Even if it’s not a healthy option, a treat is good for the soul.
The recipe card (mom retyped every one of her recipes onto an index card with our Selectric typewriter that only had an all-caps ball) is well-worn. It has food stains all over it. It may have even gotten a bit too close to the heat. But it’s still here and someday it will be passed down to someone in the family.
Chocolate Banana Cake
Serves: 16
Baking time: 30-35 minutes
Notes: This cake is best when frosted between layers and on the outside with a buttercream frosting.
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup sour milk
⅔ cup shortening (may substitute butter or margarine)
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ounce Bakers chocolate
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º Fahrenheit.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cream shortening together with the sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to shortening mixture.
Mix chocolate in with egg and shortening. Stir in vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the banana and milk in small amounts.
Turn into two 9-inch greased pans.
Bake for 30–35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into cakes comes out clean.
Let the cake cool completely before removing from pans and frosting.
Nutrition Information*: 1 slice (1/16th of the cake) contains 241 Calories, 11.1g Total Fat, 4g Saturated Fat, 21mg Cholesterol, 220mg Sodium, 355.5g Total Carbohydrates, 1.4g Dietary Fiber, 20.3g Total Sugars, 3.2g Protein
*Note that this does not include the nutrition facts of the buttercream frosting
Let us know if this helped reduce your stress by baking it or by eating it. Or both! Join us in the community and tell us your favorite recipe for freeing up your IT brain.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
There is no doubt about it — remote work is here to stay.
Managing, securing, and updating Apple device fleets has never been more pivotal to thwart potential security breaches. Mobile device management (MDM) solutions simplify remote management while providing peace of mind that essential data is kept safe.
Right now, organizations in industries across the board are cutting costs in response to the current economic climate. Are you a budget-conscious admin looking for “free Apple MDM” guidance? If so, keep reading to learn more about what to look for when evaluating platforms.
The Apple MDM Landscape
Choosing the right MDM vendor has become a crucial task since 2020. That’s when Apple released macOS Big Sur, which introduced several changes for end users and IT admins overseeing enterprise environments.
Proceeding this change, it wasn’t uncommon for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to leave Apple device maintenance in the hands of end users. Though several industries have embraced the vendor in recent years, Apple products still make up a small (but growing) percentage of the average organization’s device portfolio.
Of course, this left organizations vulnerable as most enterprise end users are not IT experts! Furthermore, they’re unlikely to prioritize organizational security over their daily tasks.
Today, Apple continues to add security patches that require coordination with official Apple MDM vendors. Of course, Apple’s commitment to privacy doesn’t stop there — Apple wants enterprise end users to know what their employers do and don’t have access to from their devices too!
Translation: Organizations must practice transparency, even with corporate-controlled devices. Admins can no longer rely on manual management of their Macs or third-party vendors that don’t use Apple’s native MDM protocols or APIs.
Free Apple MDMs: Are They Really Free?
Free MDM and open source MDM platforms do exist.
Review site Capterra lists 42 mobile device management software entries, in fact. But will these options cover the functionality you need? In most cases, the answer is no.
Open source MDMs and free MDM plans can often get the job done for extremely small businesses. But most SMEs require varying paid plans to meet more sophisticated security compliance requirements.
Most of the “free” Apple MDM plans you will find have device limits and/or time limits. In addition, they often require admins to manually install updates, troubleshoot connectivity issues, and/or manage on-prem infrastructure. Furthermore, each provider puts its unique spin on MDM APIs.
For these reasons, it’s crucial to clarify your requirements before investing time and energy into setting up a free Apple MDM solution. Let’s take a look at some key elements worth considering when weighing your options.
5 Essential Apple MDM Assessment Factors
It’s unlikely that most free or open source MDM solutions will check all of your boxes. You’ll need to decide which features are absolutely essential for your organization and which ones you can live without. Below are four core factors to consider before choosing a free Apple MDM:
1. Cross-Platform Support
Select a free vendor that only works with Apple products, and you’ll need to configure a different solution for Windows and Linux devices. Multiple solutions will require engaging in duplicate work, implementing multiple deployment processes, and staying up to date on different technologies. Translation: it can be a real pain in the tuchus!
If you manage a heterogeneous environment, prioritize device management technology that is cross-platform, multi-protocol, provider-agnostic, and location-independent. Ultimately, your MDM tool shouldn’t limit your choice of compatible vendor technology down the road either.
2. Security Compliance Functionality
Do you have remote workers using your servers? Following MDM best practices will require using platform features such as remote wipe, lock, restart, shutdown, mandatory password strength, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and more.
Consider if the free Apple MDM or open source solution will streamline the most common types of IT compliance regulations and standards: PCI, CCPA, HIPAA, SOX, SOC 2, and ISO 27001. While smaller businesses may not have many requirements, companies dealing with credit card transactions must cooperate with ISO 27001 standards. Furthermore, though SOC 2 isn’t a requirement it’s quickly becoming an industry standard for proving robust security practices.
Quick deployment and activation is essential for any admin expecting to meet evolving compliance instructions. In addition, look for streamlined reporting capabilities that make it easy to procure requested audit information at a moment’s notice.
3. Remote Configuration and Enrollment
Another factor to consider is how you currently deploy devices for new employees working from home. The best Apple MDM solutions allow admins to ship Apple devices straight to employees — ready to go out of the box. With zero-touch enrollment, the new employee simply follows the prompts on the screen for automatic enrollment and policy configuration. That means you can predetermine exactly what apps, resources, and data the employee will have access to ahead of time. If you’re looking for ways to take back your time, prioritize these features in your MDM search.
Young business people working in modern co-working space office using digital devices
4. Software Deployment and Patching
Software deployment on macOS comes in two flavors: App Store apps and non-App Store apps. Apps sold through the Mac App Store can be purchased through Apple Business Manager and then installed remotely via an MDM solution with no action required by the end user.
Alternatively, non-App Store apps must be packaged up and installed manually. Many paid MDMs will offer an “App catalog” with popular enterprise apps prepackaged and ready to install. If a free solution doesn’t offer this service, consider the time it will take to package up your apps manually.
And, as any experienced admin will tell you, never sleep on patch management! Failing to install security and performance updates is like turning away free food. So, when evaluating free Apple MDM solutions, take a close look at the patch management UX.
5. User Management
As previously mentioned, user management for Apple devices has become more complicated with the evolution of macOS. For example, the recent shift to SecureTokens as a way of ensuring trust caused plenty of challenges for IT admins.
Thus, it’s crucial to understand how your new MDM will work with your directory services. Here are some questions worth asking yourself how easy is it to:
Connect the MDM and directory service together to automate user management or will I need two separate solutions?
Control who can access which devices, networks, and applications?
Manage FileVault, which is intimately tied to the user and their profile?
Manage access to employee Macs remotely?
The integration of system and user management is extremely valuable for organizations planning to scale. In summary, choose the right solution from the start as it can be costly to switch after employee devices are already onboarded.
JumpCloud: The Best Free Apple MDM Solution
If you’re looking for greater integration between MDM and identity management, look no further than JumpCloud — the all-in-one MDM solution. Are we incredibly biased? Absolutely.
But the reality is there simply isn’t anything like it on the market. With JumpCloud you can manage Apple, Windows, and Linux devices from one frictionless location. The user portal allows admins to configure devices around user identities, wipe and lock devices, automate patch updates, and configure zero-touch enrollment quickly and easily.
In addition, users have the option of combining JumpCloud MDM with valuable security elements like SSO, MFA, full-disk encryption, cloud LDAP, and RADIUS.
MDM capabilities for 10 users and 10 devices forever.
10 days of premium 24×7 in-app chat support.
Full platform functionality (including software management, Zero Trust, etc.).
When you’re ready to scale, JumpCloud’s a la carte MDM plan starts at $5 per user/per device monthly. Below are some of the benefit from using JumpCloud:
Benefits of Using JumpCloud MDM
Seamless Cross-System Management
An IT admin’s credo is to secure their employee devices and, in doing so, protect company data and resources. Those devices could be Windows laptops, Linux servers, or Apple devices. JumpCloud, as an Apple-certified MDM vendor, offers seamless macOS MDM capabilities at no extra charge for companies on JumpCloud’s Free and Pro plans.
Convenient Security Controls
Security is something that can’t be sacrificed, even when it’s business as usual. Today, when teams are working from any corner of the globe, it’s even more critical that IT admins feel empowered to protect end users and enterprise devices regardless of location.
Once a JumpCloud-managed system is enrolled in Apple’s MDM, these commands equip admins with the ability to secure a user’s Mac in the event it’s lost or stolen. In addition, admins can remotely execute tasks like installing software, updating patches, and ensuring backups via JumpCloud’s command execution capabilities.
Easy Enrollment
Enroll macOS machines in bulk with a few clicks via JumpCloud’s macOS MDM enrollment policy. When applying the enrollment policy, admins have the option of checking a box that removes existing non-JumpCloud MDM enrollment profiles and automatically unenrolls devices from their previous MDM.
You can also use the policy to enroll new machines quickly. For DEP-enrolled machines, go through your Apple Business/School Manager platform and switch the association of their serial numbers to the new MDM server.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
Passwords are the bane of user and admin existence.
Keeping track of hundreds of passwords is tough, and employees inevitably forget them. When that happens, they’re frustrated that they can’t access the tools they need to do their job, and IT teams waste their precious time on lock-out tickets.
To circumvent this aggravating process, many employees create simple passwords or reuse them, which threatens their employer’s security and puts customer data at risk.
Many IT teams try to mitigate these issues by implementing single sign-on (SSO) or a password manager. But using just one or the other can still put a burden on IT and leave the company vulnerable to breaches.
What organizations really need is a unified approach to access that will enforce password health while allowing IT to control all target systems and support multiple authentication types. But is that even possible?
Below we’ll review why unmanaged passwords are so risky, describe the pitfalls of standalone SSO, and explain what a new world could look like when SSO and a password manager are implemented together.
The Dangers of Unmanaged Passwords
Unmanaged passwords are often a key component of cyberattacks, which are only getting more prevalent as employees have to remember more and more passwords to complete their day-to-day work. For example, Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report found that stolen login credentials were associated with half of all data breaches — a 30% increase from 2017.
But password management is expensive even without a breach. The average password reset can cost companies $70. When extrapolated to an entire organization, that adds up quickly.
While IT can send regular reminders to update passwords and educate employees on what makes a strong password, that’s not enough to mitigate risks. And those practices don’t reduce strain on IT either.
A password manager can reduce the chances of a breach and decrease pressure on IT by:
Rotating passwords – to ensure people are updating their passwords frequently
Syncing across operating systems and devices – to prevent as many lockouts as possible
While password managers certainly help, they still force employees to login into every application individually and, ideally, require additional layers of authentication to protect a user’s master password.
Resource Access With and Without SSO
Single sign-on, or SSO, is related to password management because it grants access to multiple applications after users provide one set of login credentials.
Without SSO, users still must remember and type in a username and password for every application they want to connect to. In that situation, you run the risk of employees sharing passwords, keeping sticky notes with their passwords on them, reusing passwords for several different applications, or creating passwords that are extremely easy to guess.
As discussed above, these habits can cause devastating financial and reputational damage. SSO and other Identity-as-a-Service platforms lessen the chances of a breach and decrease IT load by:
But SSO doesn’t solve everything — it doesn’t generate passwords, enforce password policies, or rotate passwords like a password manager can.
Benefits of a Password Manager + SSO
Combining the benefits of a password manager and SSO gives you the best of both worlds.
Users no longer have to create hundreds of complex passwords and worry about forgetting them. With a password manager and SSO, you can meet password-based access needs while imposing new authentication practices, including federation and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Adding more security best practices increases the protection of valuable IP and sensitive customer data.
The best joint password manager and SSO solutions store passwords locally on endpoints, making it tougher for hackers to get the data they want. In addition, some come with a relay infrastructure, allowing users to share passwords via end-to-end encrypted communication.
Ultimately, users get access to sites and services quickly, while IT admins can monitor and enforce password health on the back end without slogging through a slew of password reset tickets.
Secure Single Sign-On and Password Management With JumpCloud
The fact of the matter is that no one SSO or password management solution is going to safeguard your company from attacks and dramatically reduce IT’s workload. To truly accomplish those two objectives, you need to unify your tech stack and consolidate your IT tooling. Luckily, that’s what you get with the JumpCloud Directory Platform, which combines SSO and password management into a cloud-based directory.
With JumpCloud’s robust yet easy-to-use platform, IT can lay the foundation for unified access across all users, systems, and authentication types, including MFA. JumpCloud also has a newly released password manager, and its open directory infrastructure streamlines the login process for your employees. IT staff also benefit from having more time and budget to focus on strategic initiatives.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
Identity is the new perimeter. Cyberattacks are becoming more advanced and cloud-focused. Identity providers (IdP) have responded by offering security controls that make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be proactive and mitigate these threats. Many SMEs use Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory (AAD), which has prescribed best practices to secure identities. Microsoft reserves several features for its most premium subscriptions levels. IT administrators must determine which subscription tiers, or mixture of supplemental services from an open directory, are most appropriate for their unique security requirements.
This article outlines the fundamentals of securing identities in AAD with emphasis on understanding what options are available and tailoring security controls to your organization. Provisioning and identity and access management (IAM) is the starting point, followed by centralizing the identity management lifecycle, adding appropriate controls, and auditing.
Identity and Access Control
There are three main paths for provisioning in AAD:
HR-driven onboarding.
Federating identity from AAD to cloud apps.
Inter-directory such as between the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) server role to access resources from your on-prem Active Directory domains.
Image credit: Microsoft
Provision, Manage, and Deprovision Access
Most Microsoft shops have Active Directory (AD). A sync tool called Azure AD Connect syncs users with AAD. Microsoft also accepts non-Microsoft identities for access control, but additional costs may be assessed. Some organizations may have deployed Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) prior to the advent of AAD.
There’s a significant potential for disruptions to system availability when identities are migrated from AD FS to AAD without deliberate planning. Avoid impulsive decision-making when you’re migrating users. Organizations that opt for a hybrid approach should harden Active Directory. This detailed guide offers recommendations about how AD should be managed and maintained for optimal security. Always limit administrative privileges in AD and avoid running day-to-day as a domain administrator.
Familiarize yourself with “join, move, and leave” planning processes and Microsoft’s concepts for identity governance. Automation is possible, but it’s designed for mid-size to large organizations. There’s no default auditing to avoid over-provisioning users or for when individuals leave. Due diligence is necessary to avoid security and compliance issues.
Critically Important AAD Best Practices
Verify that you’ve completed these steps before moving on.
Role-Based Access Control
AAD has built-in and custom user roles, and role-based access control (RBAC) is standard across all subscription tiers. This permits IT to follow the concept of least privilege and helps to establish a Zero Trust security approach, but it relies heavily on manual input and maintenance.
Ensure that you:
Minimize the number of privileged accounts.
Plan to manage, control, and monitor access.
Limit global administrator accounts and make use of other roles such as billing administrator, global reader, helpdesk administrator, and license administrator.
Limit global administrators and never sync high privilege accounts from AD.
Pay careful attention to external collaboration settings and consider restricting external users from being able to invite guests to shared files; third-party storage; as well as review and adjust global sharing settings for SharePoint Online and OneDrive. These changes impact end users, but make it easier to recognize the “official” channels.
Using security groups for users assists with application security and lowers administrative overhead. Microsoft limits this capability to AAD Premium 1 (P1) and Premium 2 (P2) accounts. However, always try to avoid assigning resources directly to users and use identity protection. Please note that Microsoft has documented multiple limitations to syncing AD groups with ADD groups. For example, AD primary group memberships will not sync over to AAD.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is vital for identity protection. AAD’s free tier only permits the use of the Microsoft Authenticator application. Admins have the option of only protecting the Azure AD Global Administrator versus all accounts, but it’s highly advisable to set up MFA for all users. Protect against MFA self-enrollment attacks by using a Temporary Access Pass (TAP) to secure the initial registration. Avoid mixing per-user MFA with Security Defaults and other settings.
Your budget may impact what’s possible. Microsoft assesses fees for all MFA verifications that happen with non-Microsoft identities and capabilities vary depending upon licensing levels.
Consider using additional context and “number matching” in Authenticator notifications to include the application name and geographic location in Push MFA prompts. This practice safeguards against “MFA bombing,” where attackers send repeated reques
ts to exploit MFA fatigue. Attackers successfully hijacked Microsoft users’ sign-in sessions to bypass MFA at 10,000 organizations by using advanced phishing toolkits. Microsoft’s mitigation is to use certificate-based authentication and Fast ID Online (FIDO) v2.0 MFA implementations.
MFA through FIDO 2 devices and Windows Hello requires AAD P1 and P2. Additional hardware costs may apply. Some additional security controls include conditional access (CA).
Conditional Access
Microsoft recommends that all accounts deploy CA, but it’s also an extra cost and only available through P1, P2, or the E3 and E5 tiers for Microsoft 365 (M365) users. The standard M365 tier doesn’t include it. The overall licensing scheme is changing and can be bewildering.
There’s more than one CA implementation:
P1 enforces MFA in certain scenarios
P2 is risk based, learning user behavior to minimize MFA prompts
There are additional steps to consider for password management before we move on.
Configure Password Management
Microsoft has revised its password policy guidance to no longer expire passwords. It’s important to understand that SMEs that are regulated or don’t have MFA and CA configured shouldn’t do that. You may also consider changing passwords if you suspect an ID has been hijacked. CrowdStrike found that 71% of attacks are now malware-less and targeting cloud IDs. 75% of cloud breaches are due to compromised identities. A Zero Trust posture isn’t optional. Consider deploying Extended Detection and Response (XDR) from a vendor of your choosing or paying extra for Microsoft Identity Protection if you prefer the Microsoft stack.
Other best practices are:
Set up self-service password reset (SSPR) with two authentication methods. Note that using security questions might be risky, because attackers gather intelligence on employees that’s “open source” from the web or obtain information from third-party breaches elsewhere. Microsoft charges extra for on-premises write-back.
Use the same password policies everywhere (on-prem and cloud-based). Microsoft maintains extensive documentation on an agent-based approach to enforce AAD password protection on AD DS without exposing your domain controller to the web or forcing networking changes. Note that you have to be proficient in modifying AD settings.
Prepare for the Worst
Create an emergency access Global Admin account for when it’s necessary to “break the glass” during network outages and periods of system downtime. This account is excluded from CA and MFA. Always store these credentials appropriately and use a highly complex password.
Following the steps outlined above provides a strong foundation with the appropriate entitlements, attributes, and processes to prepare AAD for application provisioning.
Manage Connected Applications
Application provisioning is on a per user basis by default with group assignment to applications being reserved for P1, P2, or equivalent AAD subscribers. Ensure that applications don’t provision high access through RBAC. There are multiple options, and automation is available for application provisioning. The initial provisioning cycle populates users, followed by programmatic incremental updates that handle updates made through Microsoft Graph or AD.
Microsoft provides several options for attribute mapping from identities that originate from the “three paths” mentioned above via SCIM endpoints to cloud resources or the Azure AD Provisioning agent. The latter must run on the same server as your SCIM application. Microsoft also has options for one-way connections from AAD to LDAP or SQL database user stores, but those have several on-premise prerequisites. Provisioning users into AD DS isn’t supported.
Siloed identities complicate existing identity practices and infrastructure as well as increase technical overhead and the attack surface area. Enable single sign-on (SSO) to centralize identity management either through AAD or a system or service that integrates with it.
Enable Single Sign-On
SSO will improve security through modern authentication protocols, make life easier for your users, and reduce management overhead. Microsoft has imposed restrictions on the number of SSO applications per user on its free tier, but that policy may be changing. AAD provides pre-built integrations through the Azure AD application gallery in addition to SAML and OAuth 2.0 SSO protocols for manual settings. Microsoft doesn’t support the AAA protocol RADIUS, which many network appliances use for access control, so its SSO doesn’t access all of your resources. Consider using cloud RADIUS or install and configure the Microsoft NPS server role.
It’s possible for all AAD tiers to access native Windows apps via Kerberos, NTLM, LDAP, RDP, and SSH authentication in a hybrid deployment. However, identity protection features such as CA are limited to P1 and P2 products including Azure AD Application Proxy or secure hybrid partnerships integrations. These services will extend modern security to legacy apps.
Phishing Considerations
Microsoft’s default settings permit all users to access the AAD admin portal and register custom SSO applets. Attackers are wise to this workflow and exploit OAuth in phishing exploits, which may bypass MFA. The principle of least privilege mandates that users who don’t need access shouldn’t receive it. Strongly consider restricting user-driven application consent and setting permissions classifications to “low impact.” This also applies to group owners. Compliance boundaries are murkier and should be carefully assessed outside of the Microsoft ecosystem.
AAD can be complex and Microsoft has amassed Azure partners for advanced specialization. Blocks of time with consultants should be a budgeting consideration for any AAD project. This writer, a former IT director, needed consultants even when projects appeared straightforward.
AAD is capable of alerting you to suspicious OAuth authorization requests, but that requires an additional subscription to Microsoft Cloud App security, either standalone or through M365 E5. Other solutions such as CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection have this capability. JumpCloud is a CrowdStrike partner and integrates with its solutions through the CrowdStrike Store.
Now that you’re familiar with configuring users, groups, and applications, let’s review reporting.
Audit Your Security Regularly
You should always look for ways to improve in-house security and processes. If you can’t stop it, you should at least monitor it. Regularly audit your entitlements, users, and review activity reports. Taking this extra step helps make security a process as opposed to relying solely on products and services.
Ideally, you’ll be monitoring all privilege changes, suspicious activity, and signs of known attacks. AAD will provide you with several reports:
Basic security and usage reports are included among all subscription tiers
Advanced reporting is restricted to P1 and P2
SIEM reporting and Identity Protection require P2 (or equivalent) subscriptions
Some security capabilities may be more accessible and easier to deploy via JumpCloud, which integrates with AD, AAD/M365, Google Workspace, and Okta, or can function as a standalone directory. JumpCloud is focused on managing identities, in all places, as your security perimeter.
How JumpCloud Improves Upon Azure AD Best Practices
JumpCloud is an open directory platform that manages identities, access control, and devices. Devices are a method of granting access to an identity or application, so device management is included by default. That makes it possible to assemble high visibility telemetry data for reporting.
As previously noted, Microsoft requires its users to purchase additional subscriptions (Entra, M365 E3/5, AAD P1/2, and Intune for device management) to meet its recommendations for best practices. Standard AAD deployments fall short of Microsoft’s guidance, but some of its premium offerings may sell SMEs more features than they require or even want to purchase.
JumpCloud can help to fill in some of those gaps, and is easy to deploy, with deepening integrations for exporting AAD user groups. It’s designed for SMEs, so IT teams may benefit from having more control over what they’re buying (as opposed to not using what they pay for). The next section explores the specifics of how JumpCloud can improve AAD and help your organization to build the stack of its choosing out of best-of-breed apps and services.
IAM and SSO
Identities flow into JumpCloud from other directories, HRIS systems, or JumpCloud’s Cloud LDAP. Attributes, such as where users are located, who their supervisor is, or what team they belong to, simplify provisioning user access to IT resources such as applications and networks.
Group management is provided at no additional cost and leverages attribute-based access control (ABAC), enabling the system to continuously audit entitlements for Zero Trust access control. JumpCloud is introducing the ability to automate and apply membership suggestions to groups. RBAC is more of a manual process, which can lead to mistakes that over or under provision users. Group members can access resources through SSO protocols and more:
SAML
OAuth 2.0
OIDC
RADIUS
LDAP
JumpCloud provides delegated authentication that leverages AAD credentials and password policies for RADIUS. This capability extends Azure SSO to network resources such as Wi-Fi networks and VPNs while also reducing technical overhead and eliminating siloed identities. SSO applets launch from within the JumpCloud user console as a security control for phishing.
Environment-Wide MFA
JumpCloud Protect™, an integrated authenticator app for MFA, is designed to be frictionless. It provides application-based Push MFA and TOTP in addition to WebAuthn and U2F keys. More options for biometric authentication and passwordless log-in experiences are being added to the platform.
MFA can be config
ured for most SSO, LDAP, and RADIUS logins. It’s also integrated with CA.
Conditional Access
AAD identities can be protected by conditional access through JumpCloud as an add-on without purchasing P1 or P2 from Microsoft. Pre-built rules are available to enforce MFA for privileged user groups, restrict logins to specific locations, and to require device trust. Meaning, any identity + device that isn’t managed by JumpCloud won’t be able to access cloud apps. More granular conditions such as OS version and device encryption status are coming soon.
Password Management
A decentralized password manager and vault is available as an add-on through browser plug-ins and mobile apps to help SMEs implement complex passphrases for users. This feature assists with provisioning and revoking user access to reduce the risk of data breaches. Centralized password management also increases visibility for compliance peace of mind.
Device Management
JumpCloud is cross-OS, supporting:
Android: Support for policies and application distribution is coming in late 2022 and beyond.
Apple products: Mobile Device Management (MDM) is available for macOS and iOS devices, providing for application distribution, policies, and commands with the option for Zero Trust deployment. Policies are timely and in-touch with the needs of Mac admins, including addressing “Day 0” OS upgrade controls.
Linux: JumpCloud supports multiple Linux distros with multiple deployment options. It provides pre-built policies, including full disk encryption (FDE), and Sudo access for commands (with pre-built security commands through the Admin Console). IAM capabilities aren’t restricted to certain browsers; Microsoft mandates Edge for Intune device enrollment. Intune is an additional subscription beyond standalone AAD.
Windows: Anything an admin wishes to do is possible through security commands and a PowerShell module. Commands function through a queue. JumpCloud providespre-built GPO-like policies including fine-grained control over BitLocker, as well as a GUI for custom policies. There’s also software distribution, and more, with Windows Out of Box Experience (OOBE) coming soon to streamline onboarding remote workers.
Patch Management
JumpCloud offers cross-OS patching as an add-on. Patching is an important activity to mitigate the risk of security breaches that leverage 0-Day attacks with a healthy device state. Centralizing patch management helps to reduce costs versus purchasing a third-party patch management solution for Windows and all other operating systems. Browser patch management is arriving in Q4, 2022, and it will extend to reporting for management status.
Remote Assist
IT teams can extend opt-in remote support to users with Remote Assist. It’s free and works cross-OS. The only configuration that’s required is to have JumpCloud agents running on a device that’s bound to an identity from the open directory. It’s possible to:
Copy and paste between devices
Work in multi-monitor systems
Turn on audit logging
Reporting
JumpCloud’s emphasis on making identity the new perimeter is reflected in the telemetry that’s available from built-in reporting tools including Device Insights and Directory Insights. There’s a growing selection of pre-made reports, stored for analysis. SIEM integration is also possible.
Some of those include:
User to Devices
User to RADIUS Server
User to LDAP
User to Directories
User to SSO Applications
OS Patch Management Policy
Cloud Insights is an add-on to monitor Amazon Web Services (AWS) events and user actions. This makes compliance and data forensics easier for SMEs and helps to enforce least privilege in cloud infrastructure. Support for Google Cloud (GCP) will be introduced next for a multi-cloud strategy.
Avoid Vendor Lock-In and Do More with JumpCloud
JumpCloud is available to try with full functionality for 10 users and devices, and with 10 days of complementary chat support before charges are accessed. AAD users benefit from more freedom of choice, simpler deployment workflows, access to more sources, and lower costs.
Sometimes self-service doesn’t get you everything you need. If that’s how you’re feeling, schedule a 30-minute consultation to discuss options for implementation assistance, migration services, custom scripting, and more.
Similarly, managed service providers (MSPs) receive 10 free user accounts within the first organization that they create in the multi-tenant portal, JumpCloud’s dedicated MSP solution.
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About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
Microsoft is making a steady push in identity and mobile device management with an expanding array of cloud services. Many organizations, especially managed service providers (MSPs), are considering Azure Active Directory (AAD) with Intune™ for access control and unified endpoint management. It’s primarily focused on supporting the Microsoft ecosystem with add-on options to support other platforms and increase security for enterprises. In order to integrate into existing on-premises Windows domains, however, complex connectors are required.
JumpCloud takes a different approach through its open directory platform, which can consume identities from multiple providers, through several protocols, to enable frictionless access into different resources. The platform is engineered to follow Zero Trust security principles and automate the user identity lifecycle. The open directory makes it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) alike to provision the best resources, from any vendor, to get work done. It also provides add-ons for deeper system management and security considerations. Microsoft and JumpCloud both provide cloud-based IT management tools for identity management and device management. This article examines how they compare and the best fit for each platform.
What Is Azure AD?
AAD was created for the express purpose of extending Microsoft’s presence into the cloud. It connects users with Microsoft 365 services, providing a simpler alternative to Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for single sign-on (SSO). There’s similar nomenclature, but it doesn’t replace all the features of Active Directory and lacks support for key authentication protocols including LDAP and RADIUS. It provides a common identity for Azure, Intune, M365, and other Microsoft cloud products, which permits SSO and multi-factor authentication (MFA) within the Microsoft ecosystem. Cross-domain SSO and MFA are gated behind paid tiers of AAD, once a defined number of integrations per user is surpassed.
Microsoft has a structured gated licensing model with trial subscriptions and a free tier of AAD with some restrictions. For example, there are limits on stored objects and the number of apps a single user can access with SSO and group management with role-based access control (RBAC) costs extra. Microsoft also charges for MFA for external identities, per authentication. AAD’s features, which include a few time-limited trial services when users sign up, are listed on its website.
It also serves as Microsoft’s approach to a multi-tiered portfolio of identity, compliance, device management, and security products. The permutations of accompanying cloud products from Microsoft and challenges of migrating from Active Directory to the cloud have given rise to a cottage industry of consultants. This is due to the breadth of configurations, and resulting complexity, that many enterprise use cases require. However, some organizations may benefit from this approach. Integrations with other paid Microsoft services are possible such as Microsoft Intune Premium Suite, Microsoft 365, automations for management tasks, and reuse of ADMX templates from Windows 10/11.
What Is Intune?
Microsoft’s latest offering is Microsoft Intune Premium Suite. It functions as a mobile device management (MDM) solution to administer features and settings for iOS®/iPadOS®, Android®, and Windows. While it extends to macOS and Linux, it’s historically been less focused on non-Windows platforms. Microsoft is updating its services and is increasing what’s possible on other platforms. For instance, Intune supports custom/templated profiles for macOS, compliance policies, shell scripts, Apple Business Manager (ABM), and user/device enrollment options. Linux support has rolled out slowly and is focusing on compliance policies. Microsoft Edge is obligatory to utilize some of its features, such as conditional access policies for privileged users.
However, Intune bolsters Microsoft products such as Edge and Configuration Manager as first-class citizens. Windows administrators will be familiar with aspects of how it works, such as ADMX templates. Intune is most robust when it is used to manage Windows systems that are hybrid AD-joined, in combination with other services and security solutions. Separate license requirements and costs may impact what services can integrate with Intune.
What is Configuration Manager?
The following provides a quick primer on Configuration Manager:
Cloud-based MDM to control features and settings; isolation of corporate data
The Intune admin center offers status updates and alerts as well as device configuration and other administrative settings
Connectors for Active Directory and certificate-based authentication
ADMX templates to deploy Windows policies and benchmark group policies and Graph API for scripting, with appropriate licensing in place.
Integration with AAD, Windows (Win32) LoB apps, and other Microsoft-centric services
Application deployment and user assignments
Compliance settings creation and the ability to lock down services with granular conditional access rules based upon group Intuneberships, location, device state, and triggers for specific application access rules (Note: Additional Microsoft products are necessary to protect identities as well as to monitor and control cloud application sessions such as Enterprise Mobility + Security E5)
Reporting on apps, device compliance, operations, security, and users
Device-only subscriptions for single-use devices such as kiosks
Remote support is available as a premium add-on; unlimited federated identity, which provides SSO and MFA environment-wide requires a higher tier of AAD; and Microsoft offers pre-built connectors and SCIM synchronization through its paid SSO SKU.
What’s possible with Intune is somewhat dependent upon what other Microsoft services are being licensed (standalone or bundled), knowledge of Microsoft’s administrative tools, and how invested an organization can become in the Microsoft ecosystem. Intune is a broad product family, and it’s possible to achieve advanced enterprise-level compliance and security by spending more for additional services.
What Is JumpCloud?
JumpCloud is an open directory platform for SMEs and their MSP partners that includes zero trust identity and access control (IAM), cross-OS device management, and more. It simplifies the orchestration of identity management and access control throughout the vendor and open source landscape. Supported platforms include Linux, macOS, iOS/iPad OS, and Windows. Android support is forthcoming. JumpCloud is cloud-based and can be deployed for a domainless enterprise, without the need for AD or AAD, or extend your existing domains wit
h a more straightforward deployment.
JumpCloud is tailored to the needs of SMEs. Some of its core features include:
An intuitive user interface and dashboard that makes IT admins more productive and highlights issues that require immediate attention.
The capacity to integrate with AAD and Google identities, with delegated authentication available for RADIUS using AAD credentials.
Unlimited, True SSO that delivers SAML, OIDC, and password-based authentication for any web application, as well as SCIM and RESTful support to manage user onboarding/authorization to third party applications. JumpCloud provides ready-to-consume connectors for many popular services.
Push and TOTP MFA everywhere, including RADIUS and LDAP connections.
Built-in MDM, without extra costs; isolation of corporate data.
Application install and management on remote systems.
Integrated remote assistance with Remote Assist, free of charge.
Integrations with popular HRIS systems for rapid user onboarding and provisioning.
Zero-touch device enrollment and deployment for Apple devices.
Automated group memberships that leverage attribute-based access control (ABAC) to modernize the user identity lifecycle and enhance security. This provides entitlement management maturity beyond what’s possible with legacy access control paradigms. In contrast, Microsoft’s RBAC is more labor intensive with higher management overhead.
Cross-OS policies and root-level CLI interfaces for centralized IT management and commands.
A streamlined dashboard for IT teams and technicians
Reporting for Device Insights, Directory Insights, and Cloud Insights for AWS.
A cloud-based LDAP directory with available Active Directory sync tools.
Even more IT management and security essentials are serviced by the following add-on products:
Pre-built conditional access capabilities that restrict access by location, whether a device is being managed by JumpCloud, and to enforce MFA for specific groups of users
Decentralized password management that integrates with the directory platform
Comparing JumpCloud to Azure AD with Intune
AAD and Intune have some overlap with JumpCloud on a feature-by-feature basis, and it makes sense for organizations to evaluate all of their cloud-based identity and system management options. Put simply, the comparison between JumpCloud and Azure AD with Intune is really about adaptability versus maintaining the status quo and vendor lock-in.
The open directory platform solves the challenges faced by modern IT professionals versus simply extending an existing ecosystem into the cloud.
The greatest difference lies in Microsoft engineering its products for the enterprise in service of the Windows ecosystem, tooling, and its accompanying cloud services. There’s deep integrations with Microsoft products and specialized services that mostly benefit larger organizations. If you have an all-Windows® network, and are already implementing Azure with Active Directory® on-premises, then Azure AD and Intune could be the right addition for your organization. Using tools created by Microsoft in a Windows environment simply makes sense. Mobile-heavy organizations may also benefit from using Intune’s mobile device management capabilities to manage other operating systems.
JumpCloud is intended for the specific needs of the SME market, as evidenced by how its features are packaged and implemented for ease of use. It was created to address the constraints that arise when a legacy on-prem directory is modified for a new era in computing (that crosses domains). The open directory platform solves the challenges faced by modern IT professionals versus simply extending an existing ecosystem into the cloud.
It also securely connects users to more resources, without the need for additional servers or add-ons. If your organization has AWS, macOS®, Linux®, Okta®, Google Workspaces™, and other non-Windows platforms as core parts of the infrastructure, then you will benefit by choosing JumpCloud’s open directory platform. Organizations can choose the vendors that are best suited for users both now and in the future.
Ease of Use
JumpCloud is simpler and more accessible, with a more intuitive UI and pricing breakdown. A common complaint is that Microsoft’s interface changes frequently and causes confusion. That’s a consequence of product bundling and frequent product family/branding changes. Other issues involve functions such as zero-touch deployments being limited to Windows devices.
Centralized Policy Management
A key component of Active Directory is a feature known as Group Policy Objects (GPOs). GPOs allow IT admins to control the behavior of Windows systems in their environment with great precision. The key here is that Microsoft’s GPOs only work for Windows systems and are not applicable in the cloud via Azure AD, and with the recent rise of Mac® and Linux® systems in the workplace, that’s a problem. Microsoft has extended policies to other devices through Intune, which extends Windows administrative methodologies, software, and tooling elsewhere.
JumpCloud offers GPO-like policies for all three
major platforms — Windows, Linux, and macOS® — as well as cloud-based resources. IT admins are able to remotely disable virtual assistants, enforce full disk encryption (FDE), and configure system updates with just a few clicks. When a prescribed policy isn’t going to get the job done, JumpCloud enables IT admins to create and execute their own commands and scripts on all three platforms. JumpCloud also provides optional policies for cross-OS patching.
Open Directory Platform
The JumpCloud platform does not need to fully own an identity to manage it. Rather, it can consume identities from different sources and sits in the middle to orchestrate access and authorization to resources. This simplifies IT management for SMEs by addressing the access control and security challenges stemming from having identities exist in silos.
For instance, Microsoft doesn’t interoperate with Google Workspace, so IT professionals must tackle authorizing and orchestrating those users between different products. An Azure AD user also won’t be able to use RADIUS to access Wi-Fi without a domain controller or third-party service. SMEs can dramatically improve security as well as save on licensing, headcount, time, and effort by consolidating orchestration into a single directory (that sits in the middle).
Mobile Device Management Capabilities
Intune and JumpCloud have MDM services for managingBYOD and BYOC devices, but the respective value propositions diverge when organizations are cost conscious, have limited resources, or must support heterogeneous environments.
Microsoft delivers cross-platform support, but Windows is the favored tenant with the capacity for zero-touch onboarding that would benefit Microsoft shops. JumpCloud is easier to adopt, learn, and works better with Mac and Linux systems. The open directory platform also adds additional value for MDM users to import user identities from non-Microsoft platforms to centrally manage or utilize them all.
Android, Apple, and Linux Devices
Intune has Mac and iOS/iPadOS support for the supervision of Apple devices through user login, device enrollment/deployment, configuration management, patch policies, and software distribution. It’s also offering services to manage Android devices and Linux. Microsoft’s full offering requires AAD, Intune, and an understanding of its Windows templates and tooling. It also has extended requirements for other Microsoft products such as Edge to be able to manage Linux users, limiting customer choice.
JumpCloud’s Apple and Linux MDM capabilities are extensive, beginning with a pre-built collection of policies, configuration options, security functions, and culminating in zero-touch device enrollment. MDM is immediately available as a core feature of the platform, and cross-OS patching is available as an add-on service. JumpCloud supports the most popular Linux distros and doesn’t impose any mandates to use a specific browser.
Affordability and Implementation
With consideration to Microsoft’s extensive stack requirements and gated licensing, JumpCloud’s bundled MDM is more affordable and user-friendly. It’s also easier for IT teams and MSP technicians to learn and manage.
Configuring Intune is a long and complex process. Intune software deployment and polling works on Microsoft’s schedule, creating management “unknowns.” The workflow is as follows: upload an MSI, create a package, apply it to a machine … and it will install atsome point. This procedure, coupled with a confusing interface, creates a learning curve. Organizations save on costs as a business/MSP by choosing a tool that’s easier to use. Jumpcloud offers more immediate actions for commands and policies.
Platform
Microsoft has devised an extensive cloud services productive portfolio in service of its enterprise customers. It’s a stepwise architecture that enlists adjunct services to build out a broad stack. The Microsoft ecosystem is as broad and comprehensive as a Microsoft shop needs it to be.
JumpCloud is specifically designed for what SMEs need, and sheds the complexity of Microsoft’s ecosystem. It offers far more functionality through one solution that can be bolstered by a mobile-specific MDM, rather than purchasing the entire Microsoft IT stack and everything else required for modern offices to manage users. Organizations that adopt JumpCloud for MDM are more likely to value heterogeneous device management and benefit from its platform approach. Namely, MDM users will obtain greater value by using more of the open directory platform.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace Sync
With Microsoft 365™/Google Workspace sync, organizations can access either productivity platform at will with JumpCloud credentials. The open directory platform imports attributes that decorate users with entitlements, streamlining admin workflows, increasing the accuracy of user profiles, and delivering smooth onboarding. IT admins can also manage groups in Workspaces, and the ability to import groups from AAD is launching soon.
Non-System Needs
When evaluating which identity management provider is right for you, you also want to consider your non-system needs. For instance, if you are interested in LDAP, RADIUS, Samba, SSH, and other protocol support, you might consider JumpCloud’s protocol-level hosted services. JumpCloud also implemented MFA for its LDAP and RADIUS services, which is significant when highly regulated industries like cyber insurance companies require MFA to be enabled for network devices. Otherwise, additional servers and services may be needed to be compliant.
Vendor Lock-In
Another core issue for MSPs and IT organizations is vendor lock-in. Microsoft is financially motivated to keep you on the Windows and Azure platform track, which includes its ecosystem of administrative tools and templates. Often, you need a number of additional Microsoft tools on the Azure AD and Intune path. Most organizations with AAD also use AD on-prem, AAD Connect, AAD DS, and other third-party tools to create a holistic IAM and device management approach. That’s a deep investment in budget, training, and dependency on Microsoft.
Intune belongs to an evolving family of IAM products that have undergone multiple re-namings and repackaging. Growing with Intune means licensing Intune as well as other complementary services for security and system analytics. Note that the selections are in flux, making direct comparisons with alternatives more challenging. Buying Intune sinks organizations deeper into the Microsoft stack, which limits their ability to purchase solutions outside the Microsoft domain and customize their stack for their needs. It also introduces some unpredictability in budgeting.
JumpCloud’s open directory platform allows for greater flexibility and shopping around for services, such as adding best of breed XDR integration from Crowdstrike or Sentinel One to secure identities and endpoints, versus a monolithic supply chain from Microsoft.
Total Cost of Ownership
Microsoft’s legacy requirements frequently mandate a hybrid infrastructure configuration. A hybrid infrastructure adds complexity, and complexity correlates to bigger budgets. Managing and licensing your physical servers is expensive (people, hardware, facilities, maintenance,
and utilities), and the increase to your potential cyberattack surface area are all factors to consider. These factors combined raise the total cost of ownership for AAD.
A common refrain is that “Microsoft stuff works well together.” In practice, transitioning on-premises Microsoft solutions to the cloud isn’t always straightforward. For example, AD groups don’t all automatically sync over to AAD. This writer recently spoke with an Intune administrator who recounted how his organization, which is invested in Microsoft, was experiencing difficulty transitioning to AAD and Intune from ADFS and Active Directory.
In this example, consultants were brought in to set up Intune. The consultants attempted to turn on “full blown AAD” for the environment. That decision resulted in downstream problems with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), because only persistent virtual machines (where every user’s personal desktop settings are set for each virtual desktop) are supported in on-premises ADFS. This scenario may seem arcane, but it illustrates that even migrating to Microsoft’s latest and greatest services isn’t always straightforward. Microsoft has a multitude of legacy components for SSO that tie back to AD, which introduces difficulties that are unique to its ecosystem.
The Intune administrator summed it up perfectly: “I need to focus all my time [elsewhere] but can’t because I get pulled in every direction [due to the complexity of Microsoft’s ecosystem].” Simply put, if your infrastructure’s a mess, everything’s a mess … and costs more than is necessary. The more an organization sinks into Microsoft, the less flexibility it has to go elsewhere.
Service Licensing
Cost of ownership is a key differentiator between AAD + Intune and JumpCloud. AAD is initially a great value — if you’re a heavy user of the Microsoft stack — but costs mount as use increases and third-party services and non-Windows devices are added to your infrastructure. Navigating Microsoft’s complex gated licensing scheme is another driver of rising subscription costs.
For example, organizations that are considering M365, which can bundle Intune, must assess the differences of all 30 license variations. Some consultants even specialize in demystifying Microsoft’s licensing options. Basic tiers are only the price of admission. There are additional costs involved simply to obtain a few fundamental capabilities such as federated identity in AAD to securely access resources outside of Microsoft’s stack using SSO. That’s the real-world starting point for modern IT, even before Intune or other subscriptions factor in.
Consuming external identities also costs more. Microsoft introduced a separate product family called Entra, which is its solution for decentralized identity, identity verification, and entitlement management. Entra extends Microsoft’s strategy to monetize interoperability that is focused on the enterprise market and the sale of adjacent services. In contrast, JumpCloud’s foundation supports expanding capacity to accept and incorporate other identities into workflows.
IT Infrastructure Consolidation
IT tool sprawl is just one of the many unintended consequences of today’s remote-first workforce. Adopting a consolidated stack is beneficial to avoid overlapping feature sets from many different software products. A Microsoft shop may not need to look elsewhere to meet compliance, IAM, IT management, and highly advanced security requirements with its stack (assuming they have the budget). However, there are downsides.
Smaller organizations may find themselves overextended by the breadth and complexity of Microsoft’s components and services that form its hybrid architecture. Buying, operating, and supporting a datacenter is just the start. It’s very likely that IT teams will have to employ external resources to assist with AAD + Intune implementations. Those decisions involve a substantial and costly long-term commitment.
Azure works best if organizations are fully incorporated into a Microsoft tech stack environment, but not outside of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure (i.e., it can’t be used to manage non-Windows servers hosted in Amazon or Google clouds).
JumpCloud’s open directory platform enables IT teams to assemble a stack of best-of-breed solutions that are secure, on managed devices, and available through the identity provider of their choosing. Optional products assist with security, IT hygiene, and password management without extensive management overhead or mandates to deploy them successfully.
What’s Best for Your Shop?
If you are locked in to Microsoft solutions, or if you have corporate-owned iOS and Android mobile devices, then Azure solutions may be an acceptable fit. However, its platforms are intended for the enterprise and extend broadly through gated licensing. Alternatively, if you are an SME that’s invested in other non-Windows platforms and non-Microsoft services and identities, and wish to (or see a path to) consolidate IT resources, then you should consider JumpCloud’s open directory platform. A third option is to use both to obtain the greatest value for your organization.
JumpCloud centralizes user and system management, regardless of platform or where identities reside. This includes our Multi-Tenant Portal (MTP), designed specifically for MSPs to manage multiple client organizations from one pane of glass. JumpCloud offers cross-platform GPO-like capabilities to manage fleets of systems with policies, including local admin system controls, full disk encryption with FileVault 2 and Bitlocker, screen lock regulations, and more. Apple MDM capabilities are available for macOS machines, for machines to execute security functions and distribute configuration policies.
For MSPs, consolidation gives you the chance to proactively manage and monitor your clients’ tech with fewer providers. It decreases your monthly expenditures without sacrificing efficiency or usability, and frees you up to spend more time helping your clients reach their goals. IT consolidation has many benefits for MSPs and their clients, including cost savings, a streamlined user (and management) experience, and an increase in client trust.
The Choice Is Yours
However you choose, all options present benefits to an organization. To learn more about JumpCloud versus Azure AD with Intune, contact us or join our community to engage your peers in conversation.
As always, signing up for the JumpCloud platform is completely free, and includes 10 users and systems to get you started. The best way to learn is by doing. You also get 10 days of premium 24×7 in-app chat support. Sometimes self-service doesn’t get you everything you need. If that’s how you’re feeling, schedule a 30-minute consultation to discuss options for implementation assistance, migration services, custom scripting, and more.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About JumpCloud At JumpCloud, our mission is to build a world-class cloud directory. Not just the evolution of Active Directory to the cloud, but a reinvention of how modern IT teams get work done. The JumpCloud Directory Platform is a directory for your users, their IT resources, your fleet of devices, and the secure connections between them with full control, security, and visibility.
