Need to Know podcast–Episode 341

In this episode I provide the benefits that become available once you add and Azure subscription to your Microsoft environment. From pay as you go options with Copilot and SharePoint all the way through adding more security to your environment, Azure contain a range of features that you should consider. I’ll also bring you up to date with all the latest news from the Microsoft Cloud, so listen along and enjoy.

Brought to you by www.ciaopspatron.com

you can listen directly to this episode at:

https://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-341-why-add-azure/

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Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send me any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show.

Resources

@directorcia

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Become a CIAOPS Patron

Microsoft 365 E5 Security is now available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Microsoft Technical Takeoff: Windows + Intune

Azure Lighthouse support for MSSP use of Security Copilot Sentinel scenarios in Public Preview

Get the most out of OneNote with these little-known features

Edit your name in Teams meetings

Rethinking remote assistance security in a Zero Trust world

Introducing Exchange Online Tenant Outbound Email Limits

CIA Brief 20250308

Microsoft Technical Takeoff: Windows + Intune –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/event/techcommunitylive/microsoft-technical-takeoff-windows–intune/4304008

Strengthening Cloud Compliance and Governance with Microsoft Defender CSPM –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/MicrosoftDefenderCloudBlog/strengthening-cloud-compliance-and-governance-with-microsoft-defender-cspm/4385215

6 ways AI is making a difference in the world –

https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/ai/6-ways-ai-is-making-a-difference-in-the-world/?ocid=msftnews_x

Azure Lighthouse support for MSSP use of Security Copilot Sentinel scenarios in Public Preview –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/SecurityCopilotBlog/azure-lighthouse-support-for-mssp-use-of-security-copilot-sentinel-scenarios-in-/4384386

Malvertising campaign leads to info stealers hosted on GitHub –

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2025/03/06/malvertising-campaign-leads-to-info-stealers-hosted-on-github/

Edit your display name in Teams meetings –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/Microsoft365InsiderBlog/edit-your-display-name-in-teams-meetings/4389359

Who’s Using Copilot? | HYPE Customer Story –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD9YZjARVWk

Business efficiency: How a small business operates like a corporation –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwl6z6UZgeQ

Microsoft 365 E5 Security is now available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 Business Premium –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365businessblog/microsoft-365-e5-security-is-now-available-as-an-add-on-to-microsoft-365-busines/4388436

Silk Typhoon targeting IT supply chain –

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2025/03/05/silk-typhoon-targeting-it-supply-chain/

What is cybersecurity analytics? –

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/security-101/what-is-cybersecurity-analytics

Evolving small business with Microsoft Teams and Copilot –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJzF0lZ-7A

Newsletters in Outlook (Preview) –

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/newsletters-in-outlook-preview-b35566e6-d319-450d-8930-86e483cda3ee

Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus extends Cloud PC resilience –

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/windows-365-disaster-recovery-plus-extends-cloud-pc-resilience/4387492

Available today: DeepSeek R1 7B & 14B distilled models for Copilot+ PCs via Azure AI Foundry – further expanding AI on the edge –

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2025/03/03/available-today-deepseek-r1-7b-14b-distilled-models-for-copilot-pcs-via-azure-ai-foundry-further-expanding-ai-on-the-edge/

Disrupting a global cybercrime network abusing generative AI –

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/02/27/disrupting-cybercrime-abusing-gen-ai/

After hours

Formula 1: Drive To Survive Season 7 Official Trailer | Netflix – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZlzeKPFTco

Editorial

If you found this valuable, the I’d appreciate a ‘like’ or perhaps a donation at https://ko-fi.com/ciaops. This helps me know that people enjoy what I have created and provides resources to allow me to create more content. If you have any feedback or suggestions around this, I’m all ears. You can also find me via email director@ciaops.com and on X (Twitter) at https://www.twitter.com/directorcia.

If you want to be part of a dedicated Microsoft Cloud community with information and interactions daily, then consider becoming a CIAOPS Patron – www.ciaopspatron.com.

Watch out for the next CIA Brief next week

PowerShell script to check Office macro settings

Here’s a script I wrote that you can run to check the operation of Office macro’s on a device:

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/office-macro-get.ps1

For the script to execute you’ll need to run it as an administrator and have the Microsoft Graph module installed so the tenant wide addins can be checked.

Can’t swap Azure subscriptions

So I have a situation where an Azure subscription expired and was then disabled (through no fault of my own I might add).

The status shows as disabled. Problem is now a new valid subscription has been added but I can’t move the resource groups from the old (and disabled) subscription to the new one because:

Error type

The subscription '8a6d2938-80eb-43bf-XXXX-142XXXX1ab90' is disabled and therefore marked as read only. You cannot perform any write actions on this subscription until it is re-enabled. (Code: ReadOnlyDisabledSubscription)
(Code: ReadOnlyDisabledSubscription)

In a nutshell the disabled subscription is now read only and I can’t shift resources if it is read write. That means I’d have to somehow re-enable it (typically converting it to PAYG), just to move to a new subscription.

So, the moral of this story seems to be, don’t let an Azure subscription expire and become disabled because migrating stuff out of it may not be possible!

CIAOPS Need to Know Microsoft 365 Webinar – March

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Join me for the free monthly CIAOPS Need to Know webinar. Along with all the Microsoft Cloud news we’ll be taking a look at Purview (aka Compliance) in Microsoft 365.

Shortly after registering you should receive an automated email from Microsoft Teams confirming your registration, including all the event details as well as a calendar invite.

You can register for the regular monthly webinar here:

March Webinar Registrations

(If you are having issues with the above link copy and paste – https://bit.ly/n2k2503)

The details are:

CIAOPS Need to Know Webinar – March 2025
Friday 28th of March 2025
11.00am – 12.00am Sydney Time

All sessions are recorded and posted to the CIAOPS Academy.

The CIAOPS Need to Know Webinars are free to attend but if you want to receive the recording of the session you need to sign up as a CIAOPS patron which you can do here:

http://www.ciaopspatron.com

or purchase them individually at:

http://www.ciaopsacademy.com/

Also feel free at any stage to email me directly via director@ciaops.com with your webinar topic suggestions.

I’d also appreciate you sharing information about this webinar with anyone you feel may benefit from the session and I look forward to seeing you there.

Configuring Microsoft 365 PAYG Bizchat agents

You don’t need a full license of Microsoft 365 Copilot for each user to create custom Bizchat agents, you can tie your Copilot billing to an Azure subscription, create and publish custom Bizchats agents to your users with Microsoft Copilot Studio quick and easily as shown in this video.

Video link = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kow8UJmZLaU

CIA Brief 20250301

Disrupting a global cybercrime network abusing generative AI –

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/02/27/disrupting-cybercrime-abusing-gen-ai/

Microsoft completes landmark EU Data Boundary, offering enhanced data residency and transparency –

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/02/26/microsoft-completes-landmark-eu-data-boundary-offering-enhanced-data-residency-and-transparency/

Announcing Free, Unlimited Access to Think Deeper and Voice –

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/blog/2025/02/25/announcing-free-unlimited-access-to-think-deeper-and-voice/

Maximizing AI’s potential: Insights from Microsoft leaders on how to get the most from generative AI –

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog/2025/02/18/maximizing-ais-potential-insights-from-microsoft-leaders-on-how-to-get-the-most-from-generative-ai/

Move files to OneDrive –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hq63Yfj3Y

Safeguarding AI against ‘jailbreaks’ and other prompt attacks –

https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/ai/safeguarding-ai-against-jailbreaks-and-other-prompt-attacks/

Focus on what matters most with Microsoft 365 Copilot –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-_xncOsEds

After hours

Gibberlink – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3yQHYNXPws

Editorial

If you want to be part of a dedicated Microsoft Cloud community with information and interactions daily, then consider becoming a CIAOPS Patron – www.ciaopspatron.com.

Watch out for the next CIA Brief next week

A better KQL Query to report failed login by country

The above is an improved version of a KQL query you can use to report on failed logins to Entra ID over the past 30 days. It also excludes a country (here Australia) if desired.

The country codes are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2

Note: if you copy and paste directly from here you will probably have the change the “ when you paste into your own environment as the wrong “ gets taken across!