Amazon Web Services VPN Gateway

I ran into an interesting conflict last week with AWS VPN (Virtual Private Network) Gateway.  I know there is a limitation with your AWS account that you are not allowed to have multiple customer gateways within a region having the same IP address. This would be an extremely nice feature because we would be able to connect multiple VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) inside the same region to a single VPN device outside of AWS.  There are a lot of use cases for being able to have multiple VPCs within a region have a VPN connect to a single customer gateway device:

• Logical separation of Development and Production environments
• Logical separation of data at different classification levels for industry compliance and regulatory restrictions.
• Customer segregation

Based on this information, I thought I would be clever to create two customer gateways within the same region, but have them separated by two AWS accounts. I was able to successfully create the customer gateway and perform the VPN connection in the first AWS account.  I then went into the second AWS account and was able to create the customer gateway successfully; however, when I went to create the VPN connection I received a conflict error with the customer gateway.  Come to find out, regardless of AWS account separation you cannot successfully create VPN connections with AWS VPN gateway if the customer gateway address is being used somewhere else within a single AWS Region. 

The way to work around this issue is to separate VPCs and customer gateways across different AWS regions regardless if you have one or multiple AWS accounts.

James Hirmas is the CEO for JHC Technology.  He can be reached at jhirmas(at)jhctechnology.com,@JHC_JamesHirmas, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions: Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Microsoft Office 365

Can Microsoft Office 365 and Amazon Web Services (AWS) work together?  The answer to this cloud riddle is YES.  

There seems to be an overall confusion between what these Cloud venders provide as services.  To be clear, Amazon Web Services is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider and Microsoft Office 365 is a Software as a Service (SaaS).  

In enterprise deployments of Office 365, many organizations have requirements to manage and synchronize user profiles to Office 365, restrict user access, provide secure mobile access, and advanced Exchange/Lync/SharePoint management (Remote PowerShell and management consoles).  

In order to satisfy these requirements, organizations will need to deploy the following components within their controlled environment:

• Mobile Management Solution (Blackberry Enterprise Server 10)
• Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) internal and proxy
• Exchange and Lync Management Console
• Remote PowerShell for SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, and other Office 365 components

Some of our clients have elected to move these components into their own Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) within Amazon Web Services (AWS) so that they can take advantage of the power of AWS (Elastic, Pay as you go model, network, high availability, etc…) and remove their dependencies on managing their own data centers. Once these components have been deployed they can be configured to integrate/communicate with Office 365 Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and other Office 365 components.

JHC Technology has also designed and implemented virtual application and desktop technology to run on Amazon Web Services.  We are able to deploy the Microsoft Outlook virtual application as well as other office products on AWS and connect them to Office 365.  In this scenario, users are able to connect to an AWS region and access Outlook either via virtual desktop or virtual application from any device and pull down their Office 365 exchange mail securely.

Organizations should not be tied down to use only one cloud model (IaaS vs SaaS). They should look at their overall requirements and choose an architecture that is flexible enough to expand for future requirements.

James Hirmas is the CEO for JHC Technology.  He can be reached at jhirmas(at)jhctechnology.com,@JHC_JamesHirmas, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

How to Clear an Enterprise Password from a BlackBerry

As you may already know, once a BlackBerry device has been activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server the IT Policy is "hard coded," so to speak, on that device. If your organization, for whatever reason, wishes to allow users to keep these devices without the password, the tool JL_Cmder.cmd is a Windows Command Script (.cmd) that will do the trick. There are other important troubleshooting features included as well.

Recently I was faced with 4 different BlackBerry devices that received a white screen 603 error or error 507 after the carrier pushed out an upgrade. The solution provided to me by the vendor did not resolve the issue.

To fix it, I ran the JL_Cmder.cmd against the device, selected option number 5) resettofactory (see the screen shots below). Once completed, all the user data and IT Policy are wiped. I then had to recover the OS and was able to successfully reactivate the BlackBerry and restore with the backup files. Prior to running the .cmd, be sure to backup and save your data to your Backup files:

1. Connect the BlackBerry with the USB cable.
2. If you did not already install FREE RIM BlackBerry Desktop Software, go to http://us.blackberry.com/software/desktop.html and install the software in order to Backup up all the data on the device.
3. Once you have any data you would like to restore saved within your Backup file you are ready to run Execute
   
   
4. Follow the screen prompts and enter the password if the device has one currently 
   
   
5. Select 5) resettofactory
   
   
6. You will be prompted with the following screen that you are about to reset the device to factory settings. Click (Y) for yes.
   
   
7. Once this has completed, follow the onscreen steps to recover the OS and reactivate the BlackBerry.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please respond to this post or email me and I will do my best to provide you with more information in a follow-up post. 

Wanda Bannerman is the Mobile Architect for JHC Technology.  She can be reached at wbannerman(at)jhctechnology.com.

Purging Your Devices

If you own a device with wireless capabilities chances are you are actively using that feature, whether you realize it or not.

OK, so let's narrow the scope down to smartphones and tablets. The top 4 popular operating systems on these devices are Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Apple iOS.
I have used all 4 on some sort of device (smartphone or tablet or both) and one thing that has stood out like a sore "security" thumb was when it came to managing wireless (WiFi) profiles.
How many of you know how to get to your wireless configuration settings to add and remove specific wireless profiles?

For example, last year I traveled to a foreign country by plane. While I was in a DC airport waiting to board, I decided to connect to an airport pay-for-service WiFi on my iPad. I filled out the form and I was up and surfing. After a while it came time to finally board my flight and head off to my destination, but I had a 3-hour layover at another airport. So I decided to get on the Internet again, but this time it was a different service. However, this time it was free. So I decided to hook up all my other devices, such as Blackberry and Android tablets. So there I was, multitasking with all my electronics, until my next flight boarded. After a long day of traveling, I finally got to my destination, and like any electronic device driven person this day in age, I
connected ALL my devices to the Internet before I even unpacked the rest of my bags. 


After 10 days of fun I came back home and it was time to get back into the groove of things, work, 2+ hours commute and every-day life activities. While my vacation was now a memory relived through pictures, conversations and random thoughts, my devices had not been purged clean since they were holding onto the trip information still.

The good thing is that these "virtual" memories can easily be deleted. In fact, I highly recommend that you be paranoid and actively delete these memories from your devices. The main reason is in regards to wireless security, as related in my last blog.

Previously, I mentioned that your devices always beacon out looking for previous wireless
connections that are in your device profiles. Well in this story, I created extra wireless profiles on my iPad and on 2 other devices. Fortunately, I can delete these profiles on every device one at a time, except the Apple device.  I have many profiles on my devices and don't want to delete my home WiFi, my work WiFi or any other previously created WiFi profile on my devices. I just want to remove the ones that I know I will not use again.

So what I do is open my configuration settings on my devices and pick one profile at a time and delete it.  I do this on my Blackberry and my Android. However, the Apple device does not give
 me that option. The only option Apple devices give me is all or none...unless you are within range of said WiFi and the iPad (Apple device) detects the WiFi signal, at which point you can tell your Apple device to "Forget it" within your wireless configurations. So your only option if you use Apple device is to delete all the profiles. It is not so horrible, but just a burden and a best practice in order to keep maintain the security of your device.

So how many people do you think purge or clean their devices after they were done with an Internet connection they will probably not use again? I believe there are many people who don't want to deal with it, let it
 be and continue collecting WiFi profiles on their devices. I say to those people: Beware!
You really need to do a little cleanup with your devices every now and then and reduce your chances of getting owned.

Ernesto Fuller is the Senior Security Administrator for JHC Technology.  He can be reached at efuller(at)jhctechnology.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Mobility First: It's All Possible

When the word mobility comes to mind, I think of being in motion, constantly moving, being able to do everything and anything while on the move. With the type of job I do it’s very critical that I have everything I need in order to be successful. I can honestly say that I applaud the inventors of cloud computing which helped shape the concept of mobile computing. 

The development of Cloud computing has taken the IT world to its heights and is grabbing the attention of every industry all over the world. Mostly promoting security and the ability for multiple users to be on the same environment all at once, mobile computing is enabling companies to have more of a hold of their private records and keeping their employees and systems safe. 

Most electronic devices are now having features that can allow the user to conduct business with just a single touch. It all started with PDA’s, which were mainly used by businesses for inventory tracking, but now newer devices can be used for both business and personal use. 

When talks of mobile computing came up, there was the issue of size and how they could accomplish the mobility aspect of it. We started with desktop computers which were too large, and the need was for devices that needed to be smaller in order to achieve mobility. Eventually, hardware manufacturers got the right idea, and now mobile devices are being used by everyone, everywhere. 

As a result of the mobile computing phenomenon, businesses are now going mobile, even government agencies are starting to adapt to it. This is where firms like JHC Technology come in, to assist businesses in making their offices mobile by leveraging Citrix on AWS to deliver apps on all types of mobile devices. It’s an awesome way to conduct business, especially while working at home. I always have full access to all my data and apps while on the go, everything is connected and I don’t need to be only in one location to get my job done. It has now become a necessity to have, now a day you see people constantly in their mobile device either working, browsing the web or catching up with the latest news. It has become our way of life.

Kelechi Uzo-Okoro is the Administrative Assistant for JHC Technology.  She can be reached at kokoro(at)jhctechnology.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.