All posts in category Security

PKI Fundamentals with Microsoft AD CS Training Course

I’m excited to announce that I’ve partnered once again with the fine folks at the ViaMonstra Online Academy to deliver a new live training course entitled PKI Fundamentals with Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS). The event consists of six weekly live webinars beginning on Thursday, January 15, 2026, at 3:00 PM CST.

Why AD CS Training?

Digital certificates are strong, phishing-resistant credentials that are an excellent choice for authentication to critical workloads like Always On VPN and enterprise Wi-Fi. However, managing certificate services infrastructure can be daunting. This course provides administrators with a fundamental understanding of enterprise PKI with Microsoft AD CS.

Course Overview

The event format for this course consists of six weekly live sessions on Thursdays starting on January 15, 2026. The classes are two hours long, running from 3:00 PM CST to 5:00 PM CST each day. During the course, we’ll cover the following topics.

  • PKI concepts and certificate use cases
  • Designing and deploying certificate authorities (CAs)
  • Configuring templates and enrollment
  • Managing revocation and maintenance

Who Should Attend

Organizations planning to use certificate authentication for enterprise VPN and Wi-Fi workloads will benefit from this training course. Also, those considering a new AD CS deployment will find this training beneficial. In addition, administrators managing an existing production AD CS environment will gain valuable insight.

Enroll Now

Registration for this training class is available now. The cost is $295.00—an incredible bargain! Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity to gain foundational AD CS skills. Click the registration link below and reserve your spot today!

Additional Information

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

Enterprise PKI

Cloud PKI for Microsoft Intune

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by Richard M. Hicks on November 6, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Active Directory, Active Directory Certificate Services, AD CS, ADCS, administration, authentication, Certificate Authentication, Certificate Authority, Certificate Services, Certificate-Based Authentication, certificates, education, Enterprise, Infrastructure, learning, Microsoft, PKI, public key infrastructure, Security, SSL, SSL and TLS, TLS, Transport Layer Security, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2025
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Posted by Richard M. Hicks on November 6, 2025

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2025/11/06/pki-fundamentals-with-microsoft-ad-cs-training-course/

What’s New in Absolute Secure Access v14

Absolute Software recently announced a significant upgrade for its popular secure remote access and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution. Version 14 of Secure Access introduces many compelling new features and updates that administrators will find beneficial. In addition, crucial security vulnerabilities in the previous release have been addressed.

New Features

Absolute Secure Access v14.x includes many enhancements over previous releases. Here are a few of the highlights.

Improved Performance

Absolute Secure Access v14 provides much faster throughput on multi-gigabit networks (e.g., 2.5Gbps Wi-Fi 6E/7 or 10Gbps wired). New kernel-level optimizations reduce CPU overhead by up to 40% on high-speed links, improving performance on faster networks.

Modern Certificate Handling

SHA-1 has been deprecated since 2011, and beginning with Absolute Secure Access v14, support for SHA-1 certificates has been removed completely.

Enhanced Client Auto Reconnect

Improved client auto-reconnect logic now survives Windows standby mode for more than 12 hours (previous versions were capped at around 4 hours). This will reduce frustration when devices return from standby for extended periods.

Automatic Host Group Updates

Host groups are an excellent way to streamline policy configuration for services like Microsoft 365 and AWS. These cloud providers publish the IP addresses of their services, which are dynamic and often change over time. Absolute Secure Access v14 now supports automatic host group updates for these services. Microsoft 365 updates occur every 28 days, and AWS updates occur every 5 days by default. This interval is configurable for administrators.

Security Updates

Absolute Secure Access v14 closes four server-side CVEs as well as 14 third-party CVEs (Apache, OpenSSL, etc.) that were not patched in v13.x.

Summary

If you have deployed previous versions of Absolute Secure Access, consider upgrading to v14.x today. You’ll gain improved performance, reduced administrative overhead, critical security updates, and much more. If you’d like help with your migration or want to learn more about the new capabilities in Absolute Secure Access v14, fill out the form below, and I’ll provide more information.

Additional Information

Absolute Secure Access

Absolute Secure Access Enterprise VPN Advanced Features In Depth

Absolute Secure Access and IPv6

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by Richard M. Hicks on November 5, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Absolute, Absolute Secure Access, Absolute Software, Enterprise, enterprise mobility, Mobility, NetMotion, NetMotion Mobility, NetMotion Software, Remote Access, Security, Security Update, Update, VPN
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Posted by Richard M. Hicks on November 5, 2025

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2025/11/05/whats-new-in-absolute-secure-access-v14/

Entra Private Access Channels Are Unreachable

Administrators deploying Microsoft Entra Private Access may encounter a scenario in which the Global Secure Access (GSA) agent reports an error. However, the client continues to work without issue, and all internal resources remain reachable via the Entra Private Access connection. This issue occurs only when the Private Access forwarding profile is enabled alone. It does not happen if the Microsoft traffic forwarding profile is also enabled.

GSA Status Error

When this happens, the Private access channel status is Connected, but the Entra access channel is Disconnected. Also, you will see the following error message when clicking on the GSA client in the notification area.

Some channels are unreachable

Global Secure Access has some channels that are unreachable

Health Check

To investigate further, click the Troubleshooting tab, then click Run tool in the Advanced diagnostics tool section. In the Health check section, you will see the following error message.

Diagnostic URLs were not found in forwarding policy

Scrolling down the list also reveals the following error messages.

Magic IP received = False

Tunneling succeeded Entra Authentication = False

Root Cause

Several months ago, Microsoft made changes to the health check probes that required enabling the Microsoft traffic forwarding profile to work. Some essential health-check probes were not accessible via the Private Access channel, resulting in the error messages shown above when only the Private Access forwarding profile is enabled.

Resolution

Microsoft is rolling out changes to address this issue at the time of this writing (late October 2025). If you encounter this error, it will most likely resolve itself soon. Alternatively, administrators can enable the Microsoft traffic forwarding profile, which will also fix this issue.

Additional Information

Microsoft Entra Private Access

Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access (GSA)

Microsoft Security Service Edge (SSE) Now Generally Available

Microsoft Entra Security Service Edge (SSE) on RunAs Radio

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by Richard M. Hicks on October 30, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Entra, Entra Global Secure Access, Entra ID, Entra Internet Access, Entra Private Access, Global Secure Access, GSA, Microsoft, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Entra Internet Access, Microsoft Entra Private Access, SASE, Secure Access Service Edge, Secure Service Edge, Security, Security Service Edge, SSE, troubleshooting, Windows 10, Windows 11, Zero Trust, Zero Trust Network Access, ZTNA
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Posted by Richard M. Hicks on October 30, 2025

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2025/10/30/entra-private-access-channels-are-unreachable/

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