Yesterday IBM announced the 2016 IBM Champions, I am honored to once again be on the list. Â Congratulations to all the Champions, especially the 39 new Champions
Another weekend another set of updates to IBM Connections Cloud, one of which is a new look and feel to IBM Connections Cloud Meetings. Â The Meeting UI has been updated to the Verse theme, and gone is the blank gray box which used to be prominent and it is replaced with quick actions to share your screen or files.
Coming next is Audio/Video integration in Meetings, I have been beta testing it for a while now and happy to see it coming to release shortly.
Check out Luis Benitez’s blog for more of the new capabilities releases this weekend
When I looked at the schedule for IBMConnectED, there was one session that was a can’t miss. Â Steve McDonagh was talking about adding Two Factor Authentication to IBM Connections Cloud. Â If you know me, you know I do a lot of work with IBM Connections Cloud and I am obsessed with two factor authentication, of course I had a conflict and could not be there, so with the help of Devin I managed to get a video of the session which Steve was nice enough to let me publish.
On a side note, if IBM Connections Cloud and two factor authentication is of no interest to you, consider watching the first 5 minutes regardless it’s brilliant,
SHA-2 support for Domino 9.x is planned to be delivered over the next several weeks via an Interim Fix.
With this Interim Fix, Domino administrators will be able to configure Domino 9.x to use a SHA-2 certificate over HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, POP, and IMAP. With a SHA-2 certificate in place, users will be able to use a browser to connect to iNotes, XPages, traditional Domino Web apps, and Sametime (based on Domino HTTP).
Once the Interim Fix is applied, browser users will not receive a security alert since Domino will be configured with SHA-2. Domino administrators will be able to import a 3rd-party SHA-2 cert or generate SHA-2 certs with the Domino Administrator client with Domino 9.x running the Interim Fix on all supported platforms.
As mentioned in the above section, the cryptographic infrastructure needed to provide these features was new to Domino 9.x. For this reason, we will not be able to support SHA-2 on Domino 8.5.x.
There is a lot of talk these days about Google’s decision to accelerate the deprecation of SHA-1, and IBM Domino’s lack of support for SHA-2Â . Â Right off lets get this straight IBM absolutely should have plans to add SHA-2 support in Domino and an implementation date should be communicated ASAP. Â At the same time the pressure should really be on Google to back down from what is an arbitrary deadline they announced out of the blue, and to support the previously announced 2017 date for the deprecation of SHA-1.
While it is easy to blame IBM here (and again IBM needs to communicate a date they will support SHA-2 in Domino) the immediate deprecation by Google is an arbitrary move that does not have a lot of support.
Although the CA Security Council (CASC), comprised of the seven largest Certificate Authorities, supports migration to SHA-2, members are concerned about the impact on website users and administrators alike. Considering many users may still use software lacking SHA-2 support, primarily Windows XP SP2, and the still unknown impact on a complete SHA-1 migration, this 12 week timeline is aggressive. In addition, many devices still lack SHA-2 support, making necessary possibly unplanned and expensive upgrades.
With fall shopping season nearly here, this policy may be particularly concerning for small internet stores, which could be impacted just before the holiday rush. Because many large sites have lockdown periods leading up to the end of the year, companies that have not transitioned may find themselves restricted from making the move until January, or beyond, due to lack of SHA-2 support. Although a migration to SHA-2 is necessary as computing power increases, because of the significant impact in migration and the lack of a practical attack until 2018, the CASC members recommends thetimelines announced by Microsoft in November 2013, which deprecate SHA-1 in code signing certificates by January 1, 2016 and in SSL certificates by January 1, 2017.
If you want a clear explanation on all this, listen to what Steve Gibson has to say about it on Security Now (If it does not begin there automatically pick up the podcast at 48:37 for the SHA-1 discussion)
If you support an IBM Notes Traveler environment this question should be on your mind
Looks like good news if you are reasonably current in your Traveler environment. Â We have had a beta device connected to a 9.0.1 IF4 Traveler server and it worked with out any issue, I know I will be watching closely when Apple releases iOS8 to make sure everything keeps working.
We heard last January at IBM Connect that the IBM Collaboration Solutions would all be rebranded under the IBM Connections name. Â IBM SmartCloud for Social Business is no exception and will be changing later in September.
Current Name
New Name
IBM SmartCloud Engage Advanced
IBM Connections Cloud S1
IBM SmartCloud Engage Standard
IBM Connections Cloud S2
IBM SmartCloud iNotes
IBM Connections Web Mail Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Archive Essentials
IBM Connections Archive Essentials Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Connections
IBM Connections Social Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Docs
IBM Connections Docs Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Meetings
IBM Connections Meetings Cloud
(New Offering)
IBM Connections Chat Cloud
Looks like they are holding off on changing the Notes Mail product names until Mail Next launches.
The URLs will not be changing, just the product names.
It is that time of year again, nominations are open for the next class of IBM Champions. Â Take a few minutes and nominate yourself, or even better nominate someone else to show appreciation for their contributions to the community.