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The 8 best to do list apps in 2023

There are too many to-do list apps. Trying them all would be a massive task, and I know because I did.

Why are there so many apps for something easily done on sticky notes? Because managing tasks is an intensely personal thing. People will reject anything that doesn’t feel right. That’s a good instinct, but it makes it hard to find the right app.

Make the most of your to-do list with Zapier

Automate your tasks

To that end, we’ve been hard at work researching the best to-do apps, trying to find the right ones for various use cases. Research for these pieces was exhaustive. We started by finding the best apps for every platform: Android, Windows, macOS, and iPhone/iPad. We then tried the top-rated apps in every respective app store, and spent way too much time migrating our personal to-do lists from one app to another.

And now I’m offering you what I feel is the cream of the crop. Whatever you’re looking for, one of these apps is going to be right for you. Click on any app to learn more about why I chose it, or keep reading for more context on to-do list apps.

The best to-do list apps

Todoist for balancing power and simplicity
TickTick for embedded calendars and timers
Microsoft To Do for Microsoft power users (and Wunderlist refugees)
Things for elegant design
OmniFocus for specific organizational systems
Habitica for making doing things fun
Google Tasks for Google power users
Any.do for people who forget to use to-do apps
Other options, including project management software, note-taking apps, and other tools that can do the job

What makes the best to-do list app?

How we evaluate and test apps

All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who’ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it’s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We’re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.

I’ve written about technology in general, and productivity specifically, since 2009. In that time, I’ve personally tried basically every to-do list app that has come out, and I’m usually depending on at least one of them to function.

Of course, when it comes to managing a to-do list online, everyone has different criteria. I kept this in mind as I tested, and I noticed a few features that made certain apps stand out.

The best to-do list apps:

Make it fast to add and organize tasks. Ideally, a task is added and categorized in a couple taps or keystrokes.
Offer multiple ways to organize your tasks. Tags, lists, projects, and due dates are all helpful, and the best to-do apps offer at least a few categories like this.
Remind you about self-imposed deadlines. Notifications, widgets, emails—if you’re using an online to-do list, it should help you track what needs to happen when.
Offer clean user interfaces. The best to-do app fits into your workflow so you can get back to what you’re supposed to be doing.
Sync between every platform you use. Which platforms will depend on what you personally use, but I didn’t consider anything that doesn’t sync between desktop and mobile.

I tried to find the task list apps that balance these things in various ways. None of these options will be right for everyone, but hopefully one of them is right for you. Let’s dive in.

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Best to-do list app for balancing power and simplicity

Todoist (Web, Windows, macOS, Android, iPhone, iPad)

Todoist isn’t the most powerful to-do list website out there. It’s also not the simplest. That’s kind of the point: this app balances power with simplicity, and it does so while running on basically every platform that exists. That’s a strong selling point—which is probably why Todoist is one of the most popular to-do lists right now.

Adding tasks was quick on every platform in my tests, thanks in part to natural language processing (type “buy milk Monday” and the task “buy milk” will be added with the next Monday set as your due date). You can put new tasks in your Inbox and then move them to relevant projects; you can also set due dates. Paid users can create custom filters and labels, and there are also some basic collaboration features.

Todoist is flexible enough to adapt to most workflows but not so complicated as to overwhelm. And it adds new features regularly: you can view projects as a Kanban board, for example, and navigating the app by keyboard is much smoother after recent updates. Overall, this is a great first to-do list app to try out, especially if you don’t know where to start.

Todoist also integrates with Zapier, which means you can automatically create tasks in Todoist whenever something happens in one of your favorite apps. Here are some examples.

Add new Google Calendar events to Todoist as tasks

Try it

Google Calendar, Todoist

Google Calendar + TodoistMore details

Add new starred emails to Todoist as tasks [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Try it

Gmail, Todoist

Gmail + TodoistMore details

Add new Trello cards to Todoist as tasks

Try it

Trello, Todoist

Trello + TodoistMore details

Todoist price: Free version available; paid version from $4/month.

Check out more ideas for automating Todoist with Zapier.

Best to-do list app with embedded calendars and timers

TickTick (Web, Android, Windows, macOS, iPhone and iPad)

TickTick is a fast-growing task list app that offers a wide array of features on just about every platform you can imagine. Adding tasks is quick thanks to natural language processing. There’s also a universal keyboard shortcut offered on the desktop versions and pinned notifications and widgets on mobile, which makes it quick to add a task before getting back to what you’re doing. Tasks can be organized using lists, tags, and due dates, and there’s also the ability to add subtasks to any task.

TickTick offers all of this with apps that feel native—the macOS version is distinct from the Windows version, for example, in ways that make sense given the differences between those two systems. TickTick also offers a few features that are above and beyond what other apps offer.

First, there’s a built-in Pomodoro timer, allowing you to start a 25-minute work session for any of your tasks (complete with numerous white noise options, if you want). Second, there’s integration with various third-party calendars, allowing you to see your tasks and your appointments in one place, and even do some time blocking. There’s also a built-in habit-tracking tool, allowing you to review how many days you did or didn’t stick to your exercise and diet commitments. And an Eisenhower Matrix view allows you to prioritize your tasks based on what’s urgent and what’s important. It’s a great collection of features, unlike anything else on the market.

With TickTick’s Zapier integration, you can connect TickTick to the other tools in your tech stack to automatically create tasks whenever you get new leads, deals, or emails.

Create TickTick tasks for newly-labeled Gmail emails [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Try it

Gmail, TickTick

Gmail + TickTickMore details

Generate TickTick tasks from new Facebook Leads

Try it

Facebook Lead Ads, TickTick

Facebook Lead Ads + TickTickMore details

Generate TickTick tasks from new HubSpot deals

Try it

HubSpot, TickTick

HubSpot + TickTickMore details

TickTick price: Free version available; paid version from $2.40/month.

Check out other ways you can automate TickTick with Zapier.

Best to-do list app for Microsoft power users (and Wunderlist refugees)

Microsoft To Do (Web, Android, Windows, iPhone and iPad)

In 2015, Microsoft bought Wunderlist and put that team to work on a new to-do list app. Microsoft To Do is the result of that, and you can find Wunderlist’s DNA throughout the project. The main interface is clean and friendly, adding tasks is quick, but there’s a lot of flexibility below the surface.

But the real standout feature here is the deep integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem. Any email flagged in Outlook, for example, shows up as a task. Outlook users can also sync their tasks from that app over to Microsoft To Do, meaning there’s finally a way to sync Outlook tasks to mobile. Windows users can add tasks using Cortana or by typing in the Start menu. For example, you can type “add rice to my shopping list,” and rice will be added to a list called “shopping.” If you’re a Windows user and an Outlook user, this is the app for you.

This is also the prettiest to-do list app on the market, in my opinion. You can set custom background images for every one of your lists, allowing you to tell at a glance which list you’re looking at. You’re going to be looking at your task list all day—it might as well look good.

Microsoft To Do integrates with Zapier, which means you can make sure Microsoft To Do is talking to all the other apps you use, not just the Microsoft ones. Here are some examples to get started.

Create Workboard action items from new tasks in Microsoft To-Do

Try it

Microsoft To Do, Workboard

Microsoft To Do + WorkboardMore details

Send direct Slack messages with new Microsoft To-Do lists

Try it

Microsoft To Do, Slack

Microsoft To Do + SlackMore details

Create Microsoft To-Do tasks from new Salesforce leads

Try it

Salesforce, Microsoft To Do

Salesforce + Microsoft To DoMore details

Microsoft To Do price: Free

Learn how you can make Microsoft To Do a productivity powerhouse with Zapier.

The best to-do list app with elegant design

Things (macOS, iPhone, iPad)

To-do list apps tend to fall into two categories: the complex and the minimalist. Things is somehow both.

That’s about the highest praise I can give a to-do list app. This is an app with no shortage of features, and yet it always feels simple to use. Adding tasks is quick and so is organizing them, but there’s seemingly no end of variation in ways to organize them. Areas can contain tasks or projects; projects can contain tasks or headers that can also contain tasks; and tasks can contain subtasks if you want. It sounds confusing, but it isn’t, which really speaks to how well Things is designed.

Other apps offer these features, but Things does it in a way that never feels cluttered, meaning you can quickly be done with looking at your to-do list and get back to whatever it is you’re doing. Combine this blend of functionality and beauty with features like a system-wide tool for quickly adding tasks, integration with your calendar so you can see your appointments while planning your day, intuitive keyboard shortcuts, reminders with native notifications, and syncing to an iPhone and iPad app.

The only downside here is the complete lack of versions for Windows and Android, though this decision is probably part of what allows the team to focus on making such a clean product. If you’re an Apple user, you owe it to yourself to try out Things.

You can automatically add to-dos to Things from your other apps with Things’ integrations on Zapier. Here’s some inspiration.

Add saved Slack messages to Things as to-dos

Try it

Slack, Things

Slack + ThingsMore details

Add new Trello cards to Things as to-dos

Try it

Trello, Things

Trello + ThingsMore details

Create Things to-dos from starred emails in Gmail [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Try it

Gmail, Things

Gmail + ThingsMore details

Things price: $49.99 for macOS (15-day free trial), $19.99 for iPad, $9.99 for iPhone.

Best to-do list app for users with a very specific organizational system

OmniFocus (Web, macOS, iPhone, iPad)

OmniFocus is nothing if not flexible. This Apple-exclusive application is built around the Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophy trademarked by David Allen, but an array of features means it can be used for just about any organizational system you can imagine. There are three different kinds of projects you can set up, for example, depending on whether you need to do tasks in a specific order or not. There are six main views by default, allowing you to organize your tasks by things like due date, projects, and tags. You can even add more views, assuming you have the Pro version.

You get the idea. OmniFocus is a power user’s dream, with more features than anyone can hope to incorporate into a workflow, which is kind of the point: if there’s a feature you want, OmniFocus has it, so you can organize your tasks basically any way you can imagine.

Syncing is offered only between Apple devices. There’s a web version that’s intended for occasional usage away from your Apple machines, but non-Apple users should probably look elsewhere.

You can connect OmniFocus to your other favorite apps with OmniFocus’s Zapier integration. Whenever something happens in another app that you want to keep track of in OmniFocus, Zapier will automatically send it there.

Create OmniFocus tasks from new saved Slack messages

Try it

Slack, OmniFocus

Slack + OmniFocusMore details

Create OmniFocus tasks for new starred emails on Gmail

Try it

Gmail, OmniFocus

Gmail + OmniFocusMore details

Create OmniFocus tasks from new or moved Trello cards

Try it

Trello, OmniFocus

Trello + OmniFocusMore details

OmniFocus price: From $99.99/year for the recurring plan, which includes all apps and the web version. Also available as a one-time purchase from $49.99 (14-day free trial).

Best to-do list app for making doing things fun

Habitica (Web, Android, iPhone and iPad)

Games are fantastic at motivating mundane activity—how else can you explain all that time you’ve spent on mindless fetch quests? Habitica, formerly known as HabitRPG, tries to use principles from game design to motivate you to get things done, and it’s remarkably effective. You can add tasks, daily activities, and habits to a list. You also have a character, who levels up when you get things done and takes damage when you put things off. You can also earn in-game currency for buying offline rewards, such as a snack, or in-game items like weapons or even silly hats.

This is even better when you join a few friends and start a party. You can all fight bosses together, but be careful: fail to finish some tasks on time and your friends will take damage. If that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will.

What’s the downside? Habitica isn’t a great to-do list for managing long-term projects, so you might need something else for that. But if motivation is your problem, Habitica is well worth a spin.

Habitica price: Free version available; paid version from $5/month.

Best to-do list app for Google power users

Google Tasks (Web, Android, iPhone and iPad)

If you live in Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Tasks is an obvious free to-do list app to try out. That’s because it lives right in the sidebar of those two apps, and offers more than a few integrations. Plus, there’s a dedicated mobile app.

The app itself is spartan. Adding tasks is quick, particularly if you spend a lot of time in Gmail anyway, but there’s not a lot of organizational offerings. There are due dates, lists, descriptions, subtasks, and the ability to “Star” tasks. There’s not much beyond that, which is ok. On the desktop, the integration with Gmail is a key selling point. You can drag an email to Google Tasks to turn it into a task, for example. You also can see your tasks on your Google Calendar, if you want.

The best to-do app is one that’s always handy. If you’re the kind of person who always has Gmail open on your computer, it’s hard for any app to be handier than Google Tasks. The mobile versions make those tasks accessible on the go.

You can automatically move information between Google Tasks and your other apps with Google Tasks’ integration on Zapier. Here are a few examples of workflows you can automate, so you can stop manually moving your tasks.

Create Trello cards from new Google Tasks tasks

Try it

Google Tasks, Trello

Google Tasks + TrelloMore details

Add new Google Tasks to Todoist as tasks

Try it

Google Tasks, Todoist

Google Tasks + TodoistMore details

Add Google Tasks tasks for new Google Calendar events

Try it

Google Calendar, Google Tasks

Google Calendar + Google TasksMore details

Google Tasks price: Free

Take a look at how you can power up all of your Google apps using automation.

Best to-do list app for people who forget to use to-do apps

Any.do (Web, Android, iPhone and iPad)

Any.do offers a really slick mobile app that makes it quick to add tasks, organize them into lists, and add due dates. But where it really shines is with its daily “Plan my Day” feature, which forces you to schedule when you’ll accomplish your various tasks, so that you remember to actually do things. Any.do also integrates nicely with Google and Outlook calendars, allowing you to see your appointments and your tasks in one place. This is exactly what you need if you’re the kind of person who adds things to a list and forgets about them.

The desktop version isn’t quite as slick as the mobile version—it feels cluttered and is more than a little confusing. Still, Any.do’s mobile version alone makes a compelling reason to give it a shot, especially if that’s where you do most of your task management.

Any.do integrates with Zapier, so you can automatically add tasks to Any.do whenever there’s a new calendar event, note, or task in your other apps.

Add Evernote reminders to Any.do as tasks

Try it

Evernote, Any.do

Evernote + Any.doMore details

Create tasks in Any.do for new saved messages in Slack

Try it

Slack, Any.do

Slack + Any.doMore details

Add new incomplete Todoist tasks to Any.do

Try it

Todoist, Any.do

Todoist + Any.doMore details

Any.do price: Free version available; paid version from $2.99/month.

Other to-do list options

We focused on dedicated to-do list apps in this roundup, but plenty of other software can fulfill the same function. Here are a few ideas if none of the above quite fit what you’re looking for:

Project management apps like Trello and Asana can be used as to-do lists, especially if you already use them to manage your other work.
Note-taking apps like Evernote, OneNote, and Google Keep also have to-do list features, if you want to combine your to-do lists and notes.
You can use Notion as a to-do list if that’s where you spend most of your time, and the various Notion alternatives work just as well.
Time-blocking apps are another solid option. These combine a task list with your calendar, encouraging you to decide when you’ll do what.
Google Sheets can be your to-do list. Zapier’s CEO even uses Gmail as his to-do list.
Sticky note apps can also do the trick. So can a piece of paper. Don’t overthink things!

Finding the right task management system is hard because it’s so personal. To that end, let me know if there’s anything you think I missed.

Related reading:

This post was originally published in April 2018 by Andrew Kunesh. The most recent update was in November 2022.

Source :
https://zapier.com/blog/best-todo-list-apps/

How To Install Kimai Time Tracking App in Docker

In this guide, I’ll show you how to deploy the open source time tracking app Kimai in a Docker container. Kimai is free, browser-based (so it’ll work on mobile devices), and is extremely flexible for just about every use case.

It has a stopwatch feature where you can start/stop/pause a worklog timer. Then, it accumulates the total into daily, weekly, monthly or yearly reports, which can be exported or printed as invoices.

It supports single or multi users, so you can even track time for your entire department. All statistics are visible on a beautiful dashboard, which makes historical time-tracking a breeze.

Why use Kimai Time Tracker?

For my scenario, I am salaried at work. However, since I’m an IT Manager, I often find myself working after hours or on weekends to patch servers, reboot systems, or perform system and infrastructure upgrades. Normally, I use a pen and paper or a notetaking app to track overtime, although this is pretty inefficent. Sometimes I forget when I started or stopped, or if I’ve written down the time on a notepade at home, I can’t view that time at work.

And when it comes to managing a team of others who also perform after hours maintenance, it becomes even harder to track their total overtime hours.

Over the past few weeks, I stumbled across Kimai and really love all the features. Especially when I can spin it up in a docker or docker compose container!

If you don’t have Docker installed, follow this guide: https://smarthomepursuits.com/how-to-install-docker-ubuntu/

If you don’t have Docker-Compose installed, follow this guide: https://smarthomepursuits.com/how-to-install-portainer-with-docker-in-ubuntu-20-04/

In this tutorial, we will be installing Kimai for 1 user using standard Docker run commands. Other users can be added from the webui after initial setup.

Step 1: SSH into your Docker Host

Open Putty and SSH into your server that is running docker and docker compose.

Step 2: Create Kimai Database container

Enter the command below to create a new database to use with Kimai. You can copy and paste into Putty by right-clicking after copy, or CTRL+SHIFT+V into other ssh clients.

sudo docker run --rm --name kimai-mysql \
    -e MYSQL_DATABASE=kimai \
    -e MYSQL_USER=kimai \
    -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=kimai \
    -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=kimai \
    -p 3399:3306 -d mysql

Step 3: Start Kimai

Next, start the Kimai container using the already created database. If you look at the Kimai github page, you’ll notice that this isn’t the same command as what shows there.

Here’s the original command (which I’m not using):

docker run --rm --name kimai-test -ti -p 8001:8001 -e DATABASE_URL=mysql://kimai:kimai@${HOSTNAME}:3399/kimai kimai/kimai2:apache

And here’s my command. I had to explicitly add TRUSTED_HOSTS, the ADMINMAIL and ADMINPASS, and change the ${HOSTNAME} to the IP address of your docker host. Otherwise, I wasn’t able to access Kimai from other computers on my local network.

Green = change port here if already in use
Red = Add the IP address of your docker host
Orange = Manually specifying the admin email and password. This is what you’ll use to log in with.
Blue = Change to docker host IP address

sudo docker run --rm --name kimai -ti -p 8001:8001 -e TRUSTED_HOSTS=192.168.68.141,localhost,127.0.0.1 -e ADMINMAIL=example@gmail.com -e ADMINPASS=8charpassword -e DATABASE_URL=mysql://kimai:kimai@192.168.68.141:3399/kimai kimai/kimai2:apache

Note that 8 characters is the minimum for the password.

Step 4: Log In via Web Browser

Next, Kimai should now be running!

To check, you can go to your http://dockerIP:8001 in a web browser (192.168.68.141:8001)

Then simply log in with the credentials you created.

Step 5: Basic Setup

This app is extremely powerful and customizeable, so I won’t be going over all the available options since everyone has different needs.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m using Kimai for overtime tracking only, so the first step for me is to create a new “customer”.

Create a Customer

This is sort of unintuitive, but you need to create a customer before you can start tracking time to a project. I’m creating a generic “Employee” customer.

Click Customers on the left sidebar, then click the + button in the top right corner.

Create A Project

Click Projects on the left sidebar:

Then click the + button in the top right corner.

Add a name, choose the customer you just created, and then choose a date range.

Create An Activity

Click Activity on the left, then create an activity. I’m calling mine Overtime Worked and assigning it to the Project “Overtime 2021” I just created.

Step 6: Change “Timetracking Mode” to Time-clock

Click Settings. Under Timetracking mode, change it to Time-Clock. This will let you click the Play button to start/stop time worked vs having to manually enter start and stop times.

Step 7: Start Tracking Time!

To start tracking time, simply click the timer widget in the top right corner.

A screen will pop up asking you what project and activity you want to apply the time to.

The selfhosted stopwatch will start tracking time right after. You can then view the timesheets for yourself under the My Times section or for all users under the Timesheets or Reporting tabs.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully this guide helped you get Kimai installed and setup! If you have any questions, feel free to let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to help you out.

My Homelab Equipment

Here is some of the gear I use in my Homelab. I highly recommend each of them.

Server 2019 w/ Hyper-V
Case: Fractal Design Node 804
Graphics Card: NVIDEA Quadro K600
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700

The full list of server components I use can be found on my Equipment List page.

Source :
https://smarthomepursuits.com/how-to-install-kimai-time-tracking-app-in-docker/

Set Chrome as Default Browser using GPO

In this guide, I’m going to show you how to make Google Chrome the default browser using Group Policy (GPO). This guide applies to Windows Server 2012,2016,2019, 2022 as well as Windows 8/10/11.

To do this, there are several steps you’ll need to do. It’s not as simple as just creating a GPO and applying it to a target computer.

This guide assumes you’ve already implemented Google Chrome Enterprise and are already managing Google Chrome browsers at an enterprise level. If not, follow step 1 first.

Step 1: (Optional) Import Google Chrome .ADMX Template Files

Before you begin to manage settings and policies for your Google Chrome browser, you first need to download the .admx and .adml files from here: https://chromeenterprise.google/browser/for-your-enterprise/

Extract it once download and expand the subfolder Configuration.

In the “adm” folder, find your language (en-US) and copy the chrome.adm file to your desktop.
In the admx folder, find your language again (en-US), and copy the chrome.adml file to your desktop.

Next, RDP to your Domain Controller. Copy those two extracted files to the desktop of your DC.

Browse to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions and drag the chrome.admx.
In C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\folder, drag the chrome.adml file.

Now that you’ve copied in the necessary Group Policy files to manage your Google Chrome browsers, install Chrome Enterprise from here.

I used PDQ Deploy to push this out to all computers, but for testing you can simply install it on your PC.

Step 2: Create a new Group Policy Object

Log into your Domain Controller and open Group Policy Management. Right-click Group Policy Objects > New. Give it a helpful name like “Chrome Default Browser”.

Right-click the new policy > Edit. Then expand Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Google > Google Chrome. Double-click that and switch to Enabled.

You’ll notice in the Help section of the GPO that this will only work for Windows 7. For Windows 8-10, you will need to define a file associates XML file.

Step 3: Deploy File Associations File

The next step is to download a “default file associations” sample file, place it on a network share, and then configure another group policy.

Download the sample file from here: https://smarthomepursuits.com/download/5801/

You can either place the file in a network share available by everyone. Or, you could also use Powershell or PDQ Deploy/SCCM to push this file to a certain location on everyone’s computer.

For this example, I put the file in a network share like this: \\server01\fileshare01\chromedefault.xml

Step 4: Edit Chrome Browser GPO to include path to XML

Next, open up Group Policy Management from your DC again. Edit your new “Chrome Default Browser” policy.

Navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer.

Locate the “Set a default associations configuration file” policy. Edit it, and use the path from step 3.

Click Apply and OK once complete.

Step 5: Update GPO and Test

Next, you need to apply this GPO to a target OU or computer. I always recommend moving a test computer from Active Directory Users & Computers into a test OU to prevent breaking any production systems.

Locate the OU > right-click > Link an existing GPO > Choose the new “Chrome Default Browser” GPO.

Once the computer has been moved into the test OU, and you’ve applied the policy to that same OU, run the following command on the command to update the policy:

gpupdate /force

Then, sign out. The default browser will not be switched until after you log out.

To confirm it’s working properly, search Windows for “Default Apps” on your computer and switch it to Edge. Then, sign out and sign back in. If all goes well – you can open Default Apps again and successfully see that it has switched your default web browser to Google Chrome!

Wrapping Up

Hopefully this guide helped you force change the default web browser to Google Chrome for your company!

Source :
https://smarthomepursuits.com/set-chrome-as-default-browser-using-gpo/

Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) Definitions and Usage

CISA currently uses Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) according to the FIRST Standard Definitions and Usage Guidance — TLP Version 2.0. Note: On Nov. 1, 2022, CISA officially adopted TLP 2.0; however, CISA’s Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) capability will not update from TLP 1.0 to TLP 2.0 until March 2023. This exception includes AIS’s use of the following open standards: the Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX™) for cyber threat indicators and defensive measures information and the Trusted Automated Exchange of Intelligence Information (TAXII™) for machine-to-machine communications.

In addition to the FIRST TLP 2.0 webpage, see CISA’s:

TLP 2.0 User Guide,
TLP: Moving to Version 2.0 Fact Sheet, and
Blog post: On Nov. 1, CISA Upgrades to Traffic Light Protocol 2.0 — Join Us!.

Collapse All Sections

What is TLP?

The Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) was created in order to facilitate greater sharing of information. TLP is a set of designations used to ensure that sensitive information is shared with the appropriate audience. It employs five official marking options to indicate expected sharing boundaries to be applied by the recipient(s). TLP only has five marking options; any designations not listed in this standard are not considered valid by FIRST.

TLP provides a simple and intuitive schema for indicating when and how sensitive information can be shared, facilitating more frequent and effective collaboration. TLP is not a “control marking” or classification scheme. TLP was not designed to handle licensing terms, handling and encryption rules, and restrictions on action or instrumentation of information. TLP labels and their definitions are not intended to have any effect on freedom of information or “sunshine” laws in any jurisdiction.

TLP is optimized for ease of adoption, human readability and person-to-person sharing; it may be used in automated sharing exchanges, but is not optimized for that use.

TLP is distinct from the Chatham House Rule (when a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.), but may be used in conjunction if it is deemed appropriate by participants in an information exchange.

The source is responsible for ensuring that recipients of TLP information understand and can follow TLP sharing guidance.

If a recipient needs to share the information more widely than indicated by the original TLP designation, they must obtain explicit permission from the original source.

How do I determine appropriate TLP designation?

Color	When should it be used?	How may it be shared?
TLP:RED Not for disclosure, restricted to participants only.	Sources may use TLP:RED when information cannot be effectively acted upon without significant risk for the privacy, reputation, or operations of the organizations involved. For the eyes and ears of individual recipients only, no further.	Recipients may not share TLP:RED information with any parties outside of the specific exchange, meeting, or conversation in which it was originally disclosed. In the context of a meeting, for example, TLP:RED information is limited to those present at the meeting. In most circumstances, TLP:RED should be exchanged verbally or in person.
TLP:AMBER+STRICT Limited disclosure, restricted to participants’ organization.	Sources may use TLP:AMBER+STRICT when information requires support to be effectively acted upon, yet carries risk to privacy, reputation, or operations if shared outside of the organization.	Recipients may share TLP:AMBER+STRICT information only with members of their own organization on a need-to-know basis to protect their organization and prevent further harm.
TLP:AMBER Limited disclosure, restricted to participants’ organization and its clients (see Terminology Definitions).	Sources may use TLP:AMBER when information requires support to be effectively acted upon, yet carries risk to privacy, reputation, or operations if shared outside of the organizations involved. Note that TLP:AMBER+STRICT should be used to restrict sharing to the recipient organization only.	Recipients may share TLP:AMBER information with members of their own organization and its clients on a need-to-know basis to protect their organization and its clients and prevent further harm.
TLP:GREEN Limited disclosure, restricted to the community.	Sources may use TLP:GREEN when information is useful to increase awareness within their wider community.	Recipients may share TLP:GREEN information with peers and partner organizations within their community, but not via publicly accessible channels. Unless otherwise specified, TLP:GREEN information may not be shared outside of the cybersecurity or cyber defense community.
TLP:CLEAR Disclosure is not limited.	Sources may use TLP:CLEAR when information carries minimal or no foreseeable risk of misuse, in accordance with applicable rules and procedures for public release.	Recipients may share this information without restriction. Information is subject to standard copyright rules.

TLP 2.0 Terminology Definitions

Community

Under TLP, a community is a group who share common goals, practices, and informal trust relationships. A community can be as broad as all cybersecurity practitioners in a country (or in a sector or region).

Organization

Under TLP, an organization is a group who share a common affiliation by formal membership and are bound by common policies set by the organization. An organization can be as broad as all members of an information sharing organization, but rarely broader.

Clients

Under TLP, clients are those people or entities that receive cybersecurity services from an organization. Clients are by default included in TLP:AMBER so that the recipients may share information further downstream in order for clients to take action to protect themselves. For teams with national responsibility, this definition
includes stakeholders and constituents. Note: CISA considers “clients” to be stakeholders and constituents that have a legal agreement with CISA.

Usage

How to use TLP in email

TLP-designated email correspondence should indicate the TLP color of the information in the Subject line and in the body of the email, prior to the designated information itself. The TLP color must be in capital letters: TLP:RED, TLP:AMBER+STRICT, TLP:AMBER, TLP:GREEN, or TLP:WHITE.

How to use TLP in documents

TLP-designated documents should indicate the TLP color of the information in the header and footer of each page. To avoid confusion with existing control marking schemes, it is advisable to right-justify TLP designations. The TLP color should appear in capital letters and in 12 point type or greater. Note: TLP 2.0 has changed the color coding of TLP:RED to accomodate individuals with low vision.

RGB:
TLP:RED : R=255, G=43, B=43, background: R=0, G=0, B=0
TLP:AMBER : R=255, G=192, B=0, background: R=0, G=0, B=0
TLP:GREEN : R=51, G=255, B=0, background: R=0, G=0, B=0
TLP:WHITE : R=255, G=255, B=255, background: R=0, G=0, B=0

CMYK:
TLP:RED : C=0, M=83, Y=83, K=0, background: C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100
TLP:AMBER : C=0, M=25, Y=100, K=0, background: C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100
TLP:GREEN : C=79, M=0, Y=100, K=0, background: C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100
TLP:WHITE : C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=0, background: C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100

Source :
https://www.cisa.gov/tlp

Apply sensitivity labels to your files and email in Office

Excel for Microsoft 365 Word for Microsoft 365 Outlook for Microsoft 365 More…

Note: This feature requires a Microsoft 365 subscription and is available for users and organizations whose administrators have set up sensitivity labels. If you’re an administrator looking to get started with sensitivity labels see Get started with sensitivity labels.

You can apply sensitivity labels to your files and emails to keep them compliant with your organization’s information protection policies.

The names of these labels, the descriptions you see when you hover over them, and when to use each label will be customized for you by your organization. If you need additional information about which label to apply, and when, contact your organization’s IT department.

How are sensitivity labels applied?

Sensitivity labels are applied either manually or automatically.

Note: Even if your administrator has not configured automatic labeling, they may have configured your system to require a label on all Office files and emails, and may also have selected a default label as the starting point. If labels are required you won’t be able to save a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file, or send an email in Outlook, without selecting a sensitivity label.

To apply, change, or remove a label manually follow these steps:

Office 365 Office 365 for Mac Office for Android Office for iOS Web

Outlook

When composing an email, select Sensitivity.

Important: Sensitivity is not available if your Office account isn’t a work account, and if your administrator hasn’t configured any sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you.
Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your email.

Note: If your organization has configured a website to learn more about their sensitivity labels, you will also see a Learn More option.

To remove a sensitivity label that has already been applied to an email, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu. Naturally if your organization requires labels on all files you won’t be able to remove it.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint

On the Home tab, select Sensitivity.

Important: Sensitivity is not available if your Office account isn’t a work account with a Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Office 365 Enterprise E5 license assigned, or if your administrator hasn’t configured any sensitivity labels and enabled the feature for you .
Choose the sensitivity label that applies to your file.

Note: If your organization has configured a website to learn more about their sensitivity labels, you will also see a Learn More option.

To remove a sensitivity label that has already been applied to a file, unselect it from the Sensitivity menu. Naturally if your organization requires labels on all files you won’t be able to remove it.

Automatically applied (or recommended) labels

If your administrator has set up automatic labeling then files or emails that contain certain kinds of information – such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information – can have a specified label either recommended for, or applied, automatically.

If a label has been applied automatically you’ll see a notification below the Office ribbon that looks like this.

Screenshot of a Policy Tip for an automatically applied sensitivity label

The notice for when a label has been recommended, but not automatically applied, looks similar.

For more information see Automatically apply or recommend sensitivity labels to your files and emails in Office

How do I know what label is currently applied?

The way to see the currently applied label, if any, varies slightly depending upon whether you’re on desktop or mobile.

On desktop apps (including Office for the web) look at the status bar at the bottom of the window.

The Excel status bar showing a "General" sensitivity label has been applied

On the Office mobile apps, select the menu.

Outlook is a bit different

In Outlook nothing appears if no label has been selected or if you’re composing an email and only the default label is applied.

If a label has been selected, however, you’ll see it on the InfoBar just above the To field.

A sensitivity label displayed in the InfoBar above the To field in an Outlook email message.

What happens when I apply a sensitivity label?

When you apply a sensitivity label, the label information will persist with your file or email, even as it is shared between devices, applications, and cloud services. Applying a sensitivity label may also result in changes to your file or email according to your organization’s configuration, such as:

Encryption with Information Rights Management may be applied to your file or email
A header or footer may appear in your file or email
A watermark may appear in your file

Note: If you don’t have permission to change or remove a sensitivity label, you’ll be prevented from doing so with an error message in most apps. In some apps, like Outlook mobile, the sensitivity labels will simply be disabled.

Not all apps on all platforms support the same behavior, so the exact results of applying a sensitivity label may vary slightly. For more information about what capabilities are supported on each platform see Support for sensitivity label capabilities in apps.

Justify changes to sensitivity label

Your administrator can have a policy that requires you to provide justification before changing a sensitivity label from a higher sensitivity to a lower sensitivity. In this configuration, you may be asked to choose a justification reason or provide your own when selecting a less sensitive label.

Note: You will only be asked to justify changes one time after opening a document or replying to forwarding an email message. After justifying once, subsequent changes will not require justification until that document or email message is closed and opened again.

The dialog box that appears when your organization requires you to provide a justification for changing a sensitivity label.

How to capitalize or change the case of text in any app

Automatically convert the case of your text in Word, Excel, Google Docs, and more.

Capitalization isn’t something you have to think much about. The first letter of a sentence gets capitalized, along with any proper nouns—and you write in all caps when you’re angry (or excited, depending on who you ask).

Automatically convert text case in your workflows

Learn how

As long as you type with the capitalization you want, everything’s fine. But when you go to write a long title and have to hold Shift for every first letter or when you write a few sentences without realizing caps lock was on, capitalization can suddenly get more frustrating. It can take seemingly forever to edit each letter back to the case you want—and it’s so easy to miss the stray cApital letter in a long essay or blog post.

Here’s how to automatically capitalize text properly in Word, Google Docs, and other text editors—and in thousands of other apps using Zapier’s Formatter tool.

How to change case in Word

If you’re working in Microsoft Word, it’s easy to change the capitalization or case of text in your document.

Select your text.
In the Home section of the toolbar, click the Change Caseoption. (It’s right next to your font options: a capital and lowercase Aa with a dropdown arrow.)
Select the case you want.

Your options are: Sentence case., lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word, or tOGGLE cASE to swap your writing’s current case—perfect for the times you swap capital and lowercase accidentally.

Changing the text case in Microsoft Word

Or you can highlight the text and use Word’s keyboard shortcut—Shift + fn + F3—to change selected text between lowercase, UPPERCASE or Capitalizing Each Word.

How to change case in Excel

It’s a little more complicated in Excel—you’ll need to use a formula to get the job done.

To make text uppercase in Excel, use the formula =UPPER(A1:A99), where A1:A99 is the cell range you want to change.
To make text lowercase in Excel, use the formula =UPPER(A1:A99).
To make text Title Case in Excel, use the formula =PROPER(A1:A99).

In every case, you’ll need to put the formula in another cell, and the new text will show up in that cell or column.

How to capitalize text in Google Docs

Google Docs also includes a capitalization tool, hidden in its menus.

Select your text.
Click Format > Text > Capitalization.
Choose the case you want (lowercase, UPPERCASE, or Title Case).

Changing the capitalization in Google Docs

How to capitalize text on macOS

Change capitalization in TextEdit with the built-in macOS text transformations

Using a Mac? Lots of apps on your Mac already includes macOS’s built-in spelling and grammar checks along with text transformations.

In most Mac apps:

Select the text, and right-click on it to see the text options.
Hover over the Transformations menu.
Select the case you want (the Capitalize option will capitalize the first letter of every word).

The capitalization options in Messages on a Mac

If you don’t see the options in the right-click menu, check the gear icon in the app’s font settings—that’s where Pages and other Apple apps put those same transformations.

How to capitalize text in Sublime Text

One of the most popular code and text editors Sublime Text also includes a capitalization tool.

Select your text.
Click Edit > Convert Case.
Select the case you want.

In addition to the standard options, Sublime Text also includes snake_case (lowercase, with an underscore between each word) and kebab-case (lowercase, with a hyphen between each word).

How to convert case online

Another option is to use a web app to format your text. There are a number of simple web apps that can swap your case for you.

In TitleCase, type or paste in your text, and then choose the case you want to automatically convert your text to.
In Convert Case (pictured above), type or paste in your text, then choose each of the case options you want. It’ll give you your text in all of those cases for a quick way to pick what looks best.

Automatically convert text case with Zapier

These tips work great for changing your capitalization within an app, like if you want to convert caps to lowercase in an article you’re writing. But if you want to change capitalization as you send information from one app to the other, here’s how to automatically convert text case with Zapier.

Related reading:

This article was originally published in September 2017. The most recent update was in December 2022.

Source :
https://zapier.com/blog/capitalize-text/

Port Forwarding configured using SonicOS API

Description

This article describes the steps involved in creating Polices using SonicOS APIs that will let you access internal devices or servers behind the SonicWall firewall.

Cause

SonicWall by default does not allow inbound traffic which not a part of a session that was initiated by an internal device on the network. This is done to protect the devices in the internal network from malicious access. If required certain parts of the network can be opened to external access, for example Webservers, Exchange servers and so on.

To open the network, we need to specify an access rule from the external network to the internal network and a NAT Policy so we direct traffic only to the intended device.

With APIs this can be achieved on scale for example you can create multiple Access Rules and NAT policies with one command and all the attributes can be specified into Json Objects.

Resolution

Manually opening Ports / enabling Port forwarding to allow traffic from the Internet to a Server behind the SonicWall using sonicos API involves the following steps:

Step1: Enabling the API Module.

Step2:Getting into Swagger.

Step3:Login to the SonicWall with API.

Step4:Create Address Objects and Service Objects with API.

Step5:Creating NAT Policy with API.

Step6: Creating Access Rules with API.

Step7:Committing all the configurational changes made with APIs.

Step8: Log out the SonicWall with API:

Scenario Overview

The following walk-through details allowing TCP 3389 From the Internet to a Terminal Server on the Local Network.Once the configuration is complete, Internet Users can RDP into the Terminal Server using the WAN IP address.Although the examples below show the LAN Zone and TCP 3389 they can apply to any Zone and any Port that is required.

Step 1: Enabling the API Module:

Log into the SonicWall GUI.
Click Manage in the top navigation menu.
Click Appliance | Base Settings
Under Base Settings search for sonicos API
Click Enable sonicos API
Click Enable RFC-2617 HTTP Basic Access authentication

Step2: Getting into Swagger

Click on the Mange Tab
Scroll Down to find API
Click on the Link https://sonicos-api.sonicwall.com
Swagger will prepopulate your SonicWalls’s IP, MGMT Port, Firmware so it can give you a list of applicable APIs.

NOTE: All the APIs required for configuring Port Forwarding will be listed in this Article.

Step3:Login to the SonicWall with API:

curl -k -i -u “admin:password” -X POST https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/auth

“admin:password” – Replace this with your SonicWalls username : password

https://192.168.168.168:443/– Replace this with your SonicWalls Public or private IP address

Command Output should contain a string: “success”: true

NOTE: You are free to choose Swagger, Postman, Git bash or any application that allows API calls, if you are using a Linux based operating system you can execute cURL from the terminal.For this article I am using Git bash on Windows.

Step4:Create Address Objects and Service Objects with API:

curl -k -i -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/address-objects/ipv4” -H “accept: application/Json” -H “Content-Type: application/Json” -d “{\”address_object\”:{\”ipv4\”:{\”name\”:\”Term Server Private\”,\”zone\”:\”LAN\”,\”host\”:{\”ip\”:\”192.168.168.10\”}}}}” && curl -k -i -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/address-objects/ipv4” -H “accept: application/Json” -H “Content-Type: application/Json” -d “{\”address_object\”:{\”ipv4\”:{\”name\”:\”Term Server Public\”,\”zone\”:\”WAN\”,\”host\”:{\”ip\”:\”1.1.1.1\”}}}}”

curl -k -i -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/address-objects/ipv4” -H “accept: application/Json” -H “Content-Type: application/Json” -d @add.Json

@add.Json is a file with the following information:

{
“address_objects”: [
{
“ipv4”: {
“name”: “Term Server Private”,
“zone”: “LAN”,
“host”: {
“ip”: “192.168.168.10”
}
}
},
{
“ipv4”: {
“name”: “Term Server Public”,
“zone”: “WAN”,
“host”: {
“ip”: “1.1.1.1”
}
}
}
]
}

Output of the First command where we have parsed the address object data on the command instead of creating a separate File:

Output of the second Command where we have used a file called @add instead of specifying data on the command:

TIP: If you are creating only one Address Object then the First command should be sufficient, if you are creating multiple address objects then the second command should be used.

CAUTION: I have the add.Json file saved on to my desktop and hence I was able to call it into the command, if you have created the Json the file in a different location then make sure you are executing the command from that location.

2. Adding Service Object:

curl -k -i -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/service-objects” -H “accept: application/Json” -H “Content-Type: application/Json” -d @serviceobj.Json

https://192.168.168.168:443 – Replace that with the IP of the SonicWall

@serviceobj.Json is a file that contains the Attributes of the service object:

{

“service_object”: {

“name”: “Terminal Server 3389”,

“TCP”: {

“begin”: 3389,

“end”: 3389

}

Output of the command:

3. Committing the changes made to the SonicWall: We need to do this to be able to use the Address Objects and service objects that we just created to make a NAT Policy and an Access Rule.

curl -k -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/config/pending” -H “accept: application/Json”

https://192.168.168.168:443 – Replace that with the IP of the SonicWall

Output of the command:

Step5: Creating NAT Policy with API:

1. curl -k -i -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/nat-policies/ipv4” -H “accept: application/Json” -H “Content-Type: application/Json” -d @natpolicy.Json

https://192.168.168.168:443 – Replace that with the IP of the SonicWall

@natpolicy.Json is a file that contains the Attributes of the NAT Policy:

{

“nat_policies”: [

{

“ipv4”: {

“name”: “Inbound NAT 3389”,

“enable”: true,

“comment”: “”,

“inbound”: “X1”,

“outbound”: “any”,

“source”: {

“any”: true

“translated_source”: {

“original”: true

“destination”: {

“name”: “Term Server Public”

“translated_destination”: {

“name”: “Term Server Private”

“service”: {

“name”: “Terminal Server 3389”

“translated_service”: {

“original”: true

}

]

}

Output of the command:

Step6: Creating Access Rules with API:

1. curl -k -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/access-rules/ipv4” -H “accept: application/Json” -H “Content-Type: application/Json” -d @accessrule.Json

https://192.168.168.168:443 – Replace that with the IP of the SonicWall

@accessrule.Json is a file that contains the Attributes of the access rule:

{

“access_rules”: [

{

“ipv4”: {

“name”: “Inbound 3389”,

“enable”: true,

“from”: “WAN”,

“to”: “LAN”,

“action”: “allow”,

“source”: {

“address”: {

“any”: true

“port”: {

“any”: true

}

“service”: {

“name”: “Terminal Server 3389”

“destination”: {

“address”: {

“name”: “Term Server Public”

}

]

}

Output of the command:

Step7: Committing all the configurational changes made with APIs:

1. We have already committed Address objects and Service Objects in Step 4, In this step we are committing the NAT Policy and the Access Rule to the SonicWalls configuration:

curl -k -X POST “https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/config/pending” -H “accept: application/Json”

https://192.168.168.168:443 – Replace that with the IP of the SonicWall

We have Only used the POST method in most of the API calls for this Article because we are only Adding things into the configuration, there are other methods Like GET,DELETE,PUT and etc. I recommend that you go through https://sonicos-api.sonicwall.com for more API commands.

Step8: Log out the SonicWall with API:

1. It is recommended to log out from the SonicWall via API once the desired configuration is committed.

curl -k -i -u “admin:password” -X DELETE https://192.168.168.168:443/api/sonicos/auth

https://192.168.168.168:443 – Replace that with the IP of the SonicWall

“admin:password” – is the actual username and password for the SonicWall.

Output of the command:

CAUTION: Caution: If you miss to perform the action in Step 7 and Execute the command in Step 8 you will lose all the configuration changes made in the current session.

Summary:We have successfully configured a Port Forwarding for a user in the Internet to access a Term Server that is behind a Firewall on port 3389 using sonicos API.

NOTE: It is always recommended to use Client VPN for RDP connections this article here is just an example.

What FQDN’s and IP’s are used by SonicWall products to update their services?

Description

This article lists the Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) in use by SonicWall for its licensing and security services.

Resolution

SonicWall firewalls:

lm2.sonicwall.com – Registration information/licensing.
licensemanager.sonicwall.com – Registration information/licensing for older firewalls.
software.sonicwall.com – Softwares, firmwares, NetExtender, GVC.
responder.global.sonicwall.com – Probe target.
clientmanager.sonicwall.com – Client CF enforcement download.
policymanager.sonicwall.com – Global Security Client.
convert.global.sonicwall.com – Preference processor server.
geodnsd.global.sonicwall.com – Used for flow reporting and GeoIP.
webcfs00.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs01.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs02.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs03.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs04.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs05.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs06.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs07.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs08.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs10.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
webcfs11.global.sonicwall.com – Content filter server.
gcsd.global.sonicwall.com – Cloud antivirus and status.
sig2.sonicwall.com – Signature updates.
sigserver.global.sonicwall.com – Signature updates for older firewalls.
lmdashboard.global.sonicwall.com – License manager dashboard.
appreports.global.sonicwall.com – App reports server.
sonicsandbox.global.sonicwall.com – Default Capture ATP server (west coast) UDP 2259, and https (tcp 443).
sonicsandboxmia.global.sonicwall.com – East coast capture ATP server UDP 2259, and https (tcp 443).
utmgbdata.global.sonicwall.com – Map info URL domain.
cfssupport.sonicwall.com – View rating of a website.
cloudtt.global.sonicwall.com – Zero Touch provisioning
eprs2.global.sonicwall.com (204.212.170.36, 204.212.170.11, 204.212.170.10) – Content Filter Client servers.
wsdl.mysonicwall.com – Automatic preference backups and firmware downloads.
sonicsandbox.global.sonicwall.com
sonicsandboxmia.global.sonicwall.com
sonicsandboxams.global.sonicwall.com
sonicsandboxfra.global.sonicwall.com
sonicsandboxtko.global.sonicwall.com

This information can also be found in the Tech Support Report (TSR). More information about the TSR can be found in the following article:
How to Download Tech Support Files (TSR, EXP, Logs) From SonicWall UTM Firewalls

Capture Client software:

captureclient-36.sonicwall.com
captureclient.sonicwall.com
sonicwall.sentinelone.net (S1 agent)
software.sonicwall.com (software package updates)
sonicsandbox.global.sonicwall.com (Capture ATP- Applicable for Capture Client Advanced License)

SonicWall CSC:

For SanJose Colo

FQDN: cloudgms.sonicwall.com
Zero Touch FQDN: cloudtt.global.sonicwall.com
IP: 4.16.47.168, 4.16.47.188
For AWS Colo

FQDN: cscma.sonicwall.com
Zero Touch FQDN: cscmatt.global.sonicwall.com
IP: 34.211.138.110, 52.37.12.168, 52.89.82.203, 52.11.92.114
For AMS Colo

FQDN: cloudgmsams.sonicwall.com
Zero Touch FQDN: cloudttams.global.sonicwall.com
IP: 213.244.188.168, 213.244.188.188
For AWS-FRA Colo

FQDN: cscmafra.sonicwall.com
Zero Touch FQDN: cscmafratt.global.sonicwall.com, cscmafratta.global.sonicwall.com
IP: 18.197.234.66, 18.197.234.59

SonicWall NSM:

For Oregon AWS Colo

FQDN: nsm-uswest.sonicwall.com (Use it in GMS settings under Administration Page)
Zero Touch FQDN: nsm-uswest-zt.sonicwall.com (Use it in ZeroTouch Settings under Diag page)
IP: 13.227.130.81, 13.227.130.63, 3.227.130.69, 13.227.130.12, 52.39.29.75, 44.233.105.101, 44.227.248.206
For AWS-FRA Colo

FQDN: nsm-eucentral.sonicwall.com (Use it in GMS settings under Administration Page)
Zero Touch FQDN: nsm-eucentral-zt.sonicwall.com (Use it in ZeroTouch Settings under Diag page)
IP: 13.227.130.70, 13.227.130.69, 13.227.130.15, 13.227.130.92, 18.156.16.24, 18.157.240.148, 3.127.176.56

The 12 Most Impactful Internet Outages

An internet outage can have major consequences for a digital business, especially when it happens during peak usage times and on holidays. Outages can lead to revenue loss, complaints, and customer churn.

Of course, internet outages regularly impact companies across all verticals, including some of the largest internet companies in the world. And they can happen when you least expect them.

Read on to learn about some of the most impactful internet outages to date and some steps you can take to keep your business out of harm’s way.

Historical Internet Outages You Need to Know About

1. Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a major outage in December 2021, lasting for several hours. The outage impacted operations for many leading businesses, including Netflix, Disney, Spotify, DoorDash, and Venmo.

Amazon blames the outage on an automation error causing multiple systems to act abnormally. The outage also prevented users from accessing some cloud services.

This outage proved the largest and safest cloud providers are also susceptible to downtime.

2. Facebook

Facebook as well suffered a major outage in 2021, leaving billions of users unable to access its services, including its main social network, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

According to Facebook, the cause of the outage was a configuration change on its backbone routers responsible for transmitting traffic across its data centers. The outage lasted roughly six hours, an eternity for a social network.

3. Fastly

Cloud service provider Fastly had its network go down in June 2021, taking down several sizeable global news websites, including the New York Times and CNN. It also impacted retailers like Target and Amazon, and several other organizations.

The outage resulted from a faulty software update, stemming from a misconfiguration, causing disruptions across multiple servers.

4. British Airways

British Airways experienced a massive IT failure in 2017 during one of the busiest travel weekends in the United Kingdom.

This event created a nightmare scenario for the organization and its customers. Altogether, it grounded 672 flights and stranded tens of thousands of customers.

According to the company, the outage ensued when an engineer disconnected the data center’s power supply. A massive power surge came next, bringing the business’s network down in the process.

5. Google

Google had a major service outage in 2020. It only lasted about forty-five minutes, but it still impacted users worldwide.

Services including Gmail, YouTube, and Google Calendar all crashed. So did Google Home apps. The outage also impacted third-party applications using Google for authentication.

The issue happened due to inadequate storage capacity for the company’s authentication services.

6. Dyn

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in history occurred in 2016 against Dyn, which was a major backbone provider.

The attack occurred in three waves, overwhelming the company’s servers. As a result, many internet users were unable to access partnering platforms like Twitter, Spotify, and Netflix.

7. Verizon Fios

Verizon had a major internet outage in January 2021, which disrupted tens of thousands of customers along the East Coast.

While the internet outage lasted only about an hour, Verizon experienced a sharp drop in traffic volume. Naturally, many customers complained about the loss of service.

At first, the company reported the incident was the result of someone cutting fiber cables. However, it was unrelated and turned out to be a “software issue” during routine network maintenance activities.

8. Microsoft

Another major internet outage occurred at Microsoft when its Azure service went under in December 2021. Azure’s Active Directory service crashed for about ninety minutes.

Compared to some other outages, this one was relatively small. Nonetheless, it prevented users from signing in to Microsoft services such as Office 365. Although applications remained online, users couldn’t access them, making this a major productivity killer for many organizations worldwide.

9. Comcast

There was an internet outage at Comcast in November 2021, which happened when its San Francisco backbone shut down for about two hours.

Following the outage, a broader issue occurred, spanning multiple U.S. cities, including hubs like Philadelphia and Chicago. Several thousand customers lost service, leaving them unable to access basic network functionality during the height of the pandemic.

10. Akamai Edge DNS

Akamai, a global content delivery provider, experienced an outage with its DNS service in 2021. The Akamai outage resulted from a faulty software configuration update activating a bug in its Secure Edge Content Delivery Network.

In a similar fashion to other attacks against service providers, Akamai’s outage caused widespread damage. Other websites—including American Airlines, Fox News, and Steam—all experienced performance issues following the incident.

11. Cox Communications

Cox Communications reported a major internet outage in March 2022, impacting nearly seven thousand customers in the Las Vegas region.

The problem resulted from an NV Energy backhoe damaging a transmission line and triggering a power event. The surge caused a cable modem to reset, and many customers tried to reconnect simultaneously. As a result, it took several hours for service to resume.

12. Slack

The recent Slack outage in January 2021 created havoc for distributed workers who rely on the platform for communication and collaboration.

The platform’s outage impacted organizations across the US, UK, Germany, Japan, and India, with interruptions occurring for about two and a half hours. Slack says the issue came from scaling problems on the AWS Transit Gateway, which couldn’t accommodate a spike in traffic.

Best Practices for Avoiding Internet Outages

At the end of the day, there’s nothing you can do to prevent outages entirely, especially if your business relies on multiple third-party systems. Eventually, your company or a partner will experience some level of service disruption. It’s best to plan for them and, where possible, enable systems to ‘fail gracefully.’

As part of your resiliency planning, here are some steps to mitigate damage, maximize uptime, and keep your organization safe, along with some best practices to help you avoid disruptions from network and connectivity issues.

Set Up a Backup Internet Solution

It’s impossible to protect your business from local internet outages completely. They can stem from issues like local construction, service disruptions, and more.

Consider setting up a backup internet solution as a workaround, so you never lose connectivity. For example, you may choose to combine broadband with a wireless failover solution.

Consider a Multi-Cloud Strategy

If your business is in the cloud, it’s a good idea to explore a multi-cloud strategy. By spreading your workloads across multiple cloud providers, you can prevent cloud service disruptions from knocking your digital applications offline. This approach can also improve uptime and resiliency.

Use Website Performance and Availability Monitoring

One of the best ways to protect your business is to use website performance and availability monitoring. It provides real-time visibility into how end users are interacting with and experiencing your website.

A robust website performance and availability monitoring solution can provide actionable insights into the health and stability of your website. As a result, you can track uptime and performance over time and troubleshoot issues when they occur.

The Pingdom Approach to Website Performance Monitoring

SolarWinds^® Pingdom^® provides real-time and historical end-user experience monitoring, giving your team deep visibility from a single pane of glass. With Pingdom, it’s possible to protect against the kind of outages helping your company make headlines for the wrong reasons.

When you’re ready to jump in, try Pingdom by requesting a free trial today.

This post was written by Justin Reynolds. Justin is a freelance writer who enjoys telling stories about how technology, science, and creativity can help workers be more productive. In his spare time, he likes seeing or playing live music, hiking, and traveling.

Source :
https://www.pingdom.com/outages/internet-outages-the-12-most-impactful/

Wordfence Launches Free Vulnerability Database For Commercial Use – And Launches Security Portal

Today we are incredibly excited to announce that Wordfence is launching an entirely free vulnerability database API and web interface, available for commercial use by hosting companies, security organizations, threat analysts, security researchers, and the WordPress user community. This is part of a larger project known as Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition, which we are launching today.

This year at Blackhat in Las Vegas, Wordfence launched Wordfence Intelligence, an enterprise product providing organizations with data feeds derived from the attack telemetry we receive from Wordfence users. We did this with one goal in mind: to further secure the Web by enabling enterprises and network defenders with the ability to implement our threat intelligence in a way that will better secure their infrastructure and customers. Wordfence Intelligence includes malware signatures, IP threat feeds and a malware hash feed to enable enterprises to deploy our data at the network and server level.

Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition is a set of data available free for the community to use, and it includes an enterprise quality vulnerability database, and an API that provides a full up-to-date download in JSON format, completely free with no registration required. We are investing heavily in this database by growing the team, maintaining and curating the existing data, and adding new vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered.

There is no delay on how quickly we add vulnerabilities to this free database. As soon as a vulnerability is disclosed, we add it. There is also no limitation on the use of this data, other than an attribution requirement for vulnerabilities sourced from MITRE, and an attribution requirement for our own vulnerabilities. Each vulnerability record includes the data you need to provide this attribution on your user interface.

Our hope is that hosting companies, software developers and security providers will turn this data into free and commercial security products that will improve the security of the WordPress community. By giving the data away for free, and allowing commercial use, we are acting as a catalyst for innovation in the vulnerability scanning space. Individual developers no longer have an expensive barrier to entry if they want to implement a new kind of vulnerability scanning software for the community. It is our hope that this database will foster innovation in the WordPress security space and improve the security of the WordPress community as a whole.

Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition has the stated goal of uplifting the research community and raising the profile of talented security researchers who make valuable contributions to our community, and who make us all safer. To this end, we are launching with security researcher profile pages, a security researcher leaderboard, and each vulnerability will link to the relevant researcher who discovered the vulnerability. We will also be adding the ability for researchers to edit their own profile page so that they can add links to their resume or personal website. Expect this in the coming weeks.

We will be launching web hooks in the coming weeks that will proactively and programmatically alert users and applications to the release of a new vulnerability. This provides real-time awareness of a new vulnerability, and makes the time between announcement and mitigation of a new vulnerability approach zero.

Defiant Inc and the Wordfence team are investing heavily in this vulnerability database. We are actively recruiting talented security analysts to triage inbound vulnerabilities, and we are recruiting researchers to discover new vulnerabilities in WordPress core, plugins and themes.

Yesterday evening I sat down with Chloe Chamberland, head of product for Wordfence Intelligence, in our studio in Centennial, Colorado, to chat about this exciting product that her and her team are launching today. Here is the conversation.

Introducing Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition

That concludes the executive summary portion of this post. The rest of this post is written by Chloe Chamberland who heads up the Wordfence Intelligence product. Chloe describes Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition and the vulnerability database and API in more detail. I’d like to extend my congratulations and thanks to Chloe and her team, our security analysts who worked so hard on creating the data in this database, and continue to do so, and to our engineering team for this launch.

~Mark Maunder – Wordfence Founder & CEO.

Introducing Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition

Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition is a threat intelligence data platform which currently consists of an incredibly comprehensive database of WordPress vulnerabilities. We’ve designed this platform with vulnerability researchers, site owners, and security analysts in mind. Each vulnerability has been manually curated by our team of vulnerability analysts and has been populated using historical data from the CVE list, Google fu’ing, and many other vulnerability sources. Each vulnerability record contains details such as the CVSS score, CWE type, a description of the vulnerability, affected software components, the original researcher(s), and more.

Our goal is to provide site owners with as much information needed to effectively secure their WordPress websites while also providing security analysts and researchers the information needed to be able monitor the WordPress threat landscape so they can respond to threats in a timely manner and provide their insights back to the community.

The Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition vulnerability database currently contains over 8,000 unique vulnerability records covering nearly 10,000 vulnerabilities across WordPress core, themes, and plugins. Over the coming months we will continue to actively develop and release features that will enrich the experience of users accessing and using the platform.

We will continue to populate historical vulnerability data while also ensuring we have the most comprehensive and current vulnerability database on the market for the community to use.

Key Features of Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition

Overview of Attack Data Targeting WordPress Sites

On the dashboard of Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition, users can see insights on data related to attack volume targeting WordPress websites. This includes the total number of login attacks and exploit attempts the Wordfence Firewall has blocked, the total number of malware sightings the Wordfence Scanner and our incident response team has observed, along with the top 10 attacking IP addresses in the past 24 hours, the top 10 unique WordPress vulnerabilities being targeted in the past 24 hours, and the top 5 generic vulnerability types being targeted in the past 24 hours in addition to their attack volume. This data can be used to make more informed decisions on the threats faced by WordPress site owners for better risk mitigation. This data can also be used to enhance security research in the WordPress space.

Select Vulnerabilities Enriched with Attack Data

Select vulnerabilities in the database are enriched with data on the attack volume targeting those particular vulnerabilities in the past 24 hours. This gives unparalleled insight into the threat landscape for WordPress, providing site owners, analysts, and security researchers with current and up to date information on the most attacked WordPress vulnerabilities.

Researcher Hall of Fame & Leaderboard

All researchers credited with discoveries in our database are in our Researcher Hall of Fame with their total vulnerability count for the past 30 days and for all time. Researchers can see their all time and 30 day ranking compared to other researchers in the field. Researchers who want to be higher up on the leaderboard will need to find and responsibly disclose more vulnerabilities than their fellow researchers. We hope that this will create a friendly competition to encourage more vulnerability research that in turn makes the WordPress ecosystem more secure.

Individual Researcher Vulnerability Finds All in One Place

Each researcher has their own unique page that lists the total number of vulnerabilities they have discovered in the past 30 days and all time, along with the list of all the vulnerability finds that have been attributed to that researcher. This can be shared with anyone from prospective job employers who may want to see an individual’s previous research, to friends and family researchers may want to show off their work to. Whatever the purpose, this was designed for researchers to be able to hold all of their vulnerability discoveries in one central place.

If you’re a researcher, and your page is missing some of your vulnerability discoveries, please make sure to fill out our vulnerability submissions form here. Any vulnerability reported to us will receive a CVE ID and we will gladly assign CVE IDs to any older discoveries you may have already in our database upon request.

Wordfence Scan Results Enhanced

The Wordfence scanner will now provide a link to the Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition Vulnerability Database’s applicable record when a vulnerability has been detected on a site. This can be used to obtain more information about a vulnerability so that site owners can make informed decisions on how to proceed with remediating any given vulnerability. In most cases the solution is to update to a newer patched version, however, in cases where a plugin or theme has been closed and there is no patch available, this information will help guide decision making when assessing a site’s risk.

It takes a community.

That is why we are calling this Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition. A vast majority of the vulnerabilities in our database are from independent researchers and other organizations conducting security research on WordPress plugins, themes, and core. Without them and their dedicated work finding and responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities, there would be no database of WordPress vulnerabilities to catalog and there would not be nearly as many patches, or opportunities to secure WordPress websites, available to site owners. That’s why we will make sure finding information about vulnerabilities is as easy as possible and researchers get the credit they deserve with Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition.

As we continue to evolve this platform, we will keep this at the forefront of our minds and ensure we continue to deliver a product that will help make the WordPress ecosystem more secure and have a positive impact on the community of security researchers working to make this possible.

In return, we would like to ask the community to help us in making sure this remains the best resource for the community. If you’d like to add any additional details to our vulnerability records or have vulnerabilities you have discovered that should be added to the database, we hope that you’ll reach out to us so we can further improve the database that will remain accessible to all.

A Gift to the Community.

As part of this launch, we have made the vulnerability data feed from Wordfence Intelligence, completely free to access. The feed contains a complete dump of the vulnerabilities and related data in our database You can find the documentation on what is included in this API and how to query it here. You are more than welcome to implement this data in whatever way you would like commercially and personally. We hope that by making this accessible to everyone, we can create a more secure WordPress ecosystem and better platform for researchers to get the credit they deserve.

This is just the beginning. Stay tuned, and make sure you are signed up for our mailing list, for more exciting things to come!

CHECK OUT WORDFENCE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY EDITION NOW!

I would like to say a huge congratulations and special thank you to everyone on the Wordfence team that made Wordfence Intelligence Community Edition come to life. From our threat intelligence team processing and manually creating thousands of vulnerability records over a several month period, to our engineering and QA teams who have developed and tested this incredible platform. Without your dedicated work, we would not be able to make the online WordPress community a more secure place for all.

Did you enjoy this post? Share it!

Source :
https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2022/12/wordfence-free-vulnerability-database/

The best to-do list apps

What makes the best to-do list app?

How we evaluate and test apps

Best to-do list app for balancing power and simplicity

Add new Google Calendar events to Todoist as tasks

Add new starred emails to Todoist as tasks [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Add new Trello cards to Todoist as tasks

Best to-do list app with embedded calendars and timers

Create TickTick tasks for newly-labeled Gmail emails [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Generate TickTick tasks from new Facebook Leads

Generate TickTick tasks from new HubSpot deals

Best to-do list app for Microsoft power users (and Wunderlist refugees)

Create Workboard action items from new tasks in Microsoft To-Do

Send direct Slack messages with new Microsoft To-Do lists

Create Microsoft To-Do tasks from new Salesforce leads

The best to-do list app with elegant design

Add saved Slack messages to Things as to-dos

Add new Trello cards to Things as to-dos

Create Things to-dos from starred emails in Gmail [Business Gmail Accounts Only]

Best to-do list app for users with a very specific organizational system

Create OmniFocus tasks from new saved Slack messages

Create OmniFocus tasks for new starred emails on Gmail

Create OmniFocus tasks from new or moved Trello cards

Best to-do list app for making doing things fun

Best to-do list app for Google power users

Create Trello cards from new Google Tasks tasks

Add new Google Tasks to Todoist as tasks

Add Google Tasks tasks for new Google Calendar events

Best to-do list app for people who forget to use to-do apps

Add Evernote reminders to Any.do as tasks

Create tasks in Any.do for new saved messages in Slack

Add new incomplete Todoist tasks to Any.do

Other to-do list options

Why use Kimai Time Tracker?

Step 1: SSH into your Docker Host

Step 2: Create Kimai Database container

Step 3: Start Kimai

Step 4: Log In via Web Browser

Step 5: Basic Setup

Create a Customer

Create A Project

Create An Activity

Step 6: Change “Timetracking Mode” to Time-clock

Step 7: Start Tracking Time!

Wrapping Up

My Homelab Equipment

Step 1: (Optional) Import Google Chrome .ADMX Template Files

Step 2: Create a new Group Policy Object

Step 3: Deploy File Associations File

Step 4: Edit Chrome Browser GPO to include path to XML

Step 5: Update GPO and Test

Wrapping Up

Community

Organization

Clients

How to use TLP in email

How to use TLP in documents

How are sensitivity labels applied?

Outlook

Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Automatically applied (or recommended) labels

How do I know what label is currently applied?

Outlook is a bit different

What happens when I apply a sensitivity label?

Justify changes to sensitivity label

See also

How to change case in Word

How to change case in Excel

How to capitalize text in Google Docs

How to capitalize text on macOS

How to capitalize text in Sublime Text

How to convert case online

Automatically convert text case with Zapier

Description

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Resolution

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