Going down the IT rabbit hole

Beginning in June 2019, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) will release a product preview for BitLocker management capabilities, followed by general availability later in 2019.

Configuration Manager will support BitLocker for Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Education editions. It will also support Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 during their respective support lifecycles.

SCCM will provide the following BitLocker management capabilities:

Provisioning
Our provisioning solution will ensure that BitLocker will be a seamless experience within the SCCM console while also retaining the breadth of MBAM.

Prepare Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
Admins can open the TPM management console for TPM versions 1.2 and 2.0. Additionally, SCCM will support TPM+PIN for log in. For those devices without a TPM, we also permit USBs to be used as authenticators on boot.

Setting BitLocker Configuration
All MBAM configuration specific values that you set will be available through the SCCM console, including: choose drive encryption and cipher strength, configure user exemption policy, fixed data drive encryption settings, and more.

Encryption
Encryption allows admins to determine the algorithms with which to encrypt the device, the disks that are targeted for encryption, and the baselines users must provide in order to gain access to the disks.

Policy enactment / remediation on device
Admins can force users to get compliant with new security policies before being able to access the device.

New user can set a pin / password on TPM & non-TPM devices
Admins can customize their organization’s security profile on a per device basis.

Auto unlock
Policies to specify whether to unlock only an OS drive, or all attached drives, when a user unlocks the OS drive.

Helpdesk portal with auditing
A helpdesk portal allows other personas in the organization outside of the SCCM admin to provide help with key recovery, including key rotation and other MBAM-related support cases that may arise.

Key rotation
Key rotation allows admins to use a single-use key for unlocking a BitLocker encrypted device. Once this key is used, a new key will be generated for the device and stored securely on-premises.

Compliance reporting
SCCM reporting will include all reports currently found on MBAM in the SCCM console. This includes key details like encryption status per volume, per device, the primary user of the device, compliance status, reasons for non-compliance, etc.

If you are familiar with Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM), you probably noticed that above listed BitLocker-related SCCM improvements to come look a lot like MBAM features – and you would be correct to think that. The reason for that is in Microsoft’s announcement for the MBAM support – MBAM will end mainstream support on July 9, 2019 and will enter extended support until July 9, 2024.

Regardless of the MBAM situation, I sure am happy to see this new feature set is coming to SCCM.

More info at: Microsoft expands BitLocker management capabilities for the enterprise