I'm up and running now with Team Foundation ~Server~ Service, and I can say that I'm quite impressed. <a href="http://tfs.visualstudio.com/en-us/">http://tfs.visualstudio.com/en-us/</a> I've set up a continuous integration environment at <a href="https://mackolicious.visualstudio.com/">https://mackolicious.visualstudio.com/</a> Where I've already added two projects.
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/6uucvVmIXtfIroeXzXNvzw/edabb03e47b863db851c8590c8689ed1/tfs-home.png" alt="Team Foundation Service home page" title="Team Foundation Service home page">
There's a lot of basic functionality such as, backlog/user story generation, typical agile 'swim lanes' (to-do, in-progress, done), burndown, code/check-in history etc. My overview (dashboard) looks like this:
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/i1EpCHijFzbIjQKvzYqPS/2ec28e3d634debd72a64b40e5f908126/tfs-dashboard.png" alt="Team Foundation Service dashboard" title="Team Foundation Service dashboard">
As you can see by adding in the capacity of the team and the sprint's dates, TFS is able to calculate burndown metrics, cool! I'm still playing around with the piece of kit! I've already added an application using Eclipse and one using Visual Studio and so far so good.

I'm up and running now with Team Foundation Service, and I can say that I'm quite impressed. http://tfs.visualstudio.com/en-us/ I've set up a continuous integration environment at https://

Working with Team Foundation Service

Reducing the amount of 3rd party scripts on your site is essential for performance and security reasons.
It's inevitable that at some point you will need a 3rd party script on your site, e.g. you may want to track page analytics such as page views and device usage. For this post I am going to replace my Google analytics tracking tag with Google tag manager which will form the basis for replacing any compatible tag with Google tag manager.
First step is to sign up to <a href="https://tagmanager.google.com/">Google Tag Manager</a> and create an account.
You'll need to place two scripts on your page. If they are not automatically displaced you can show them by clicking on the tag link on the top right section of the page:
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/1iGtMzOsjq878qaEQGBBGm/67a9793a4ae19e2efd225e6344b08340/tag-generator-link.png" alt="Google Tag Generator" title="Google Tag Generator">
Copy those scripts to the top of the head and body section respectively on your site as per the instructions.
Now it's time to add the Google analytics tag. On the tag manager main page click on the Add a new tag > link:
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/71EprLs6ZyF1H7tbp1Zbgt/308cd00322bee7166e45b57f06ec83c8/add-new-tag.png" alt="Add a new tag" title="Add a new tag">
Choose Google Analytics: Universal Analytics:
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/4XWcrvASzbQJhsiEoKg15k/53edea741f1d7c6cdd34a7f5527c105d/tag-selector.png" alt="Google analytics tag selector" title="Google analytics tag selector">
After clicking on Google Analytics: Universal Analytics another side pane will open where you can enter the tag's name and provide some configuration. I chose the following:
<ol>
<li>Tag Type: Google Analytics</li>
<li>Track Type: Page View</li>
<li>Google Analytics Settings: New Variable....</li>
</ol>
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/4lWF349tNjmkUvo15ZxdQn/e1d6761af9614b9e33ce6f629f000bff/analytics-tag-creation.png" alt="Google analytics tag creation side bar" title="Google analytics tag creation side bar">
Click New Variable... for Google Analytics Settings. This will open another sidebar where you can supply the following settings:
<ol>
<li>Variable Name: Tracking ID Variable</li>
<li>Variable Type: Google Analytics settings</li>
<li>Tracking ID: [This is the tracking ID you can obtain from your Google Analytics count, see <a href="https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/9207621#ga_id">Obtaining Google Analytics ID</a>]</li>
<li>Cookie Domain: auto</li>
</ol>
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/2DOPLfM7O8eENxmQRLt1aN/11f7a52a9610f689251f5ef01dc96eef/tracking-variable.png" alt="Google tag manager variable form" title="Google tag manager variable form">
Save all the changes and then we can preview them to make sure everything is working correctly. Click on the preview button located in the top right corner and then the page should go into preview mode:
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/49JzX6zR4RaxyR2HttCy13/248125df78dbdec0ba5199a25624115a/preview-mode.png" alt="Google tag manager preview mode" title="Google tag manager preview mode">
With the page in preview mode we're now able to go into the site in another tab where the tag manager console should appear on the page (at the bottom)
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/4zf58NuS7UTnP736WVeCek/82f857de09605498c30b024101a0fc67/tag-manager-console.png" alt="Google tag manager console window" title="Google tag manager console window">
Hopefully all is well, and there are no errors displayed. You can check the Firing Status and the errors tab to be sure. If you have the <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-debugger/jnkmfdileelhofjcijamephohjechhna/related">Google Analytics Debugger</a> installed you can open the browser dev tools console window and have a look at the logs being generated to ensure that they are correct.
<img src="//images.ctfassets.net/ifshb5hrrgy8/6s5lrNI5owDzwVK6lxjvn5/010ae12dc2bd5dd65cf013655ad27f2e/analytics-debugging-console.png" alt="Google Tag Manager: Analytics Debugging Console">
The existing Google analytics tag can be removed from your site and then those changes can be published.

Reducing the amount of 3rd party scripts on your site is essential for performance and security reasons.

Replacing Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager

Below is a list of the different tools that I use that range from VPNs, encrypted emails and secure messaging. These tools allow me to secure different communication points across my public and private life.
Some of the tools are essential and I would recommend that you should definitely be using them:
<ul>
<li>VPNs - secures end to end communication between your device and the internet</li>
<li>Password managers - generates and stores passwords for all your accounts.</li>
</ul>
Using a good VPN - one that log your network traffic and still provides low latency is important as it reduces the potential of an intruder intercepting communications between you and the internet.
Some services, like Google &#x26; Microsoft now support password-less authentication which I use however these services are still backed by passwords by default meaning that it's important to ensure that you have a secure and complex password which gets reviewed regularly. Having a password manager allows you to do that.
Below are some of the tools I use:
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Category</th>
<th>Application</th>
<th>Platform</th>
<th>Usage</th>
<th>Pricing</th>
<th>Link</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>VPN</td>
<td>NordVPN</td>
<td>Mobile / Desktop</td>
<td>There are many VPN clients that exists however I chose NordVPN (at the time) because of it's easy of use and number of servers dedicated in the UK.</td>
<td>Pricing varies <a href="https://nordvpn.com/pricing/">https://nordvpn.com/pricing/</a></td>
<td><a href="https://nordvpn.com/">https://nordvpn.com/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>DNS sinkhole</td>
<td>PiHole</td>
<td>Network</td>
<td>This is a must have for any home network enthusiast. Once configured correctly on your home network it will (by default) block known DNS lookups for malicious and tracking sites. This improves the quality and speed of your home network's internet whilst making it more secure.</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td><a href="https://pi-hole.net/">https://pi-hole.net/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Firewall</td>
<td>Unifi Controller</td>
<td>Network</td>
<td>The Unifi ecosystem is extremely powerful and offers many features (far too many to mention here). One such feature is a simple firewall which can be used to control how traffic flows in your home network. <a href="https://www.mackolicious.com/blog/secure-iot-network">https://www.mackolicious.com/blog/secure-iot-network</a></td>
<td>Free (with Unifi Controller)</td>
<td><a href="https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012282453-UniFi-Set-up-a-UniFi-Network-Controller">https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012282453-UniFi-Set-up-a-UniFi-Network-Controller</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email</td>
<td>ProtonMail</td>
<td>Mobile / Desktop</td>
<td>Proton offers a suite of applications built on secure protocols and implementations. One such application is ProtonMail which offers end to end email encryption with various tiers.</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td><a href="https://protonmail.com/">https://protonmail.com/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password manager</td>
<td>LastPass</td>
<td>Mobile / Desktop</td>
<td>LastPass is similar to other password manager in it's offering and has a well known process for storing your 'vault' of secure passwords.</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td><a href="https://www.lastpass.com/">https://www.lastpass.com/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Browser</td>
<td>TOR Browser</td>
<td>Mobile / Desktop</td>
<td>I use the TOR browser to offer me secure, anonymise browsing protection. No tracking, no logging and in-conjuction with DuckDuckGo there's also secure web searching.</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td><a href="https://www.torproject.org/">https://www.torproject.org/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>File sharing</td>
<td>Keybase</td>
<td>Mobile / Desktop</td>
<td>Keybase is my alternative to the popular productivity tool Slack. It offers end to end encryption, encryption at rest, public key encryption and a host of other secure features for communication. Making it a great tool for sending confidential information.</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td><a href="https://keybase.io/">https://keybase.io/</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Messaging</td>
<td>Signal</td>
<td>Mobile / Desktop</td>
<td>Signal is an alternative to your phone's default messaging app or your phone's default SMS app. Once you're correspondents have Signal installed you'll be able to communicate securely with them, it also supports expiring messages.</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td><a href="https://signal.org/">https://signal.org/</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
There are still a bunch of other tools that provide security benefits, e.g. MFA, anti-virus. But this is a summary of some of the tools I believe are important.

The security tools I use range from VPNs, encrypted emails and secure messaging. These tools facilitate different needs and allow me access different security protocols when necessary.

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