How a positive hybrid work culture can help you to mitigate insider risk

As Vasu Jakkal recently shared, we are operating in the most sophisticated threat landscape ever seen, and coupled with the next great disruption—hybrid work—security is more challenging than ever. Protecting from external threats is only one part of the challenge, though. You also must protect...

Addressing cybersecurity risk in industrial IoT and OT

As the industrial Internet of Things IIoT and operational technology OT continue to evolve and grow, so too, do the responsibilities of the Chief Information Security Officer CISO. The CISO now needs to mitigate risks from cloud-connected machinery, warehouse systems, and smart devices scattered...

Forrester names Microsoft a Leader in the 2023 Endpoint Security Wave™ report

We are excited to share that Microsoft has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Endpoint Security, Q4 2023. Microsoft received the highest possible scores in the strategy category for the vision and roadmap criteria. Forrester notes, “Microsoft’s outstanding roadmap for endpoint security...

Microsoft AI Red Team building future of safer AI

An essential part of shipping software securely is red teaming. It broadly refers to the practice of emulating real-world adversaries and their tools, tactics, and procedures to identify risks, uncover blind spots, validate assumptions, and improve the overall security posture of systems. Microso...

Why endpoint management is key to securing an AI-powered future

The chief information security officer CISO agenda has a new set of priorities. Hybrid work and the resultant architecture updates, so prevalent at the beginning of the pandemic, are no longer top of mind. Instead, the thinking is focused on tackling ever more sophisticated threats and integratin...

Stay compliant and protect sensitive data with Zero Trust security

Regulatory standards frequently shift and tighten, especially with the rise of hybrid work environments. And with the explosion of data growth, organizations have seen a massive uptick in cybersecurity issues and needs. According to IBM’s 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report, 83 percent of...

Do more with less with Microsoft Security—3 strategies to get you started

Relentless bad actors, evolving attack tactics, and numerous surfaces and endpoints that attackers may try to exploit. With the average cost of a data breach reaching an all-time high of USD4.35 million in 2022,1 protecting your people and data from adversaries is more important than ever. Plus,...

Do more with less—Discover the latest Microsoft Entra innovations

It has certainly been another intense year. From the ongoing pandemic to the Great Reshuffle to economic uncertainty, it’s truly felt like the only constant is change.1 In this economy, many organizations are looking for efficiencies. This is putting pressure on security teams, along with everyon...

Test your team’s security readiness with the Gone Phishing Tournament

Why should you care about the behavioral risk of your employees? Eighty-two percent of breaches include and often start with user behavior.1 Not all are phishing, but a majority of them are just that. Phishing is, and has been for many years, the cheapest and most reliable way for an attacker of...

A clearer lens on Zero Trust security strategy: Part 1

Todays world is flooded with definitions and perspectives on Zero Trust, so we are kicking off a blog series to bring clarity to what Zero Trust is and what it means. This first blog will draw on the past, present, and future to bring a clear vision while keeping our feet planted firmly on the...

Microsoft Security delivers new multicloud capabilities

In times of great change, challenges and opportunities can be found in many directions. This is certainly true in IT and cybersecurity. Today, while navigating a pandemic, frequent supply chain shocks, and global talent shortages, organizations around the world are forced to confront sophisticate...

US Government sets forth Zero Trust architecture strategy and requirements

To help protect the United States from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the White House issued Executive Order EO 14028 on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which requires US Federal Government organizations to take action to strengthen national cybersecurity.1 Section 3 of EO 14028...

What you need to know about how cryptography impacts your security strategy

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyber threats. In the latest post of our Voice of the Community blog series post, Microsoft Security Product Marketing Manager Natalia Godyla talks with Taurus SA Co-founder...

Extend data loss prevention to your devices with Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, now generally available

Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention Endpoint Data Loss Prevention DLP | What it is and how to set it up in Microsoft 365. Watch today Managing and protecting data is critical to any organization. Data is growing exponentially, and remote work is making it even harder to manage risks around...

A worthy upgrade: Next-gen security on Windows 10 proves resilient against ransomware outbreaks in 2017

Adopting reliable attack methods and techniques borrowed from more evolved threat types, ransomware attained new levels of reach and damage in 2017. The following trends characterize the ransomware narrative in the past year: Three global outbreaks showed the force of ransomware in making...

Announcing the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection ISO 27001 audit assessment report

The security and privacy of customer data are our top priority. Our goals are simple: to operate our services with the security and privacy you expect from Microsoft, and to give you accurate assurances about our security and privacy practices. In line with our commitment to provide customers the...

Expanding audit logging and retention within Microsoft Purview for increased security visibility

Since our announcement in July 2023, we have made significant efforts to enhance the access to Microsoft Purviews audit logging.1 This ongoing work expands accessibility and flexibility to cloud security logs, which began rolling out to customers around the world in September 2023. Our decision t...

Join us at Microsoft Secure to discover the latest security solutions

Microsoft Secure is our first flagship event designed just for security professionals. On March 28, 2023, we will bring together security professionals from around the world to explore security information and event management SIEM and extended detection and response XDR, threat intelligence, AI,...

How IT and security teams can work together to improve endpoint security

For executives in the IT and security spaces, the current climate offers reasons to worry. As workers become accustomed to new flexibility in the workplace, hybrid and remote work options present more challenges. Users want to access corporate resources from their own devices without the...

Announcing 2022 Microsoft Security Excellence Awards winners

Spirits soared at the Microsoft Security Excellence Awards on June 5, 2022. And is it any wonder? The celebration marked the first time that Microsoft executives and Microsoft Intelligent Security Association MISA members had gathered in person in more than two years so it was a special night for...

Learn the latest cybersecurity techniques at the Microsoft Security Summit

In a world marked by change and uncertainty, innovation is more than a nice-to-have—it’s vital to any healthy organization. But fearless innovation becomes impossible when gaps in security can put those ideas at risk. Many organizations try to increase their defenses by piecing together a patchwo...

Build a privacy-resilient workplace with Microsoft Priva

Today, we celebrate international Data Privacy Day. This day reminds us of the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data, and enabling trust. However, annual reminders are insufficient to drive material change, which can be seen in the effectiveness rates of one-off trainings. According...

How cyberattacks are changing according to new Microsoft Digital Defense Report

In 2021, cybercrime has become more sophisticated, widespread, and relentless. Criminals have targeted critical infrastructure—healthcare,1 information technology,2 financial services,3 energy sectors4—with headline-grabbing attacks that crippled businesses and harmed consumers. But there are...

Defend against zero-day exploits with Microsoft Defender Application Guard

Zero-day security vulnerabilities—known to hackers, but unknown to software creators, security researchers, and the public—are like gold to attackers. With zero-days, or even zero-hours, developers have no time to patch the code, giving hackers enough access and time to explore and map internal...

Afternoon Cyber Tea: Microsoft’s cybersecurity response to COVID-19

On February 25, 2020, Microsoft Chief Information Security Officer CISO Bret Arsenault was attending the RSA Conference in San Francisco when the city declared a state of emergency because of COVID-19. Shortly after flying back to Seattle, Bret learned of the first death from the coronavirus in...

Optimize security with Azure Firewall solution for Azure Sentinel

Security is a constant balance between proactive and reactive defenses. They are both equally important, and neither can be neglected. Effectively protecting your organization means constantly optimizing both prevention and detection. That’s why we’re excited to announce a seamless integration...

IGF proves the value of bottom-up, multi-stakeholder model in cyberspace policy-making

In December, the Internet Governance Forum IGF brought the world together to talk about the internet. I tend to take a definite interest in cybersecurity, but there were many more important topics discussed. They ranged from diversity in the technology sector through to philosophy in the digital...

Microsoft to remove WoSign and StartCom certificates in Windows 10

Microsoft has concluded that the Chinese Certificate Authorities CAs WoSign and StartCom have failed to maintain the standards required by our Trusted Root Program. Observed unacceptable security practices include back-dating SHA-1 certificates, mis-issuances of certificates, accidental certifica...

Simplified endpoint management with Microsoft Intune Suite: Adopting a long-term approach with intelligence and automation

The last couple of years have been difficult, with many organizations operating in a response mode. From a global pandemic to an economic downturn to increasing security risks, teams are under more pressure than ever to deliver greater cyber security and do more with less. This responsive approac...

Solving one of NOBELIUM’s most novel attacks: Cyberattack Series

Our story begins with eight Microsoft Detection and Response Team DART analysts gathered around a customer’s conference room to solve a cybersecurity mystery. Joined by members of the customer’s cybersecurity team, they were there to figure out how a Russia-based nation-state hacking group known ...

Cyber Signals: Risks to critical infrastructure on the rise

Today, the third edition of Cyber Signals was released spotlighting security trends and insights gathered from Microsoft’s 43 trillion daily security signals and 8,500 security experts. In this edition, we share new insights on wider risks that converging IT, Internet of Things IoT, and operation...

Microsoft announces new solutions for threat intelligence and attack surface management

Uncover adversaries with new Microsoft Defender threat intelligence products The threat landscape is more sophisticated than ever and damages have soared—the Federal Bureau of Investigations 2021 IC3 report found that the cost of cybercrime now totals more than USD6.9 billion.1 To counter these...

How security leaders can help their teams avoid burnout

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyberthreats. In the latest post of our Voice of the Community blog series, Microsoft Security Senior Product Marketing Manager Brooke Lynn Weenig talks with Maria...

In hot pursuit of ‘cryware’: Defending hot wallets from attacks

The steep rise in cryptocurrency market capitalization, not surprisingly, mirrors a marked increase in threats and attacks that target or leverage cryptocurrencies. But Microsoft researchers are observing an even more interesting trend: the evolution of related malware and their techniques, and t...

Manage subject rights requests at scale with Microsoft Priva

Privacy is of increasing importance to our customers. In addition to the well-known European General Data Protection Regulation GDPR, privacy regulations are emerging in nearly every region with more than 70 percent of countries now having data protection and privacy legislation.1 As the number a...

Gartner® names Microsoft a Leader in the 2022 Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Information Archiving

With data doubling every two years, it is more critical than ever to have simple and integrated tools to understand and manage risks to an organization. As more people work remotely, users collaborate and store data in different locations. These secular trends offer new possibilities in how work...

How CISOs are preparing to tackle 2022

Looking back over the last year, the security landscape has continued to experience significant change and escalation. Every day, we see the toll this is taking on organizations of all sizes as they navigate the enduring challenges of the pandemic, the expansion of the digital estate, and the...

New research shows IoT and OT innovation is critical to business but comes with significant risks

The need for much improved IoT and operational technology OT cybersecurity became clearer this year with recent attacks on network devices,1 surveillance systems,2 an oil pipeline,3 and a water treatment facility,4 to name a few examples. To better understand the challenges customers are facing,...

Stay safe online this holiday shopping season with tips from Microsoft

You may have already noticed this holiday shopping season feels different than those we’ve had before. Headlines about supply chain issues, worker shortages, costs rising—all while the pandemic continues to impact our lives. In my own inbox, I saw emails from brands touting Black Friday sales as...

Microsoft is recognized as a Leader in the 2021 Forrester Wave for Unified Endpoint Management

Microsoft is honored to be recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Unified Endpoint Management UEM, Q4 2021 report for our ability to help customers on their path to modern endpoint management. Microsoft Endpoint Manager—which brings together Microsoft Intune for cloud endpoint management a...

Microsoft’s 5 guiding principles for decentralized identities

Three years ago, as part of Microsoft’s mission to empower people and organizations to achieve more, we announced that we were incubating a new set of decentralized identity technologies based on a simple vision: Each of us needs a digital identity we own, one which securely and privately stores...

A simpler, more integrated approach to data governance

It’s no secret that the volume of data created by organizations and people multiplies daily. And, in the digital—and hybrid work—world we live in, that data is spread across more tools, platforms, devices, and clouds than ever before, creating regulatory challenges and security risks. Organizatio...

Automating threat actor tracking: Understanding attacker behavior for intelligence and contextual alerting

As seen in recent sophisticated cyberattacks, especially human-operated campaigns, it’s critical to not only detect an attack as early as possible but also to rapidly determine the scope of the compromise and predict how it will progress. How an attack proceeds depends on the attacker’s goals and...

Cyber resilience for the modern enterprise

Many organizations are undergoing a digital transformation that leverages a mix of cloud and on-premises assets to increase business efficiency and growth. While increased dependence on technology is necessary for this transformation, and to position the business for success, it does pose risks...

Microsoft teams up with law enforcement and other partners to disrupt Gamarue (Andromeda)

Today, with help from Microsoft security researchers, law enforcement agencies around the globe, in cooperation with Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit DCU, announced the disruption of Gamarue, a widely distributed malware that has been used in networks of infected computers collectively called the...

Been shopping lately? Fake credit card email can spook you into downloading Cerber ransomware

Note: Read our latest comprehensive report on ransomware: Ransomware 1H 2017 review: Global outbreaks reinforce the value of security hygiene. As the shopping sprees become increasingly frenetic during holiday season, it’s hard not to worry about how much credit card debt we’re piling. Some of us...

MSRT November 2016: Unwanted software has nowhere to hide in this month’s release

We came across a browser modifier that sports rootkit capabilities. Not only does the threat, detected as BrowserModifier:Win32/Soctuseer, cross the line that separates legitimate software from unwanted, it also takes staying under the radar to the next level. Rootkit capabilities, which make it...

Unified security operations with Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR

Numerous cybersecurity tools exist to help organizations protect their data, people, and systems. There are different tools that check emails for phishing attempts, secure infrastructure and cloud, and provide generative AI to detect threats and uplevel response beyond human ability. While each o...

Secure hybrid and remote workplaces with a Zero Trust approach

Productivity and innovation have become critical goals in many hybrid and remote work environments. Ensuring preventative and strong security, in turn, must be at the heart of that. In this blog series, we’ll discuss two Zero Trust business scenarios: enabling a more productive hybrid or remote...

5 reasons to adopt a Zero Trust security strategy for your business

Adopting Zero Trust security for your enterprise is no longer a wish-list item—it’s a business imperative. The workplace today extends to almost anywhere, anytime, from any device. Siloed, patchwork security solutions leave gaps that threat actors continue to exploit. A comprehensive Zero Trust...