MSTICPy January 2022 hackathon highlights

During the month of January 2022, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC ran its inaugural hackathon for the open-source Jupyter and Python Security Tools library, MSTICPy. We asked the security community for their contributions to expand and improve MSTICPy’s features and capabilities, a...

NOBELIUM targeting delegated administrative privileges to facilitate broader attacks

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC has detected nation-state activity associated with the threat actor tracked as NOBELIUM, attempting to gain access to downstream customers of multiple cloud service providers CSP, managed service providers MSP, and other IT services organizations...

Ransomware: A declining nuisance or an evolving menace?

Note: Read our latest comprehensive report on ransomware: Ransomware 1H 2017 review: Global outbreaks reinforce the value of security hygiene. The volume of ransomware encounters is on a downward trend. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of this vicious threat? Unfortunately, a look at the...

The new .LNK between spam and Locky infection

Just when it seems the Ransom:Win32/Locky activity has slowed down, our continuous monitoring of the ransomware family reveals a new workaround that the authors might be using to keep it going. The decline in Locky activity can be attributed to the slowdown of detections of Nemucod, which Locky...

Protect intellectual property with Govern 365 and Microsoft Purview

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. Global supply chains face a broad range of risks, from physical threats to cybersecurity threats. Sharing information with suppliers is essential for the supply chain to function...

LinkedIn and Microsoft Entra introduce a new way to verify your workplace

In the digital world, when you meet professional contacts for the first time online, you need additional trust signals to increase your confidence that they are who they say they are. We’re thrilled to announce that millions of LinkedIn members will be able to verify their place of work with a...

Latest Microsoft Entra advancements strengthen identity security

If you read behind the attention-grabbing headlines, most novel techniques rely on compromised identities.1 In fact, of all the ways an attacker can get into your digital estate, identity compromise is still the most common.2 This makes identity your first line of defense. In many organizations,...

5 cybersecurity capabilities announced at Microsoft Ignite 2022 to help you secure more with less

Protecting your business against growing security threats is a huge priority. Companies of all sizes have increased their spending on cybersecurity solutions to protect their operations over the last year. User spending for the information security and risk management market will grow to USD169.2...

Secure your endpoints with Transparity and Microsoft

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. Endpoint protection platforms EPPs are dead and no longer sufficient to protect your organization, right? Wrong. When it comes to cybersecurity, the ability to normalize and correlat...

Automating your Microsoft security suite with D3 XGEN SOAR

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. There are certain pain points in the average security operations center SOC that, no matter what else changes in the security landscape, stay among the most entrenched problems. You...

Microsoft best practices for managing IoT security concerns

The Internet of Things, or IoT, has expanded beyond the mere concept that it was when first introduced. IoT is now part of most individuals’ daily activities, from smart speakers and thermostats to smartwatches and vehicles. IoT devices and systems bring massive convenience and functionality. IoT...

Tarrask malware uses scheduled tasks for defense evasion

As Microsoft continues to track the high-priority state-sponsored threat actor HAFNIUM, new activity has been uncovered that leverages unpatched zero-day vulnerabilities as initial vectors. The Microsoft Detection and Response Team DART in collaboration with the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Cent...

3 strategies to launch an effective data governance plan

Aware of the potential risks of sensitive data if not managed properly, you’ve undertaken a data discovery process to learn where it’s all stored. You’ve classified this sensitive data—confidential information like credit card numbers and home addresses collected from customers, prospects,...

Align your security and network teams to Zero Trust security demands

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

The hunt for NOBELIUM, the most sophisticated nation-state attack in history

This is the second in a four-part blog series on the NOBELIUM nation-state cyberattack. In December 2020, Microsoft began sharing details with the world about what became known as the most sophisticated nation-state cyberattack in history. Microsoft’s four-part video series “Decoding NOBELIUM”...

Improve your threat detection and response with Microsoft and Wortell

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association MISA guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. The way of working is changing rapidly. Many workloads are moving to the cloud and the pandemic accelerated organizations to provide infrastructure to aid employees working from...

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month and there is still a lot to do

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month NCSAM. And there is still a lot to do! For the last 17 years, the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month NCSAM campaign, driven by the Department of Homeland Security, has raised awareness about the importance of cyber security across the Nation...

Ransomware operators are hiding malware deeper in installer packages

Note: Read our latest comprehensive report on ransomware: Ransomware 1H 2017 review: Global outbreaks reinforce the value of security hygiene. We are seeing a wave of new NSIS installers used in ransomware campaigns. These new installers pack significant updates, indicating a collective move by...

MSRT February 2017: Chuckenit detection completes MSRT solution for one malware suite

In September 2016, we started adding to Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool MSRT a malware suite of browser modifiers and other Trojans installed by software bundlers. We documented how the malware in this group install other malware or applications silently, without your consent. This...

Windows 10: protection, detection, and response against recent Depriz malware attacks

A few weeks ago, multiple organizations in the Middle East fell victim to targeted and destructive attacks that wiped data from computers, and in many cases rendering them unstable and unbootable. Destructive attacks like these have been observed repeatedly over the years and the Windows Defender...

MSRT July 2016 – Cerber ransomware

As part of our ongoing effort to provide better malware protection, the July 2016 release of the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool MSRT includes detection for Win32/Cerber, a prevalent ransomware family. The inclusion in MSRT complements our Cerber-specific family detections in Windows...

Strengthening identity protection in the face of highly sophisticated attacks

The post Strengthening identity protection in the face of highly sophisticated attacks appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog...

Midnight Blizzard conducts targeted social engineering over Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has identified highly targeted social engineering attacks using credential theft phishing lures sent as Microsoft Teams chats by the threat actor that Microsoft tracks as Midnight Blizzard previously tracked as NOBELIUM. This latest attack, combined with past activit...

Microsoft Security highlights from RSA Conference 2023

The RSA Conference RSAC gave us an incredible opportunity to meet with security professionals from around the world, learn about exciting advances in the world of cybersecurity, and share our own security innovations. Defenders everywhere serve an important mission of protecting our world, and RS...

Microsoft showcases the future of comprehensive security at RSA 2022

The last time the RSA Conference was held as an in-person event was in 2020. Needless to say, a lot has changed since then. RSA is once again going forward as an in-person and digital event in San Francisco, from June 6 to 9, 2022. After two years of remote interactions, we’re excited to exchange...

This World Password Day consider ditching passwords altogether

Did you know that May 5, 2022, is World Password Day?1 Created by cybersecurity professionals in 2013 and designated as the first Thursday every May, World Password Day is meant to foster good password habits that help keep our online lives secure. It might seem strange to have a day set aside to...

Microsoft protects against human-operated ransomware across the full attack chain in the 2022 MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK® Evaluations

For the fourth year in a row, the independent MITRE Engenuity Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge ATT&CK® Evaluations demonstrated Microsoft’s strong detection and protection capabilities thanks to our multi-platform extended detection and response XDR defenses. The ever-evolvin...

Why decentralization is the future of digital identities

Our identity is increasingly becoming digitized—more of our hard copy credentials are converting into digital formats. We use these digital credentials to work, learn, play, socialize, shop, and consume services online and offline every day. It’s so convenient and expected now to be able to have...

How Microsoft can help reduce insider risk during the Great Reshuffle

These are exciting and demanding days for organizations adapting to hybrid work realities, including a wider distributed workforce and more rapid change in employee roles. Organizations are becoming more agile as they refocus on employee onboarding and empowerment, opportunities with third-party...

Cyber Signals: Defending against cyber threats with the latest research, insights, and trends

We’re excited to introduce Cyber Signals, a cyber threat intelligence brief informed by the latest Microsoft threat data and research. This content, which will be released quarterly, offers an expert perspective into the current threat landscape, discussing trending tactics, techniques, and...

How to assess and improve the security culture of your business

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

Azure network security helps reduce cost and risk according to Forrester TEI study

As organizations move their computing from on-premises to the cloud, they realize that leveraging cloud-native security tools can provide additional cost savings and business benefits to their security infrastructure. Microsoft Azure network security offers a suite of cloud-native security tools ...

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...

Understanding the performance impact of Spectre and Meltdown mitigations on Windows Systems

Last week the technology industry and many of our customers learned of new vulnerabilities in the hardware chips that power phones, PCs and servers. We and others in the industry had learned of this vulnerability under nondisclosure agreement several months ago and immediately began developing...

Application fuzzing in the era of Machine Learning and AI

Proactively testing software for bugs is not new. The earliest examples date back to the 1950s with the term fuzzing. Fuzzing as we now refer to it is the injection of random inputs and commands into applications. It made its debut quite literally on a dark and stormy night in 1988. Since then,...

World Backup Day is as good as any to back up your data

In today’s security landscape, there are more threats to data than ever before. Beyond corruption caused by hardware or human failure, malware and cyberattacks can put data in serious danger. That’s why it’s imperative for enterprises, small-and-medium businesses, and individuals to back up data...

Nemucod dot dot..WSF

The latest Nemucod campaign shows the malware distributing a spam email attachment with a .wsf extension, specifically ..wsf with a double dot extension. It is a variation of what has been observed since last year 2015 – the TrojanDownloader:JS/Nemucod malware downloader using JScript. It still...

Protecting credentials against social engineering: Cyberattack Series

Our story begins with a customer whose help desk unwittingly assisted a threat actor posing as a credentialed employee. In this fourth report in our ongoing Cyberattack Series, we look at the steps taken to discover, understand, and respond to a credential phishing and smishing text-based phishin...

Public preview: Improve Win32 app security via app isolation

The post Public preview: Improve Win32 app security via app isolation appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog...

Addressing cybersecurity at the board level with Difenda and Microsoft

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. Cybersecurity is no longer simply a lone silo or regulatory process; it is a business issue that affects every aspect of an organization. From financial losses to reputational damage...

Why strong security solutions are critical to privacy protection

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 Ann Cavoukian,...

The future of compliance and data governance is here: Introducing Microsoft Purview

The worldwide shift to a hybrid workplace has pushed us all to embrace ubiquitous connectivity. Those new connections have helped us become more collaborative; routinely editing and sharing documents in real-time from wherever we happen to be working. Instant messaging went from being a tool of...

What Generation Z can teach us about cybersecurity

Girl Security National Security Fellows Program fellow Amulya, a 17-year-old interested in countering online disinformation, said she feels her sense of personal privacy has been largely nonexistent “growing up in a media-saturated world.” She believes her sense of privacy was stolen by a...

Cybersecurity threats are always changing—staying on top of them is vital, getting ahead of them is paramount

With a 1,070 percent increase in ransomware attacks year-over-year between July 2020 and June 2021, staying on top of attack trends—such as ransomware and supply chain threats—is more important than ever.1 To successfully detect and defend against security threats, we need to come together as a...

Microsoft named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for Modern Endpoint Security for Enterprise and Small and Midsize Businesses

The security stakes have never been higher and, consequently, the protection of endpoints as a key component of any extended detection and response XDR strategy has never been more critical—for organizations of all sizes. Microsoft is thrilled to be recognized as a Leader in IDC’s MarketScape...

Microsoft unpacks comprehensive security at Gartner and Forrester virtual events

Every day, Microsoft is committed to maintaining comprehensive security for all across our interconnected global community. With that purpose in mind, we recently sponsored the 2021 Gartner Security and Risk Summit and 2021 Forester Security and Risk Forum, where we discussed ongoing changes in t...

Why diversity is important for a strong cybersecurity team

Medicine. Aeronautics. Academia. When you’re a cybersecurity professional, the colleague next to you could have started in one of these industries—or just about any other you can imagine. The backgrounds of cybersecurity professionals are more diverse than those of professionals in other...

3 steps to prevent and recover from ransomware

On July 14, 2021, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence1 NCCoE at the National Institute of Standards and Technology2 NIST hosted a virtual workshop3 to seek feedback from government and industry experts on practical approaches to preventing and recovering from ransomware and other...

Microsoft announces recipients of academic grants for AI research on combating phishing

Every day in the ever-changing technology landscape, we see boundaries shift as new ideas challenge the old status quo. This constant shift is observed in the increasingly sophisticated and connected tools, products, and services people and organizations use on a daily basis, but also in the...

CRSP: The emergency team fighting cyber attacks beside customers

What is CRSP? Microsoft Global Compromise Recovery Security Practice. Who is CRSP? We are a worldwide team of cybersecurity experts operating in most countries, across all organizations public and private, with deep expertise to secure an environment post-security breach and to help you prevent a...