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...

#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP

On November 10, 2017, a vulnerability called AVGater was discovered affecting some antivirus products. The vulnerability requires a non-administrator-level account to perform a restore of a quarantined file. Windows Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware products, including System...

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...

Defenders beware: A case for post-ransomware investigations

Ransomware is one of the most pervasive threats that Microsoft Detection and Response Team DART responds to today. The groups behind these attacks continue to add sophistication to their tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs as most network security postures increase. In this blog, we detail a...

Detecting and preventing LSASS credential dumping attacks

Obtaining user operating system OS credentials from a targeted device is among threat actors’ primary goals when launching attacks because these credentials serve as a gateway to various objectives they can achieve in their target organization’s environment, such as lateral movement. One techniqu...

Malicious IIS extensions quietly open persistent backdoors into servers

Attackers are increasingly leveraging Internet Information Services IIS extensions as covert backdoors into servers, which hide deep in target environments and provide a durable persistence mechanism for attackers. While prior research has been published on specific incidents and variants, little...

Using process creation properties to catch evasion techniques

We developed a robust detection method in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint that can catch known and unknown variations of a process execution class used by attackers to evade detection. This class of stealthy execution techniques breaks some assumptions made by security products and enables...

Easy authentication and authorization in Azure Active Directory with No-Code Datawiza

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. The acceleration of cloud journeys fueled by the pandemic and ever-increasing concerns about data security and information privacy have made access management one of the hottest topi...

Microsoft 365 Defender demonstrates industry-leading protection in the 2022 MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK® Evaluations

For the fourth consecutive year, Microsoft 365 Defender demonstrated its industry-leading protection in MITRE Engenuity’s independent ATT&CK® Enterprise Evaluations, showcasing the value of an integrated XDR-based defense that unifies device and identity protection with a Zero Trust approach:...

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...

‘Ice phishing’ on the blockchain

The technologies that connect us are continually advancing, and while this brings tremendous new capabilities to users, it also opens new attack surfaces for adversaries and abusers. Social engineering represents a class of threats that has extended to virtually every technology that enables huma...

A closer look at Qakbot’s latest building blocks (and how to knock them down)

Multiple Qakbot campaigns that are active at any given time prove that the decade-old malware continues to be many attackers’ tool of choice, a customizable chameleon that adapts to suit the needs of the multiple threat actor groups that utilize it. Since emerging in 2007 as a banking Trojan,...

NICKEL targeting government organizations across Latin America and Europe

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC has observed NICKEL, a China-based threat actor, targeting governments, diplomatic entities, and non-governmental organizations NGOs across Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. MSTIC has been tracking NICKEL since 2016...

How Red Canary and Microsoft can help reduce your alert fatigue

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. Security alert fatigue Organizations often feel overwhelmed by the number of security alerts they receive. Frustrated by alert fatigue, these organizations want a deeper understandin...

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...

Protect against phishing with Attack Simulation Training in Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Sophisticated cyberattacks are on the rise, with email phishing as the most common attack vector. We’ve seen it all over the news with stories like Hafnium that targeted Exchange servers1 or the Nobelium attack against SolarWinds,2 which show just how easy it is for bad actors to distribute a...

Forrester names Microsoft a Leader in the 2021 Enterprise Email Security Wave

Today, organizations face an evolving threat landscape and an exponentially increasing attack surface. Email represents the primary attack vector for cybercrime, and security teams are in search of efficient and cost-effective means to minimize the risk of these threats and the impact they have o...

What we like about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. It’s no secret that the security industry generally likes Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. After a few months of using and integrating it with our platform here at Expel, we feel the...

Microsoft Azure Active Directory again a “Leader” in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Access Management

Howdy folks, I’m proud to announce that for the fourth year in a row, Microsoft Azure Active Directory Azure AD has been recognized as a “Leader” in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Access Management, Worldwide. Earlier this year, my boss, Joy Chik, CVP of Identity Engineering shared Microsoft’s guidin...

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...

Microsoft recognized as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving

Organizations face an increasing volume of data generated daily and ever-evolving regulations around how that data is managed. To help navigate this complex information landscape, we are focused on delivering integrated, intelligent, and user-centric solutions. Over the past few years, we...

Back to the future: What the Jericho Forum taught us about modern security

Some of the earliest formal work on what we now call Zero Trust started around in a security consortium known as the Jericho Forum which later merged into The Open Group Security Forum. This started as a group of like-minded CISOs wrestling with the limitations of the dominant and unquestioned...

CISO Spotlight: How diversity of data (and people) defeats today’s cyber threats

This year, we have seen five significant security paradigm shifts in our industry. This includes the acknowledgment that the greater the diversity of our data sets, the better the AI and machine learning outcomes. This diversity gives us an advantage over our cyber adversaries and improves our...

Microsoft Security: What cybersecurity skills do I need to become a CISO?

Build the business skills you need to advance to Chief Information Security Officer For many cybersecurity professionals, the ultimate career goal is to land a chief information security officer CISO job. A CISO is an executive-level position responsible for cyber risk management and operations...

Microsoft and Corrata integrate to extend cloud app security to mobile endpoints

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligence Security Association guest blog series. To learn more about MISA, go here. The growth of mobile and remote work and the emergence of the “post perimeter” world has made keeping track of shadow IT a huge challenge for enterprise IT teams. What...

Microsoft continues to extend security for all with mobile protection for Android

Just a year ago, we shared our first steps on a journey to enable our customers to protect endpoints running a variety of platforms with our announcement of Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac. Knowing that each of our customers have unique environments and unique needs and are looking for more...

Building on secure productivity

Among the most common and powerful attack vectors we have seen are those that exploit the daily tradeoff users make between security and productivity. Often, this can be as simple as a document hiding an exploit or a malicious link. As an industry, we’re used to thinking of security and...

Securing CI/CD in an agentic world: Claude Code Github action case

Microsoft Threat Intelligence discovered that Anthropic's Claude Code GitHub Action could expose CI/CD workflow secrets when AI agents process untrusted GitHub content, including issue bodies, pull request descriptions, and comments. We found that while Claude Code Action supported environment...

Sploitlight: Analyzing a Spotlight-based macOS TCC vulnerability

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has discovered a macOS vulnerability that could allow attackers to steal private data of files normally protected by Transparency, Consent, and Control TCC, such as files in the Downloads folder, as well as caches utilized by Apple Intelligence. While similar to prio...

Stopping attacks against on-premises Exchange Server and SharePoint Server with AMSI

Exchange Server and SharePoint Server are business-critical assets and considered crown jewels for many organizations, making them attractive targets for attacks. To help customers protect their environments and respond to these attacks, Exchange Server and SharePoint Server now integrate with th...

Star Blizzard increases sophistication and evasion in ongoing attacks

Microsoft Threat Intelligence continues to track and disrupt malicious activity attributed to a Russian state-sponsored actor we track as Star Blizzard formerly SEABORGIUM, also known as COLDRIVER and Callisto Group. Star Blizzard has improved their detection evasion capabilities since 2022 while...

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...

Getting started with the CDMC framework—Microsoft’s guide to cloud data management

On March 20, 2023, Microsoft announced the successful completion of the Cloud Data Management Capabilities CDMC certification. As a proponent of wider industry standards, I was fortunate to be part of Microsoft’s executive team working to achieve this important milestone. Beginning in 2020, we...

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,...

Gain flexibility and scale with a cloud-native DLP solution

We’re living in a seismic era for data security. Chief information security officers CISOs have to contend with a digital landscape that seems to shift daily as more organizations move to remote and hybrid work, redrawing the boundaries for how data is used and shared. The cloud has enabled...

Microsoft is named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection Platforms

The state of cybersecurity continues to challenge defenders around the world. With hybrid work here to stay and emerging trends like Ransomware as a Service, organizations need a partner that empowers them with not only modern endpoint security but an integrated solution that helps security...

New research, tooling, and partnerships for more secure AI and machine learning

Today we’re on the verge of a monumental shift in the technology landscape that will forever change the security community. AI and machine learning may embody the most consequential technology advances of our lifetime, bringing huge opportunities to build, discover, and create a better world. Bra...

Microsoft Security Experts discuss evolving threats in roundtable chat

I don’t know about you, but we’re still catching our breath after 2022. Microsoft Security blocked more than 70 billion email and identity threats last year.1 In the same 12-month span, ransomware attacks impacted more than 200 large organizations in the United States alone, spanning government,...

Learn what an AI-driven future means for cybersecurity at Microsoft Secure

Maintaining security across today’s vast digital ecosystem is a team effort. AI and machine learning have helped to detect threats quickly and respond effectively. Yet we all know that the best defense still requires human wisdom and experience. From a frontline security operations admin to the...

Microsoft Security innovations from 2022 to help you create a safer world today

The start of a new year is always a great time for reflection—to be grateful for all we have and the progress security teams have made as well as look ahead to how we can reshape the security landscape. I use this time to think about goals for the future, and to reflect on the highlights,...

Microsoft supports the DoD’s Zero Trust strategy

The Department of Defense DoD released its formal Zero Trust strategy today, marking a major milestone in its goal of achieving enterprise-wide implementation by 2027. The strategy comes at a critical time as United States government networks continue to face nearly half the global nation-state...

Discover Microsoft Security solutions for SLTT government grant readiness

As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the United States federal government announced a cybersecurity grant program for state, local, territorial, and tribal SLTT governments to fund allocation of USD1 billion over the next...

How Microsoft Purview and Priva help simplify data protection

At Microsoft Security, we understand how challenging it is to protect your most important asset, your data, in today’s threat landscape. You’re faced with evolving challenges—from empowering employees for greater productivity to eliminating gaps in your infrastructure—all while trying to protect...

Rewards plus: Fake mobile banking rewards apps lure users to install info-stealing RAT on Android devices

Our analysis of a recent version of a previously reported info-stealing Android malware, delivered through an ongoing SMS campaign, demonstrates the continuous evolution of mobile threats. Masquerading as a banking rewards app, this new version has additional remote access trojan RAT capabilities...

Microsoft recognized as a Leader in UEM Software 2022 IDC MarketScape reports

Competition for talent has increased pressure to lead in the digital space, and business decisions now weigh user experience for employees heavily among costs and benefits. Workers insist on experiences that mirror their personal experiences, often on their own devices. As enterprise computing ha...

So you want to be a CISO: What you should know about data protection

Data is the lifeblood of any organization. Whether you’re a Chief Information Security Officer CISO or aspiring to become one, protecting sensitive business data will be your main priority. But the job isn’t getting any easier. In 2021, the number of data breaches climbed 68 percent to 1,862,...

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...

The federal Zero Trust strategy and Microsoft’s deployment guidance for all

You’d be forgiven for missing the White House announcement on federal Zero Trust strategy on January 26, 2022.1 After all, on that day alone a Supreme Court Justice announced his intention to retire, the Federal Reserve announced its plan to raise interest rates, and the State Department was busy...

New insights on cybersecurity in the age of hybrid work

As we approach the last week of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I think about what is top of mind for myself and my peers in security. The past year has continued the 2020s major shift in the way organizations operate. Recent data shows that 81 percent of enterprise organizations have begun the mo...

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...