AI-powered defense for an AI-accelerated threat landscape

We are at an inflection point in cybersecurity. Recent advances in AI model capabilities are changing how vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited. AI models can autonomously discover weaknesses, chain multiple lower-severity issues into working end-to-end exploits, and produce working...

Making opportunistic cyberattacks harder by design

This is part of a series of blogs and interviews conducted with our Microsoft Deputy CISOs , in which we surface a number of mission-critical security recommendations and best practices that businesses can enact right now and derive real meaningful benefits from. In this article, Ilya Grebnov,...

Containing a domain compromise: How predictive shielding shut down lateral movement

In this article 1. Predictive shielding overview 2. Attack chain overview 3. How predictive shielding changed the outcome 4. MITRE ATT&CK® techniques observed 5. Learn more In identity-based attack campaigns, any initial access activity can turn an already serious intrusion into a critical incide...

Containing a domain compromise: How predictive shielding shut down lateral movement

In this article 1. Predictive shielding overview 2. Attack chain overview 3. How predictive shielding changed the outcome 4. MITRE ATT&CK® techniques observed 5. Learn more In identity-based attack campaigns, any initial access activity can turn an already serious intrusion into a critical incide...

Incident response for AI: Same fire, different fuel

In this article 1. The fundamentals still hold 2. Where AI changes the equation 3. Closing the gaps in telemetry, tooling, and response 4. The human dimension 5. Looking ahead When a traditional security incident hits, responders replay what happened. They trace a known code path, find the defect...

The threat to critical infrastructure has changed. Has your readiness?

Critical infrastructure CI organizations underpin national security, public safety, and the economy. In 2026, the cyber threat landscape facing these sectors is structurally different than it was even two years ago. What Microsoft Threat Intelligence is observing across critical infrastructure...

Identity security is the new pressure point for modern cyberattacks

Identity attacks no longer hinge on who a cyberattacker compromises, but on what that identity can access. As organizations manage growing numbers of human, non-human, and agentic identities, their access fabric multiplies across apps, resources, and environments, which increases both operational...

New tools and guidance: Announcing Zero Trust for AI

Over the past year, I have had conversations with security leaders across a variety of disciplines, and the energy around AI is undeniable. Organizations are moving fast, and security teams are rising to meet the moment. Time and again, the question comes back to the same thing: "We're adopting A...

When tax season becomes cyberattack season: Phishing and malware campaigns using tax-related lures

In this article 1. A wide range of tax-themed campaigns 2. How to protect users and organization against tax-themed campaigns 3. Microsoft Defender detection and hunting guidance 4. Indicators of compromise During tax season, threat actors reliably take advantage of the urgency and familiarity of...

New e-book: Establishing a proactive defense with Microsoft Security Exposure Management

Effective exposure management begins by illuminating and hardening risks across the entire attack surface. Some of the most meaningful shifts in security happen quietly—when teams take a clear look at their exposure landscape and acknowledge the gap between where they stand today and where they...

Detecting and mitigating common agent misconfigurations

Organizations are rapidly adopting agents, but attackers are equally fast at exploiting misconfigured AI workflows. Mis-sharing, unsafe orchestration, and weak authentication create new identity and data‑access paths that traditional controls don’t monitor. As agents become integrated into...

Turning threat reports into detection insights with AI

Security teams routinely need to transform unstructured threat knowledge, such as incident narratives, red team breach-path writeups, threat actor profiles, and public reports into concrete defensive action. The early stages of that work are often the slowest. These include extracting tactics,...

Four priorities for AI-powered identity and network access security in 2026

No doubt, your organization has been hard at work over the past several years implementing industry best practices, including a Zero Trust architecture. But even so, the cybersecurity race only continues to intensify. AI has quickly become a powerful tool misused by threat actors, who use it to...

How Microsoft builds privacy and security to work hand-in-hand

The Deputy CISO blog series is where Microsoft Deputy Chief Information Security Officers CISOs share their thoughts on what is most important in their respective domains. In this series, you will get practical advice, tactics to start and stop deploying, forward-looking commentary on where the...

New Microsoft e-book: 3 reasons point solutions are holding you back

While patchwork tools slow defenders down and impact visibility into potential cyberthreats, they’re an unfortunate reality for many organizations. As digital risk accelerates and attack surfaces multiply, security leaders are doing their best to stitch together point solutions while trying to...

Defending against the CVE-2025-55182 (React2Shell) vulnerability in React Server Components

CVE-2025-55182 also referred to as React2Shell and includes CVE-2025-66478, which was merged into it is a critical pre-authentication remote code execution RCE vulnerability affecting React Server Components, Next.js, and related frameworks. With a CVSS score of 10.0, this vulnerability could all...

Changing the physics of cyber defense

The Deputy CISO blog series is whereMicrosoft Deputy Chief Information Security Officers CISOs share their thoughts on what is most important in their respective domains. In this series, you will get practical advice, tactics to start and stop deploying, forward-looking commentary on where the...

Charting the future of SOC: Human and AI collaboration for better security

Security operations centers are under pressure from unprecedented scale and complexity. Speed, precision, and consistency matter more than ever, and AI is everywhere—but hype alone doesn’t solve the challenge. This blog shares our journey and insights from building autonomous AI agents for MDR...

The importance of hardening customer support tools against cyberattacks

The Deputy CISO blog series is whereMicrosoft Deputy Chief Information Security Officers CISOs share their thoughts on what is most important in their respective domains. In this series, you will get practical advice, tactics to start and stop deploying, forward-looking commentary on where the...

Microsoft raises the bar: A smarter way to measure AI for cybersecurity

ExCyTIn-Bench is Microsoft’s newest open-source benchmarking tool designed to evaluate how well AI systems perform real-world cybersecurity investigations.1 It helps business leaders assess language models by simulating realistic cyberthreat scenarios and providing clear, actionable insights into...

Building a lasting security culture at Microsoft

At Microsoft, building a lasting security culture is more than a strategic priority—it is a call to action. Security begins and ends with people, which is why every employee plays a critical role in protecting both Microsoft and our customers. When secure practices are woven into how we think,...

Securing agentic AI: Your guide to the Microsoft Ignite sessions catalog

Security is a core focus at Microsoft Ignite 2025, reflected in dedicated sessions and hands-on experiences designed for security professionals and leaders. Whether you’re shaping strategy or working on the front lines, Microsoft Ignite offers direct access to the latest advancements and practica...

XCSSET evolves again: Analyzing the latest updates to XCSSET’s inventory

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has identified yet another XCSSET variant in the wild that introduces further updates and new modules beyond those detailed in our March 2025 blog post. The XCSSET malware is designed to infect Xcode projects, typically used by software developers, and run while an...

Microsoft Purview delivered 30% reduction in data breach likelihood

In today’s digital-first world, data is both an asset and a liability. As organizations scale their use of cloud platforms, AI, and remote collaboration tools, the complexity of managing data security, data privacy, and regulatory compliance grows exponentially. For organizations, the challenge i...

Microsoft Defender delivered 242% return on investment over three years​​

The latest Forrester Total Economic Impact™ TEI study reveals a 242% return on investment ROI over three years for organizations that chose Microsoft Defender. It helps security leaders consolidate tools, reduce overhead, and empower their security operations SecOps teams with operational...

Storm-0501’s evolving techniques lead to cloud-based ransomware

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed financially motivated threat actor Storm-0501 continuously evolving their campaigns to achieve sharpened focus on cloud-based tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs. While the threat actor has been known for targeting hybrid cloud environments, their...

Dissecting PipeMagic: Inside the architecture of a modular backdoor framework

Among the plethora of advanced attacker tools that exemplify how threat actors continuously evolve their tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs to evade detection and maximize impact, PipeMagic, a highly modular backdoor used by Storm-2460 masquerading as a legitimate open-source ChatGPT Deskto...

Connect with the security community at Microsoft Ignite 2025

In today’s AI-powered world, security professionals are facing unprecedented challenges—and opportunities. As generative AI reshapes the digital landscape, the need for robust, intelligent, and adaptive security strategies has never been more urgent. At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we will showcase...

Dow’s 125-year legacy: Innovating with AI to secure a long future

Founded more than 125 years ago, Dow has demonstrated a commitment to leveraging science to make the world a better place. Today, Dow’s ambition to be the most innovative, inclusive, and sustainable materials science company is supported by a global security team dedicated to keeping employees,...

Microsoft expands Zero Trust workshop to cover network, SecOps, and more

Building on identity, devices, and data, the workshop now covers network, infrastructure, and SecOps As the nature of cyberthreats and security challenges evolve, organizations have coalesced around a Zero Trust architecture as the approach to modernize their end-to-end security adoption and...

Cyber resilience begins before the crisis

In this blog you will hear directly from Microsoft’s Deputy Chief Information Security Officer CISO for Customer Security, Ann Johnson, about the need for proactive planning in cyber incidents, particularly surrounding communications. This blog is part of a new, ongoing series where our Deputy...

Celebrate 20 years of Cybersecurity Awareness Month with Microsoft and let’s secure our world together

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, when we partner with the National Cybersecurity Alliance, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA, and organizations around the world to amplify the importance of cybersecurity best practic...

Cyber Signals: Sporting events and venues draw cyberthreats at increasing rates

Today we released the fifth edition of Cyber Signals, spotlighting threats to large venues, and sporting and entertainment events, based on our learnings and telemetry from delivering cybersecurity support to critical infrastructure facilities during the State of Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA World...

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...

See product news and on-demand sessions from Microsoft Secure

“Great speakers and very knowledgeable.” “Brilliant.” “Wonderful and very useful.” The first Microsoft Secure on March 28, 2023, was a huge success—as this attendee feedback shows. Our virtual event brought together more than 20,000 security professionals eager to learn security best practices an...

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...

Data governance: 5 tips for holistic data protection

Your data is a strategic asset. To benefit your business, data requires strict controls around structure, access, and lifecycle. However, most security leaders have doubts about data security—nearly 70 percent of chief information security officers CISOs expect to have their data compromised in a...

Making the world a safer place with Microsoft Defender for individuals

Today’s sophisticated cyber threats require a modern approach to security. And this doesn’t apply only to enterprises or government entities—in recent years we’ve seen attacks increase exponentially against individuals. There are 921 password attacks every second.1 We’ve seen ransomware threats...

Streamlining employee onboarding: Microsoft’s response to the Great Reshuffle

In 2021, workers everywhere reevaluated their professional and personal choices, leading to what became known as the Great Resignation. In 2022, a new trend that many are calling the Great Reshuffle has emerged, with 43 percent of the workforce saying they’re very likely to consider changing jobs...

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...

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...

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...

Improve security with a Zero Trust access model

Zero Trust is a security model that I believe can begin to turn the tide in the cybersecurity battles. Traditional perimeter-based network security has proved insufficient because it assumes that if a user is inside the corporate perimeter, they can be trusted. We’ve learned that this isn't true...

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...

How public-private partnerships can combat cyber adversaries

For several years now, policymakers and practitioners from governments, CERTs, and the security industry have been speaking about the importance of public-private partnerships as an essential part of combating cyber threats. It is impossible to attend a security conference without a keynote...

Managing open-weight model risk in enterprise deployments

The growing AI landscape is giving enterprises more choice in how they build, customize, and deploy increasingly capable models. Open-weight models are an important part of that landscape. They give enterprises access to model weights and greater flexibility to inspect, evaluate, modify, and run...

Microsoft named a Leader in the Frost Radar™: Cloud Workload Protection Platforms, 2026

Security teams are overwhelmed with findings but still struggle to answer a simple question: which risks matter right now? A vulnerability alone is rarely the problem. The same vulnerability running in production, exposed through a misconfiguration or over-permissioned identity, is a real path to...

Microsoft named a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape for MDR/MXDR for the Enterprise

Security teams are being asked to defend a growing attack surface with fewer people and around the clock, against threat actors who never take a night off. As cyberattackers increasingly use AI to launch and scale campaigns, the volume, speed, and sophistication of threats continue to rise. Closi...

From open lures to cloaked gates: How a macOS ClickFix campaign learned to hide

In this article 1. Activity overview 2. How ClickFix works 3. Campaign overview 4. ClickFix moved from open pages to fingerprinting gates 5. The fingerprinting gate 6. Mitigation and protection guidance 7. Indicators of compromise IOC 8. References 9. Learn more Microsoft Threat Intelligence...

Real world incident response: Microsoft and AXA XL strengthen cyber resilience

Cyber incidents don't wait—and effective response can’t either. In the age of AI where cyber incidents unfold at machine speed, having the right partnerships in place becomes paramount. While AI is expanding what's possible, navigating this transformation can be challenging to do alone. That's wh...