Azure mandatory multifactor authentication: Phase 2 starting in October 2025

As cyberattacks become increasingly frequent, sophisticated, and damaging, safeguarding your digital assets has never been more critical, and at Microsoft, your security is our top priority. Microsoft research shows that multi-factor authentication MFA can block more than 99.2% of account...

Microsoft ranked number one in modern endpoint security market share third year in a row

Amidst the backdrop of a surging number of ransomware campaigns worldwide, organizations have increasingly chosen Microsoft Defender’s endpoint security as their preferred solution. It’s engineered to disrupt cyberattacks and not business continuity. As a result, for a third year a row, Microsoft...

Microsoft Sentinel data lake: Unify signals, cut costs, and power agentic AI

You can’t protect what you can’t see. Security operations teams have long been faced with the challenge of managing massive, fast-growing datasets, and the cost of scaling traditional data management tools to handle these data volumes has become unsustainable. We’re evolving our industry-leading...

Protecting customers from Octo Tempest attacks across multiple industries

In recent weeks, Microsoft has observed Octo Tempest, also known as Scattered Spider, impacting the airlines sector, following previous activity impacting retail, food services, hospitality organizations, and insurance between April and July 2025. This aligns with Octo Tempest’s typical patterns ...

Improving IT efficiency with Microsoft Security Copilot in Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra

When Microsoft introduced Microsoft Security Copilot last year, our vision was to empower organizations with generative AI that helps security and IT teams simplify operations and respond faster. Since then, we’ve continuously innovated and learned alongside our customers. They consistently tell ...

Learn how to build an AI-powered, unified SOC in new Microsoft e-book

The sheer volume of cyberattacks continues to increase at a breathtaking scale worldwide, with customers facing more than 600 million cybercriminal and nation-state attacks every day.1 To stem the growing tide of malicious cyber activity takes a commitment from all of us—individuals from operatio...

Meet the Deputy CISOs who help shape Microsoft’s approach to cybersecurity

Microsoft launched its Cybersecurity Governance Council in 2024, and with it, named a group of deputy chief information security officers that ensure comprehensive oversight of the company's cybersecurity risk, defense, and compliance. These leaders work in tandem with product and engineering...

Microsoft unveils Microsoft Security Copilot agents and new protections for AI

In this age of AI, securing AI and using it to boost security are crucial for every organization. At Microsoft, we are dedicated to helping organizations secure their future with our AI-first, end-to-end security platform. One year ago, we launched Microsoft Security Copilot to empower defenders ...

AI innovation requires AI security: Hear what’s new at Microsoft Secure

When you’re secure—innovation happens. But, the fast pace of AI often outpaces traditional security measures, leaving gaps that bad actors can take advantage of. As a security professional, you’re the hero in this battle between protecting vast amounts of data while ensuring AI systems remain...

From guidance to action: Security fundamentals that materially reduce risk

AI has already made fundamental changes to the operating environment for cybersecurity. Cyberattackers are testing more paths, adapting their techniques, and moving across digital environments with greater speed and persistence. The weaknesses they exploit remain familiar: excessive permissions,...

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...

Stronger together: New Beazley collaboration enhances cyber resilience

Today’s cyberthreat landscape demands more than technical expertise: it requires a unified response team of technical responders, insurers, brokers, and legal counsel. This integrated approach is key to building long-term cyber resilience to help your organization anticipate, withstand, recover...

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,...

AI vs. AI: Detecting an AI-obfuscated phishing campaign

Microsoft Threat Intelligence recently detected and blocked a credential phishing campaign that likely used AI-generated code to obfuscate its payload and evade traditional defenses. Appearing to be aided by a large language model LLM, the activity obfuscated its behavior within an SVG file,...

New XCSSET malware adds new obfuscation, persistence techniques to infect Xcode projects

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has uncovered a new variant of XCSSET, a sophisticated modular macOS malware that infects Xcode projects, in the wild during routine threat hunting. Its first known variant since 2022, this latest XCSSET malware features enhanced obfuscation methods, updated...

Advance Zero Trust for AI: New tools and guidance to secure AI agents and DevSecOps

The calculus of cybersecurity has changed. AI is reshaping how organizations build, deploy, operate, and defend digital systems. AI-powered development tools, agents, and autonomous workflows are accelerating innovation but they are also introducing new attack surfaces, new trust boundaries, and...

A new era of agents, a new era of posture

The rise of AI Agents marks one of the most exciting shifts in technology today. Unlike traditional applications or cloud resources, these agents are not passive components- they reason, make decisions, invoke tools, and interact with other agents and systems on behalf of users. This autonomy...

Microsoft named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for XDR

When cybersecurity stakes are high and complexity is the norm, Microsoft doesn’t just participate, it excels with Microsoft Defender XDR—built to anticipate, disrupt, and outpace modern cyberthreats. We are excited to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwi...

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...

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...

Phishing campaign impersonates Booking .com, delivers a suite of credential-stealing malware

Starting in December 2024, leading up to some of the busiest travel days, Microsoft Threat Intelligence identified a phishing campaign that impersonates online travel agency Booking.com and targets organizations in the hospitality industry. The campaign uses a social engineering technique called...

Improving email security outcomes with real-world Microsoft Defender insights

Every benchmark tells a story. The most valuable ones tell us where to improve next. For five consecutive quarters Microsoft has published email security benchmarking reports to provide greater transparency into real-world protection outcomes. The results have shown strong Microsoft Defender...

New IDC research highlights a major cloud security shift

Cloud security is at a tipping point. While moving to the cloud powers both growth and speed for organizations, it can also bring new risks. According to IDC’s latest research, organizations experienced an average of nine cloud security incidents in 2024, with 89% reporting a year-over-year...

Counterfeit installers to system compromise: Tracking a deceptive software download campaign

In this article 1. Attack chain overview 2. Campaign scope and targeting 3. Mitigation and protection guidance 4. References 5. Learn more Microsoft Defender Experts is tracking an active malware campaign that uses counterfeit software-download websites to impersonate trusted vendors and distribu...

How to secure edge AI in customer-owned environments

In this article 1. Edge AI changes the trust model for AI systems 2. Constrain model actions through deterministic mediation 3. Establish trust before releasing sensitive assets 4. Verify runtime before releasing sensitive assets 5. Verify artifacts that shape model behavior 6. Next steps Edge AI...

ASCII smuggling crosses over from AI prompt injection to phishing evasion

In this article 1. What is ASCII smuggling? 2. Writing a practical ASCII-smuggling signature 3. What we observed: ASCII smuggling repurposed for phishing 4. What is known and what is new 5. Is there a detection gap? 6. Mitigation and protection guidance 7. References 8. Learn More Microsoft...

Impersonating IT support: how threat actors turn a remote session into enterprise-wide access

In this article 1. Risk to enterprise environments 2. Attack chain overview 3. Mitigation and response recommendations 4. Learn more Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed a human-operated intrusion campaign that abuses Microsoft Teams external collaboration to impersonate IT or helpdesk...

Unmasking EvilTokens: Getting to the root of device code phishing

In this article 1. What is device code phishing? 2. EvilTokens platform and operations 3. EvilTokens phishing emails 4. Mitigation and protection guidance 5. Microsoft Defender XDR detections 6. Hunting queries Following its emergence in February 2026, EvilTokens quickly became one of the most...

Protecting organizations from AI-assisted executive impersonation and invoice fraud

In this article 1. Attack chain overview 1. Email Delivery 2. Domain registration 3. Generative AI usage 2. Mitigation and protection guidance 1. Microsoft Defender detections 2. Microsoft Security Copilot 3. Threat intelligence reports 4. MITRE ATT&CK Techniques observed 5. Indicators of...

Passkey-themed social engineering leads to identity and cloud compromise

In this article 1. Attack chain overview 2. Attribution 3. Mitigation and protection guidance 4. Learn more Microsoft Security Research is tracking active cloud-based intrusions spanning multiple accounts in which unusual sign-ins were followed by threat actor-added authentication methods,...