Analysis of cyberattack on U.S. think tanks, non-profits, public sector by unidentified attackers

Reuters recently reported a hacking campaign focused on a wide range of targets across the globe. In the days leading to the Reuters publication, Microsoft researchers were closely tracking the same campaign. Our sensors revealed that the campaign primarily targeted public sector institutions and...

Intent redirection vulnerability in third-party SDK exposed millions of Android wallets to potential risk

In this article 1. Technical details 2. Disclosure timeline 3. Mitigation and protection guidance 4. References 5. Learn more During routine security research, we identified a severe intent redirection vulnerability in a widely used third-party Android SDK called EngageSDK. This flaw allows apps ...

Microsoft’s Threat & Vulnerability Management now helps thousands of customers to discover, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities in real time

I'm excited to announce that Microsoft’s Threat & Vulnerability Management solution is generally available as of June 30! We have been working closely with customers for more than a year to incorporate their real needs and feedback to better address vulnerability management. Our goal is to empowe...

Exploitation of CLFS zero-day leads to ransomware activity

Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC and Microsoft Security Response Center MSRC have discovered post-compromise exploitation of a zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Common Log File System CLFS against a small number of targets. The targets include organizations in...

Step 8. Protect your documents and email: top 10 actions to secure your environment

The “Top 10 actions to secure your environment” series outlines fundamental steps you can take with your investment in Microsoft 365 security solutions. In “Step 8. Protect your documents and email,” you’ll learn how to deploy Azure Information Protection and use Office 365 Advanced Threat...

How Office 365 protects your organization from modern phishing campaigns

This post is authored by Debraj Ghosh, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft 365 Security. We often allude to the benefits of having an integrated threat protection stack in Office 365. Today we wanted to take the opportunity to walk you through how the combined features and services in the...

Patch me if you can: Cyberattack Series

Many organizations utilize third-party apps for identity security solutions to automate and unburden overtaxed IT admins from tedious tasks that employees can perform via self-service without IT assistance. But in September 2021, our researchers observed threat actors exploiting one such...

New Surface PCs enable virtualization-based security (VBS) by default to empower customers to do more, securely

VBS and HVCI-enabled devices help protect from advanced attacks Escalation of privilege attacks are a malicious actor’s best friend, and they often target sensitive information stored in memory. These kinds of attacks can turn a minor user mode compromise into a full compromise of your OS and...

Think before you Click(Fix): Analyzing the ClickFix social engineering technique

Over the past year, Microsoft Threat Intelligence and Microsoft Defender Experts have observed the ClickFix social engineering technique growing in popularity, with campaigns targeting thousands of enterprise and end-user devices globally every day. Since early 2024, we’ve helped multiple custome...

Identity governance: The power of “Why not?”

Innovation requires the courage to take risks and the leadership skills to show others that risks are worth taking. That’s why I love working with people like Joe Dadzie, a partner group program manager in identity governance. Joe has a long history of championing disruptive technology...

Voice of the Customer: Walmart embraces the cloud with Azure Active Directory

Todays post was written by Sue Bohn, partner director of Program Management and Ben Byford and Gerald Corson, senior directors of Identity and Access Management at Walmart. Greetings! Im Sue Bohn, partner director of Program Management at Microsoft. Im an insatiable, lifelong learner and I lead t...

How Microsoft 365 Security integrates with your broader IT ecosystem—part 2

Todays post was coauthored by Debraj Ghosh, Senior Product Marketing Manager, and Diana Kelley, Cybersecurity Field CTO. In part 1 of our blog series, we shared the Microsoft 365 Security strategy for integrating with the broader security community. Today, we cover the services Microsoft 365...

DEV-0196: QuaDream’s “KingsPawn” malware used to target civil society in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia

April 2023 update – Microsoft Threat Intelligence has shifted to a new threat actor naming taxonomy aligned around the theme of weather. DEV-0196 is now tracked as Carmine Tsunami. To learn more about this evolution, how the new taxonomy represents the origin, unique traits, and impact of threat...

Uncovering Linux based cyberattack using Azure Security Center

As more and more enterprises move to the cloud, they also bring their own set of security challenges. Today, almost half of Azure virtual machines VMs are running on Linux, and as the Linux server population grows, so are the attacks targeting them. As detection capabilities advance, attackers ar...

Protect your data in files, apps, and devices

This blog is part of a series that responds to common questions we receive from customers about deployment of Microsoft 365 security solutions. In this series youll find context, answers, and guidance for deployment and driving adoption within your organization. Check out our last blog, Enable yo...

New FastTrack benefit: Deployment support for Co-management on Windows 10 devices

This blog is part of a series that responds to common questions we receive from customers about deployment of Microsoft 365 security solutions. In this series youll find context, answers, and guidance for deployment and driving adoption within your organization. Check out our last blog Getting th...

Analyzing CVE-2025-31191: A macOS security-scoped bookmarks-based sandbox escape

In April 2024, Microsoft uncovered a vulnerability in macOS that could allow specially crafted codes to escape the App Sandbox and run unrestricted on the system. An attacker could create an exploit to escape the App Sandbox without user interaction required for any sandboxed app using...

Exposed and vulnerable: Recent attacks highlight critical need to protect internet-exposed OT devices

Since late 2023, Microsoft has observed an increase in reports of attacks focusing on internet-exposed, poorly secured operational technology OT devices. Internet-exposed OT equipment in water and wastewater systems WWS in the US were targeted in multiple attacks over the past months by different...

Nation-state threat actor Mint Sandstorm refines tradecraft to attack high-value targets

Over the past several months, Microsoft has observed a mature subgroup of Mint Sandstorm, an Iranian nation-state actor previously tracked as PHOSPHORUS, refining its tactics, techniques, and procedures TTPs. Specifically, this subset has rapidly weaponized N-day vulnerabilities in common...

Operational resilience in a remote work world

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said, “We have seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” This is a result of many organizations having to adapt to the new world of document sharing and video conferencing as they become distributed organizations overnight. At Microsoft, ...

How to gain 24/7 detection and response coverage with Microsoft Defender ATP

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligence Security Association guest blog series. To learn more about MISA, go...

How to avoid getting caught in a “Groundhog Day” loop of security issues

It’s Cyber Security Awareness Month and it made me think about one of my favorite movies, called Groundhog Day. Have you ever seen it? Bill Murray is the cynical weatherman, Phil Connors, who gets stuck in an endless loop where he repeats the same day over and over again until he “participates in...

How Axonius integrates with Microsoft to help customers solve the cybersecurity asset management challenge

Despite the amazing and futuristic progression of technologies in cybersecurity, it's still incredibly hard to answer the most basic of questions like: how many assets do I have, and do they adhere to my security policy? Somewhere along the line, asset management became very mundane compared to t...

Cyber Signals: Inside the growing risk of gift card fraud

In the ever-evolving landscape of cyberthreats, staying ahead of malicious actors is a constant challenge. Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed that gift cards are attractive targets for fraud and social engineering practices. Unlike credit or debit cards, there’s no customer name or bank...

DEV-0832 (Vice Society) opportunistic ransomware campaigns impacting US education sector

In recent months, Microsoft has detected active ransomware and extortion campaigns impacting the global education sector, particularly in the US, by a threat actor we track as DEV-0832, also known as Vice Society. Shifting ransomware payloads over time from BlackCat, QuantumLocker, and Zeppelin,...

A better cloud access security broker: Securing your SaaS cloud apps and services with Microsoft Cloud App Security

Today’s business uses an average of 1,180 cloud apps¹, with many of those organizations securing their apps through cloud access security brokers CASB. The organizational need for a CASB has grown alongside the use of cloud apps to enable remote work and greater user productivity. When security...

Threat actor leverages coin miner techniques to stay under the radar – here’s how to spot them

Cryptocurrency miners are typically associated with cybercriminal operations, not sophisticated nation state actor activity. They are not the most sophisticated type of threats, which also means that they are not among the most critical security issues that defenders address with urgency. Recent...

Microsoft works with healthcare organizations to protect from popular ransomware during COVID-19 crisis: Here’s what to do

True to form, human-operated ransomware campaigns are always on prowl for any path of least resistance to gain initial access to target organizations. During this time of crisis, as organizations have moved to a remote workforce, ransomware operators have found a practical target: network devices...

Human-operated ransomware attacks: A preventable disaster

Human-operated ransomware campaigns pose a significant and growing threat to businesses and represent one of the most impactful trends in cyberattacks today. In these hands-on-keyboard attacks, which are different from auto-spreading ransomware like WannaCry or NotPetya, adversaries employ...

Azure Sphere—Microsoft’s answer to escalating IoT threats—reaches general availability

Today Azure Sphere—Microsoft’s integrated security solution for IoT devices and equipment—is widely available for the development and deployment of secure, connected devices. Azure Sphere’s general availability milestone couldn’t be timelier. From consumer device hacking and botnets to nation sta...

Foundations of Flow—secure and compliant automation, part 2

In part 1 of this series, we introduced you to Microsoft Flow, a powerful automation service already being used by many organizations across the world. Flow is designed to empower citizen developers while featuring capabilities sought for by professional developers. Flow is also a foundational...

Be careful of data without context: The case of malware scanning of journaled emails

Recently, we shared details on how effectiveness is measured for Office 365 Exchange Online Protection EOP and Advanced Threat Protection ATP. We also followed up with a comprehensive update on Office 365s improved ability to stop phishing emails from impacting users. These reports highlighted:...

Protecting the protector: Hardening machine learning defenses against adversarial attacks

Harnessing the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence has enabled Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Windows Defender ATP next-generation protection to stop new malware attacks before they can get started often within milliseconds. These predictive technologies are central...

Defense in depth for autonomous AI agents

Designing Secure Autonomous AI Agents with Defense in Depth AI agents are moving beyond assistance and into action. Instead of generating content, they invoke tools, modify data, trigger workflows, and operate across systems with increasing autonomy. This shift changes the security problem...

Threat actors misuse OAuth applications to automate financially driven attacks

Threat actors are misusing OAuth applications as an automation tool in financially motivated attacks. OAuth is an open standard for token-based authentication and authorization that enables applications to get access to data and resources based on permissions set by a user. Threat actors compromi...

MCCrash: Cross-platform DDoS botnet targets private Minecraft servers

Malware operations continue to rapidly evolve as threat actors add new capabilities to existing botnets, increasingly targeting and recruiting new types of devices. Attackers update malware to target additional operating systems, ranging from PCs to IoT devices, growing their infrastructure...

Foundations of Microsoft Flow—secure and compliant automation, part 1

Automation services are steadily becoming significant drivers of modern IT, helping improve efficiency and cost effectiveness for organizations. A recent McKinsey survey discovered that “the majority of all respondents 57 percent say their organizations are at least piloting the automation of...

The evolution of Microsoft Threat Protection—July update

Modern security teams need to proactively, efficiently, and effectively hunt for threats across multiple attack vectors. To address this need, today we’re excited to give you a glimpse of a new threat hunting capability coming soon to Microsoft Threat Protection. Building off the threat hunting...

Safeguard your most sensitive data with Microsoft 365

I am Security Operations’ SecOps worst nightmare. Or at least I used to be. As an industrious product marketer, I often share intellectual property think: details of new product capabilities or spreadsheets that contain customer personal identifying information PII with colleagues and vendors. We...

Step 1. Identify users: top 10 actions to secure your environment

This series outlines the most fundamental steps you can take with your investment in Microsoft 365 security solutions. Well provide advice on activities such as setting up identity management through active directory, malware protection, and more. In this post, we explain how to create a single...

Get deeper into security at Microsoft Ignite 2018

This year at Microsoft Ignite, we will be making some exciting announcementsfrom new capabilities for identity management and information protection to powerful artificial intelligence AI innovations that can help you stay ahead of an often overwhelming surge in threats and security alerts. Join ...

Now that you have a plan, it’s time to start deploying

This blog is part of a series that responds to common questions we receive from customers about deployment of Microsoft 365 security solutions. In this series, youll find context, answers, and guidance for deployment and driving adoption within your organization. Check out our last blog First...

Storm-3168: Agentic-driven cloud attacks using compromised service principals

In this article 1. Attack overview 2. Technical analysis 3. Mitigation and protection guidance 4. References 5. Learn More Microsoft Security Research has identified malicious cloud activity associated with JADEPUFFER, a threat actor discovered by Sysdig in July 2026 and reported to be the first...

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...

From package to postinstall payload: Inside the Mastra npm supply chain compromise by Sapphire Sleet

In this article 1. Attack chain overview 1. Discovery and initial indicators 2. Dependency injection: the poisoned package.json 3. Typosquat analysis: easy-day-js 4. Staged delivery pattern 5. Obfuscation and payload analysis 6. TLS bypass to self-deletion 7. Timeline analysis 2. Who is Sapphire...

Detecting and mitigating a multi-stage AiTM phishing and BEC campaign

Microsoft Defender Experts uncovered a multi-stage adversary-in-the-middle AiTM phishing and business email compromise BEC attack against banking and financial services organizations. The attack originated from a compromised trusted vendor and transitioned into a series of AiTM attacks and...

New macOS vulnerability, Migraine, could bypass System Integrity Protection

A new vulnerability, which we refer to as “Migraine” for its involvement with macOS migration, could allow an attacker with root access to automatically bypass System Integrity Protection SIP in macOS and perform arbitrary operations on a device. We shared these findings with Apple through...

Migrating content from traditional SIEMs to Azure Sentinel

In part two of this three-part series, we covered the five types of side-by-side security information and event management SIEM configurations commonly used during a long-term migration to Microsoft Azure Sentinel. For part three, we’ll be looking at best practices for migrating your data and...

Microsoft researchers work with Intel Labs to explore new deep learning approaches for malware classification

The opportunities for innovative approaches to threat detection through deep learning, a category of algorithms within the larger framework of machine learning, are vast. Microsoft Threat Protection today uses multiple deep learning-based classifiers that detect advanced threats, for example,...

How to prevent phishing attacks that target your customers with DMARC and Office 365

You already know that email is the number one attack vector for cybercriminals. But what you might not know is that without a standard email security protocol called Domain Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance DMARC, your organization is open to the phishing attacks that target your...