Microsoft is awarded Zscaler’s Technology Partner of the Year for 2019

Last week at Zscaler’s user conference, Zenith Live, Microsoft received Zscaler’s Technology Partner of the Year Award in the Impact category. The award was given to Microsoft for the depth and breadth of integrations we’ve collaborated with Zscaler on and the positive feedback received from...

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...

Building on experience: a framework for cybersecurity policy

Each year, more and more governments are developing policies to address security challenges presented by an increasingly digitized world. And to support those efforts, Im excited today to announce the release of Microsofts new Cybersecurity Policy Framework, a resource for policymakers that...

How a national cybersecurity agency can help avoid a national cybersecurity quagmire

This last October we saw more countries than ever participate in initiatives to raise cybersecurity awareness. What was once largely a US approach has evolved into events and initiatives around the world by governments, civil society groups, and private sector partners. This increased breadth and...

Protecting customers from being intimidated into making an unnecessary purchase

There has been an increase in free versions of programs that purport to scan computers for various errors, and then use alarming, coercive messages to scare customers into buying a premium version of the same program. The paid version of these programs, usually called cleaner or optimizer...

Storm-0978 attacks reveal financial and espionage motives

Microsoft has identified a phishing campaign conducted by the threat actor tracked as Storm-0978 targeting defense and government entities in Europe and North America. The campaign involved the abuse of CVE-2023-36884, which included a remote code execution vulnerability exploited before disclosu...

2022 holiday DDoS protection guide

The holiday season is an exciting time for many people as they get to relax, connect with friends and family, and celebrate traditions. Organizations also have much to rejoice about during the holidays for example, more sales for retailers and more players for gaming companies. Unfortunately, cyb...

The evolution of a matrix: How ATT&CK for Containers was built

Note: The content of this post is being released jointly with the Center for Threat-Informed Defense. It is co-authored with Chris Ante and Matthew Bajzek. The Center post can be found here. As containers become a major part of many organizations’ IT workloads, it becomes crucial to consider the...

Zero Trust: 7 adoption strategies from security leaders

Microsoft considers Zero Trust an essential component of any organization’s security plan. We have partnered with Cloud Security Alliance, a not-for-profit organization that promotes cloud computing best practices, to bring together executive security leaders to discuss and share insights about...

Announcing the general availability of Azure Defender for IoT

As businesses increasingly rely on connected devices to optimize their operations, the number of IoT and Operational Technology OT endpoints is growing dramatically—industry analysts have estimated that CISOs will soon be responsible for an attack surface multiple times larger than just a few yea...

Simplify compliance and manage risk with Microsoft Compliance Manager

The cost of non-compliance is more than twice that of compliance costs. Non-compliance with the ever-increasing and changing regulatory requirements can have a significant impact on your organizations brand, reputation, and revenue. According to a study by the Ponemon Institute and Globalscape,...

Go inside the new Azure Defender for IoT including CyberX

In 2020, the move toward digital transformation and Industry 4.0 took on new urgency with manufacturing and other critical infrastructure sectors under pressure to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs. But the cybersecurity model for operational technology OT was already shown to be...

Trickbot disrupted

As announced today, Microsoft took action against the Trickbot botnet, disrupting one of the world’s most persistent malware operations. Microsoft worked with telecommunications providers around the world to disrupt key Trickbot infrastructure. As a result, operators will no longer be able to use...

Build support for open source in your organization

Have you ever stared at the same lines of code for hours only to have a coworker identify a bug after just a quick glance? That’s the power of community! Open source software development is guided by the philosophy that a diverse community will produce higher quality code by allowing anyone to...

Protecting your organization against password spray attacks

When hackers plan an attack, they often engage in a numbers game. They can invest significant time pursing a single, high-value target—someone in the C-suite for example and do “spear phishing.” Or if they just need low-level access to gain a foothold in an organization or do reconnaissance, they...

Azure Sentinel uncovers the real threats hidden in billions of low fidelity signals

Cybercrime is as much a people problem as it is a technology problem. To respond effectively, the defender community must harness machine learning to compliment the strengths of people. This is the philosophy that undergirds Azure Sentinel. Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native SIEM that exploits...

Traditional perimeter-based network defense is obsolete—transform to a Zero Trust model

Digital transformation has made the traditional perimeter-based network defense obsolete. Your employees and partners expect to be able to collaborate and access organizational resources from anywhere, on virtually any device, without impacting their productivity. Customers expect personalized...

TLS version enforcement capabilities now available per certificate binding on Windows Server 2019

At Microsoft, we often develop new security features to meet the specific needs of our own products and online services. This is a story about how we solved a very important problem and are sharing the solution with customers. As engineers worldwide work to eliminate their own dependencies on TLS...

Beyond the buzzwords

When I was a kid, Gilligan’s Island reruns aired endlessly on TV. The character of the Professor was supposed to sound smart, so he’d use complex words to describe simple concepts. Instead of saying, “I’m nearsighted” he’d say, “My eyes are ametropic and completely refractable.” Sure, it was funn...

Driving data security is a shared responsibility, here’s how you can protect yourself

You're driving a long, dark road on a rainy night. If you're driving 20 miles over the speed limit and you don't step on the brakes when the car in front of you comes to a sudden stop, is it your fault or your car manufacturers fault if you rear-end the car that is in front of you? When we drive,...

Teaming up in the war on tech support scams

Editors note: Erik Wahlstrom spoke about the far-reaching impact of tech support scams and the need for industry-wide cooperation in his RSA Conference 2018 talk Tech Scams: Its Time to Release the Hounds. Social engineering attacks like tech support scams are so common because theyre so effectiv...

Trend-spotting email techniques: How modern phishing emails hide in plain sight

With the massive volume of emails sent each day, coupled with the many methods that attackers use to blend in, identifying the unusual and malicious is more challenging than ever. An obscure Unicode character in a few emails is innocuous enough, but when a pattern of emails containing this obscur...

Microsoft acquires CloudKnox Security to offer unified privileged access and cloud entitlement management

Today on the Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft announced the acquisition of CloudKnox Security, a leader in Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management CIEM. CloudKnox offers complete visibility into privileged access. It helps organizations right-size permissions and consistently enforce...

Microsoft finds new NETGEAR firmware vulnerabilities that could lead to identity theft and full system compromise

The continuous improvement of security solutions has forced attackers to explore alternative ways to compromise systems. The rising number of firmware attacks and ransomware attacks via VPN devices and other internet-facing systems are examples of attacks initiated outside and below the operating...

Increasing resilience against Solorigate and other sophisticated attacks with Microsoft Defender

­Even as investigations into the sophisticated attack known as Solorigate are still underway, details and insights about the tools, patterns, and methods used by the attackers point to steps that organizations can take to improve their defenses against similar attacks. Solorigate is a cross-domai...

Unifying security policy across all mobile form-factors with Wandera and Microsoft

The way we work is evolving—technology enables more effective employees by helping them to be productive where and when they choose. Businesses have also been enjoying the productivity benefits of an always-on and always-connected workforce. While new business applications and device form-factors...

How companies can prepare for a heightened threat environment

With high levels of political unrest in various parts of the world, it’s no surprise we’re also in a period of increased cyber threats. In the past, a company’s name, political affiliations, or religious affiliations might push the risk needle higher. However, in the current environment any compa...

Overview of the Marsh-Microsoft 2019 Global Cyber Risk Perception survey results

Technology is dramatically transforming the global business environment, with continual advances in areas ranging from artificial intelligence AI and the Internet of Things IoT to data availability and blockchain. The speed at which digital technologies evolve and disrupt traditional business...

Automated incident response in Office 365 ATP now generally available

Security teams responsible for investigating and responding to incidents often deal with a massive number of signals from widely disparate sources. As a result, rapid and efficient incident response continues to be the biggest challenge facing security teams today. The sheer volume of these...

Identity enhancements to support the more than 1 million active third-party applications on our platform

This week at //build 2019, we’re announcing several enhancements to our identity platform for developers. These enhancements are designed to support the more than one million active third-party applications using our identity platform each month and include: Our work to unify the Microsoft identi...

How to mitigate rapid cyberattacks such as Petya and WannaCrypt

In the first blog post of this 3-part series, we introduced what rapid cyberattacks are and illustrated how rapid cyberattacks are different in terms of execution and outcome. In the second blog post, we provided some details on Petya and how it worked. In this final blog post, we will share:...

WhatsApp malware campaign delivers VBScript and MSI backdoors

In this article 1. Attack chain overview 2. Mitigation and protection guidance 3. Hunting queries 4. Indicators of compromise Microsoft Defender Experts observed a campaign beginning in late February 2026 that uses WhatsApp messages to deliver malicious Visual Basic Script VBS files. Once execute...

New capabilities to help you secure your AI transformation

AI is transforming our world, unlocking new possibilities to enhance human abilities and to extend opportunities globally. At the same time, we are also facing an unprecedented threat landscape with the speed, scale, and sophistication of attacks increasing rapidly. To meet these challenges, we...

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...

Sharing the first SimuLand dataset to expedite research and learn about adversary tradecraft

Last month, we introduced the SimuLand project to help security researchers around the world deploy lab environments to reproduce well-known attack scenarios, actively test detections, and learn more about the underlying behavior and implementation of adversary techniques. Since the release of th...

Afternoon Cyber Tea: Cybersecurity challenged to meet diversity goals

Organizations often know they need to identify and address their cybersecurity blind spots. They also know the technology exists to help them do that. However, they don’t often understand how to communicate this need within their organization to justify the expense, nor do they know how to share...

Evolving beyond password complexity as an identity strategy

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 Product Marketing Manager Natalia Godyla talks with Troy Hunt, founder of Have I Been Pwned,...

5 identity priorities for 2021—strengthening security for the hybrid work era and beyond

When I outlined the five identity priorities for 2020, the world was a very different place. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed how organizations run their businesses. It’s also changed the way we work, learn, and collaborate. What hasn’t changed is the critical role identity...

NERC CIP compliance in Azure

When I did my first North American Electric Reliability Corporation—Critical Infrastructure Protection NERC CIP compliance project it was 2009. NERC CIP was at version 3. It was the first mandatory cybersecurity standard that the utility I was working for had to meet. As it does today, the Bulk...

Microsoft Intelligent Security Association grows to more than 80 members

Sometimes an idea sparks, and it feels so natural, so organic, that it takes on a life of its own and surprises you by how fast it grows. The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association MISA was one of these ideas. It was born out of a desire to be easy to do business with and be a better partner ...

Overwhelmed by overchoice at RSA Conference 2018

As over 500 companies vied for mindshare at this years RSA conference - a cacophony of vendors pitching thousands of products from brightly colored booths - it reminded me of how challenging it was for me to separate signal from noise when I was managing global networks. And the rapid growth of...

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...

Microsoft recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Data Security Platforms, Q1 2023

Organizations need to protect their sensitive data including intellectual property, trade secrets, customer data, and personally identifiable information from both insiders and external cyber attackers. In fact, 80 percent of organizations experience more than one data breach in their lifetime.1...

Zero Trust Adoption Report: How does your organization compare?

From the wide adoption of cloud-based services to the proliferation of mobile devices. From the emergence of advanced new cyberthreats to the recent sudden shift to remote work. The last decade has been full of disruptions that have required organizations to adapt and accelerate their security...

SimuLand: Understand adversary tradecraft and improve detection strategies

At Microsoft, we continuously collaborate with customers and the InfoSec community to learn more about the latest adversary tradecraft so that we can improve our detection strategies across all our security services. Even though those detections are already built into our products, and protecting...

Threat and Vulnerability Management now supports all major platforms

We are swiftly adapting to the lasting reality of a hybrid workforce, with the number of remote workers in the US expected to nearly double over the next five years, compared to pre-pandemic times. As a result, security teams are being challenged to rethink how to secure a growing and increasingl...

Meet critical infrastructure security compliance requirements with Microsoft 365

Critical infrastructure operators face a hostile cyber threat environment and a complex compliance landscape. Every operator of an industrial control system also operates an IT network to service its productivity needs. A supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA system operator of a power...

Protect your business from email phishing with multi-factor authentication

Cybersecurity has been in the news far more often in the past 12 months than in previous years, as cybercriminals escalated their activity during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine. The seismic shift of hundreds of millions of people connecting and working from home every day presented cybercrimina...

Microsoft brings advanced hardware security to Server and Edge with Secured-core

A cursory look at recent headlines reveals two clear trends. First, organizations around the world are embracing digital transformation using technologies across cloud and edge computing to better serve their customers and thrive in fast-paced environments. Second, attackers are constantly...

4 ways Microsoft is delivering security for all in a Zero Trust world

If there’s one thing the dawning of 2021 has shown, it’s that security isn’t getting any easier. Recent high-profile breach activity has underscored the growing sophistication of today’s threat actors and the complexity of managing business risk in an increasingly connected world. It’s a struggle...