Automatic disruption of human-operated attacks through containment of compromised user accounts

Our experience and insights from real-world incidents tell us that the swift containment of compromised user accounts is key to disrupting hands-on-keyboard attacks, especially those that involve human-operated ransomware. In these attacks, lateral movement follows initial access as the next...

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint now stops human-operated attacks on its own

Defenders need every edge they can get in the fight against ransomware. Today, were pleased to announce that Microsoft Defender for Endpoint customers will now be able automatically to disrupt human-operated attacks like ransomware early in the kill chain without needing to deploy any other...

Expanded Microsoft Security Experts offerings provide comprehensive protection

Since we first introduced Microsoft Security Experts in May 2022, we’ve worked hard to expand our new security services category. In the past 16 months, we’ve launched new services, expanded our capabilities, and introduced new ways to buy. Our customers face an unprecedented number of security...

Defending new vectors: Threat actors attempt SQL Server to cloud lateral movement

Microsoft security researchers recently identified a campaign where attackers attempted to move laterally to a cloud environment through a SQL Server instance. This attack technique demonstrates an approach weve seen in other cloud services such as VMs and Kubernetes cluster, but not in SQL Serve...

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...

Join the new Microsoft Security experience at Microsoft Ignite 2023

During the past few years, we’ve managed a lot of change and disruption in our security work, in our lives, and in society at large. This year we’re excited to welcome back security leaders, aspiring leaders, and IT professionals—in person—to Microsoft Ignite from November 14 to 17, 2023, and...

New security features in Windows 11 protect users and empower IT

While attacks are getting more sophisticated, so are our defenses. With recent innovations like secured-core PCs that are 60 percent more resilient to malware than non-secured-core PCs,1 and the Microsoft Pluton Security Processor that adds more protection by isolating sensitive data like...

New Microsoft security tools to protect families and businesses

Today marks an exciting milestone in Microsoft’s AI journey. This morning, at an event in New York City, we made several major announcements to empower people across work and life—you can read more about Microsoft Bing and Edge with Copilot, what’s new from Microsoft 365 Copilot and Bing Chat...

Microsoft 365 Defender demonstrates 100 percent protection coverage in the 2023 MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK® Evaluations: Enterprise

For the fifth consecutive year, Microsoft 365 Defender demonstrated industry-leading extended detection and response XDR capabilities in the independent MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK® Evaluations: Enterprise. The attack used during the test highlights the importance of a unified XDR platform and showcas...

Forrester names Microsoft a Leader in the 2023 Zero Trust Platform Providers Wave™ report

Microsoft is proud to be recognized as a Leader in the Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust Platform Providers, Q3 2023 report. At Microsoft, we understand modernizing security is a complex task in this era of ever-evolving cyberthreats and complex digital environments. Serious threats have necessitated a...

Peach Sandstorm password spray campaigns enable intelligence collection at high-value targets

Since February 2023, Microsoft has observed password spray activity against thousands of organizations carried out by an actor we track as Peach Sandstorm HOLMIUM. Peach Sandstorm is an Iranian nation-state threat actor who has recently pursued organizations in the satellite, defense, and...

Uncursing the ncurses: Memory corruption vulnerabilities found in library

Microsoft has discovered a set of memory corruption vulnerabilities in a library called ncurses, which provides APIs that support text-based user interfaces TUI. Released in 1993, the ncurses library is commonly used by various programs on Portable Operating System Interface POSIX operating...

Malware distributor Storm-0324 facilitates ransomware access

The threat actor that Microsoft tracks as Storm-0324 is a financially motivated group known to gain initial access using email-based initial infection vectors and then hand off access to compromised networks to other threat actors. These handoffs frequently lead to ransomware deployment. Beginnin...

Cloud storage security: What’s new in the threat matrix

Today, we announce the release of a second version of the threat matrix for storage services, a structured tool that assists in identifying and analyzing potential security threats on data stored in cloud storage services. The matrix, first released in April 2021 as detailed in the blog post Thre...

Navigating privacy in a data-driven world with Microsoft Priva

Data protection and privacy have become business imperatives. In a global survey conducted by Microsoft and leaders in the academic privacy space, 90 percent of respondents said they would not buy from an organization that does not properly protect its data.1 More than ever, people have a high...

Flax Typhoon using legitimate software to quietly access Taiwanese organizations

Summary Microsoft has identified a nation-state activity group tracked as Flax Typhoon, based in China, that is targeting dozens of organizations in Taiwan with the likely intention of performing espionage. Flax Typhoon gains and maintains long-term access to Taiwanese organizations networks with...

How the Microsoft Incident Response team helps customers remediate threats

Each year, organizations face tens of billions of malware, phishing, and credential threats—with real-world impacts. When an attack succeeds, it can result in grave impacts on any industry. For example, it could delay a police or fire department’s response to an emergency, prevent a hospital from...

Multiple high severity vulnerabilities in CODESYS V3 SDK could lead to RCE or DoS

Microsoft’s cyberphysical system researchers recently identified multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in the CODESYS V3 software development kit SDK, a software development environment widely used to program and engineer programmable logic controllers PLCs. Exploitation of the discovered...

New Microsoft Security innovations expand multicloud visibility and enhance multiplatform protection

With more than 90 percent of organizations adopting a multicloud strategy1 and cloud-based cyberattacks growing 48 percent year over year,2 securing multicloud and hybrid environments is more important than ever. To successfully protect multicloud infrastructure—where customers are utilizing two ...

Microsoft Purview data security mitigations for BazaCall and other human-operated data exfiltration attacks

I recently worked with an enterprise customer who experienced a data exfiltration attack using the characteristics of the BazaCall campaign. BazaCall can be both a ransomware and data exfiltration attack that are used together to increase pressure on and damage to the victim. Microsoft Purview ha...

Boost identity protection with Axiad Cloud and Microsoft Entra ID

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA. Passwords are a security weakness and phishing attacks to exploit accounts protected by passwords are on the rise. The last 12 months have seen an average of more than 4,000 password...

Adopting guidance from the US National Cybersecurity Strategy to secure the Internet of Things

The recently published United States National Cybersecurity Strategy warns that many popular Internet of Things IoT devices are not sufficiently secure to protect against many of today’s common cybersecurity threats.1 The strategy also cautions that many of these IoT devices are difficult—or, in...

Microsoft AI Red Team building future of safer AI

An essential part of shipping software securely is red teaming. It broadly refers to the practice of emulating real-world adversaries and their tools, tactics, and procedures to identify risks, uncover blind spots, validate assumptions, and improve the overall security posture of systems. Microso...

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...

How to connect with Microsoft Security at Black Hat USA 2023

Now in its twenty-sixth year, Black Hat USA takes place August 5 to 10, 2023, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing together security professionals for the latest in information security research, development, and trends. Microsoft Security is pleased to have a presence at Black Hat, wit...

Cryptojacking: Understanding and defending against cloud compute resource abuse

In cloud environments, cryptojacking – a type of cyberattack that uses computing power to mine cryptocurrency – takes the form of cloud compute resource abuse, which involves a threat actor compromising legitimate tenants. Cloud compute resource abuse could result in financial loss to targeted...

How to build stronger security teams

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyberthreats. In the latest post of our Community Voices blog series, Microsoft Security Senior Product Marketing Manager Brooke Lynn Weenig talks with Truesec Chief Chaos...

New Microsoft identity and data security capabilities to accelerate CMMC compliance for the Defense Industrial Base

As Department of Defense DoD Chief Information Officer Hon. John Sherman said recently, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification CMMC is necessary to ensure that the United States raises the bar for protecting sensitive information.1 The DoD is leading by example towards this goal by implementi...

Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR helps triage, investigate, and respond to cyberthreats

It has been an eventful time since the introduction of Microsoft Security Experts.1 We launched Defender Experts for Hunting, our first-party managed threat hunting service for customers who want Microsoft to help them proactively hunt threats across endpoints, Microsoft Office 365, cloud...

​​Expanding cloud logging to give customers deeper security visibility

In response to the increasing frequency and evolution of nation-state cyberthreats, Microsoft is taking additional steps to protect our customers and increase the secure-by-default baseline of our cloud platforms. These steps are the result of close coordination with commercial and government...

Microsoft Inspire: Partner resources to prepare for the future of security with AI

Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. With an ever-changing threat landscape and siloed data across multiple security point solutions, defenders have limited visibility. It’s difficult to stay current and find cybersecurity professionals amid the global talent shortage...

Analysis of Storm-0558 techniques for unauthorized email access

Executive summary On July 11, 2023, Microsoft published two blogs detailing a malicious campaign by a threat actor tracked as Storm-0558 that targeted customer email that weve detected and mitigated: Microsoft Security Response Center and Microsoft on the Issues. As we continue our investigation...

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...

Microsoft Entra expands into Security Service Edge and Azure AD becomes Microsoft Entra ID

A year ago when we announced the Microsoft Entra product family, we asked what the world could achieve if we had trust in every digital experience and interaction.1 This question inspired us to offer a vision for securing the millions and millions of connections that happen every second between...

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...

How automation is evolving SecOps—and the real cost of cybercrime

This post is coauthored by Rob May, Founder and Managing Director, ramsac The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyberthreats. In the latest post of our Community Voices blog series, Microsoft Security Senior...

Microsoft at NICE Conference: Resetting expectations and enabling diversity in the cybersecurity workforce

Closing the cybersecurity talent gap is not something we can achieve alone; it requires a collective effort from the entire industry and focus on enabling cybersecurity awareness and education for all. This realization hit home for us during our recent participation in the National Initiative for...

Why endpoint management is key to securing an AI-powered future

The chief information security officer CISO agenda has a new set of priorities. Hybrid work and the resultant architecture updates, so prevalent at the beginning of the pandemic, are no longer top of mind. Instead, the thinking is focused on tackling ever more sophisticated threats and integratin...

IoT devices and Linux-based systems targeted by OpenSSH trojan campaign

Cryptojacking, the illicit use of computing resources to mine cryptocurrency, has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, with attackers building a cybercriminal economy around attack tools, infrastructure, and services to generate revenue from targeting a wide range of vulnerable systems,...

Expanding horizons—Microsoft Security’s continued commitment to multicloud

Multicloud strategies have become the new norm for most enterprises, with more than 90 percent of organizations adopting multiple cloud infrastructures, platforms, and services to run their businesses.1 However, a lack of visibility into their digital infrastructure exposes them to significant...

Cadet Blizzard emerges as a novel and distinct Russian threat actor

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its second year and Microsoft continues to collaborate with global partners in response, the exposure of destructive cyber capabilities and information operations provide greater clarity into the tools and techniques used by Russian state-sponsored...

Public preview: Improve Win32 app security via app isolation

The post Public preview: Improve Win32 app security via app isolation appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog...

How Microsoft and Sonrai integrate to eliminate attack paths

Cloud development challenges conventional thinking about risk. A “perimeter” was always the abstraction that security teams could start from—defining their perimeter and exposing the cracks in firewalls and network access. With more and more infrastructure represented as ephemeral code, protectin...

Forrester names Microsoft a Leader in the 2023 Enterprise Email Security Wave

In today’s rapidly evolving connected workplace, where hybrid and remote work are increasingly the norm, workplace productivity and communications tools like email and chat applications are more important than ever. However, cyberthreats continue to evolve with increasing capabilities and...

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...

Join our digital event to learn what’s new in Microsoft Entra

Editors note 6/15/2023: This blog has been updated to reflect the new date for this event, which is now July 11, 2023. It was previously scheduled for June 20, 2023. In today’s interconnected world, there’s virtually no limit to what technology can help us achieve. Millions of connections happen...

Why a proactive detection and incident response plan is crucial for your organization

The security community is continuously changing, growing, and learning from each other to better position the world against cyberthreats. In the latest post of our Community Voices blog series, Microsoft Security Senior Product Marketing Manager Brooke Lynn Weenig talks with Matt Suiche, Director...

XDR meets IAM: Comprehensive identity threat detection and response with Microsoft

Identity has become the corporate security perimeter. The average organization used 130 different cloud applications in 2022. That’s up 18 percent from 2021 alone.1 And as organizations continue to embrace digital transformation and enable remote work, they look to identity and access management...

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...

Volt Typhoon targets US critical infrastructure with living-off-the-land techniques

Microsoft has uncovered stealthy and targeted malicious activity focused on post-compromise credential access and network system discovery aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in the United States. The attack is carried out by Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored actor based in China that...