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...

Microsoft Build 2023: Announcing new identity, compliance, and security features from Microsoft Security

At Microsoft Build 2023—an event for developers by developers—we’re going to announce exciting new features and technologies, share ideas, and help everyone boost their skills so we can all build a more secure future together. This year’s Microsoft Build offers a full program, both online and...

Cyber Signals: Shifting tactics fuel surge in business email compromise

Today we released the fourth edition of Cyber Signals highlighting a surge in cybercriminal activity around business email compromise BEC. Microsoft has observed a 38 percent increase in cybercrime as a service CaaS targeting business email between 2019 and 2022.1 Successful BEC attacks cost...

Microsoft Security highlights from RSA Conference 2023

The RSA Conference RSAC gave us an incredible opportunity to meet with security professionals from around the world, learn about exciting advances in the world of cybersecurity, and share our own security innovations. Defenders everywhere serve an important mission of protecting our world, and RS...

How Microsoft can help you go passwordless this World Password Day

It’s that time of year again. World Password Day is May 4, 2023.1 There’s a reason it’s still going strong 10 years after being created by cybersecurity professionals. A recent study that analyzed more than 15 billion passwords found that the top 10 most popular passwords still include...

Forrester names Microsoft a Leader in 2023 Infrastructure-as-a-Service Platform Native Security report

As we continue to drive toward making the world safer and more productive for all, it is vital we empower our customers to secure every aspect of their organization. Each day we are seeing more advanced security threats as bad actors develop new tactics that aim to take advantage of businesses as...

Why you should practice rollbacks to prevent data loss in a ransomware attack

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 Tanya Janca, Founder...

Healthy security habits to fight credential breaches: Cyberattack Series

Fifty percent of Microsoft cybersecurity recovery engagements relate to ransomware,1 and 61 percent of all breaches involve credentials.2 In this second report in our ongoing Cyberattack Series, we look at the steps taken to discover, understand, and respond to a push-bombing request that targete...

Microsoft announces the 2023 Microsoft Security Excellence Awards winners

In a world that’s constantly changing and challenging us, we believe that nothing can stop us when we work together. That’s the spirit of collaboration we celebrated on April 24, 2023, at the fourth annual Microsoft Security Excellence Awards. These awards recognize outstanding contributions from...

Stay compliant and protect sensitive data with Zero Trust security

Regulatory standards frequently shift and tighten, especially with the rise of hybrid work environments. And with the explosion of data growth, organizations have seen a massive uptick in cybersecurity issues and needs. According to IBM’s 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report, 83 percent of...

Getting started with the CDMC framework—Microsoft’s guide to cloud data management

On March 20, 2023, Microsoft announced the successful completion of the Cloud Data Management Capabilities CDMC certification. As a proponent of wider industry standards, I was fortunate to be part of Microsoft’s executive team working to achieve this important milestone. Beginning in 2020, we...

Microsoft Entra delivers 240 percent ROI, according to new Forrester study

Every day we easily move between apps and devices while identity professionals work hard behind the scenes to improve technologies that make this digital experience more secure. With nearly 50 percent of data breaches caused by stolen credentials, its important for identity professionals to arm...

Simplified endpoint management with Microsoft Intune Suite: Adopting a long-term approach with intelligence and automation

The last couple of years have been difficult, with many organizations operating in a response mode. From a global pandemic to an economic downturn to increasing security risks, teams are under more pressure than ever to deliver greater cyber security and do more with less. This responsive approac...

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...

Microsoft shifts to a new threat actor naming taxonomy

April 19, 2023 update – We have published a JSON file mapping old threat actor names with their new names in the updated taxonomy, summarized here: https://aka.ms/threatactors. We also added hunting queries that Microsoft customers can use while transitioning to the new taxonomy. See the Resource...

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...