Key layers for developing a Smarter SOC with CyberProof-managed Microsoft Azure security services

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association MISA guest blog series. Learn more about MISA here. Security teams are struggling to reduce the time to detect and respond to threats due to the complexity and volume of alerts being generated from multiple security...

Meet the Microsoft Pluton processor – The security chip designed for the future of Windows PCs

The role of the Windows PC and trust in technology are more important than ever as our devices keep us connected and productive across work and life. Windows 10 is the most secure version of Windows ever, built with end-to-end security for protection from the edge to the cloud all the way down to...

Forrester TEI study: Azure Sentinel delivers 201 percent ROI over 3 years and a payback of less than 6 months

2020 has been a transitional year, ushering in broad changes in how, and where, we work. Security operations SecOps teams face more significant challenges than ever as they protect the organization in this rapidly changing environment. These teams need a flexible, cost-effective, and efficient...

System Management Mode deep dive: How SMM isolation hardens the platform

Ensuring that the platform firmware is healthy and trustworthy is fundamental to guaranteeing that powerful platform security features like Hypervisor-protected code integrity HVCI and Windows Defender Credential Guard are functioning as expected. Windows 10 achieves this by leveraging a...

Empowering employees to securely work from anywhere with an internet-first model and Zero Trust

Like many this year, our Microsoft workforce had to quickly transition to a work from the home model in response to COVID-19. While nobody could have predicted the world’s current state, it has provided a very real-world test of the investments we have made implementing a Zero Trust security mode...

Extend data loss prevention to your devices with Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, now generally available

Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention Endpoint Data Loss Prevention DLP | What it is and how to set it up in Microsoft 365. Watch today Managing and protecting data is critical to any organization. Data is growing exponentially, and remote work is making it even harder to manage risks around...

Microsoft recognized as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Information Archiving

Organizations face an increasing volume of data generated daily and ever-evolving regulations around how that data is managed. To help navigate this complex information landscape, we are focused on delivering integrated, intelligent, and user-centric solutions. Over the past few years, we...

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month and there is still a lot to do

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month NCSAM. And there is still a lot to do! For the last 17 years, the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month NCSAM campaign, driven by the Department of Homeland Security, has raised awareness about the importance of cyber security across the Nation...

Unilever CISO on balancing business risks with cybersecurity

Imagine showing up to work every day knowing that your job requires protecting 160,000 employees creating more than 450 products around the world—tea, ice cream, personal care, laundry and dish soaps—across a customer base of more than two and a half billion people every day. Unilever Chief...

Back to the future: What the Jericho Forum taught us about modern security

Some of the earliest formal work on what we now call Zero Trust started around in a security consortium known as the Jericho Forum which later merged into The Open Group Security Forum. This started as a group of like-minded CISOs wrestling with the limitations of the dominant and unquestioned...

Cyberattacks against machine learning systems are more common than you think

Machine learning ML is making incredible transformations in critical areas such as finance, healthcare, and defense, impacting nearly every aspect of our lives. Many businesses, eager to capitalize on advancements in ML, have not scrutinized the security of their ML systems. Today, along with...

Addressing cybersecurity risk in industrial IoT and OT

As the industrial Internet of Things IIoT and operational technology OT continue to evolve and grow, so too, do the responsibilities of the Chief Information Security Officer CISO. The CISO now needs to mitigate risks from cloud-connected machinery, warehouse systems, and smart devices scattered...

CISO Spotlight: How diversity of data (and people) defeats today’s cyber threats

This year, we have seen five significant security paradigm shifts in our industry. This includes the acknowledgment that the greater the diversity of our data sets, the better the AI and machine learning outcomes. This diversity gives us an advantage over our cyber adversaries and improves our...

Announcing the Zero Trust Deployment Center

Organizations have been digitally transforming at warp speed in response to the way businesses operate and how people work. As a result, digital security teams have been under immense pressure to ensure their environments are resilient and secure. Many have turned to a Zero Trust security model t...

CISO Stressbusters: 7 tips for weathering the cybersecurity storms

An essential requirement of being a Chief Information Security Officer CISO is stakeholder management. In many organizations, security is still seen as a support function; meaning, any share of the budget you receive may be viewed jealously by other departments. Bringing change to an organization...

Security Unlocked—A new podcast exploring the people and AI that power Microsoft Security solutions

It’s hard to keep pace with all the changes happening in the world of cybersecurity. Security experts and leaders must continue learning and unlearning to stay ahead of the ever-evolving threat landscape. In fact, many of us are in this field because of our desire to continuously challenge...

Becoming resilient by understanding cybersecurity risks: Part 1

All risks have to be viewed through the lens of the business or organization. While information on cybersecurity risks is plentiful, you can’t prioritize or manage any risk until the impact and likelihood to your organization is understood and quantified. This rule of thumb on who should be...

Advanced protection for web applications in Azure with Radware’s Microsoft Security integration

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association guest blog series. Learn more about MISA here. The state of application security Companies face a wide range of security challenges, such as Open Source Foundation for Application Security Project OWASP vulnerabilities,...

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...

Sophisticated new Android malware marks the latest evolution of mobile ransomware

Attackers are persistent and motivated to continuously evolve – and no platform is immune. That is why Microsoft has been working to extend its industry-leading endpoint protection capabilities beyond Windows. The addition of mobile threat defense into these capabilities means that Microsoft...

Best practices for defending Azure Virtual Machines

One of the things that our Detection and Response Team DART and Customer Service and Support CSS security teams see frequently during investigation of customer incidents are attacks on virtual machines from the internet. This is one area in the cloud security shared responsibility model where...

Why we invite security researchers to hack Azure Sphere

Fighting the security battle so our customers don’t have to IoT devices are becoming more prevalent in almost every aspect of our lives—we will rely on them in our homes, our businesses, as well as our infrastructure. In February, Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure Sphere, an...

3 ways Microsoft helps build cyber safety awareness for all

This tumultuous year has brought paradigm shifts across every facet of daily life. A global pandemic has pushed much of our lives online—work, school, entertainment, shopping, and socializing. But one thing remains unchanged: people everywhere share a common need for safety. Today, our need for...

Why integrated phishing-attack training is reshaping cybersecurity—Microsoft Security

Phishing is still one of the most significant risk vectors facing enterprises today. Innovative email security technology like Microsoft Defender for Office 365 stops a majority of phishing attacks before they hit user inboxes, but no technology in the world can prevent 100 percent of phishing...

Microsoft Advanced Compliance Solutions in Zero Trust Architecture

Zero Trust revolves around three key principles: verify explicitly, use least privileged access, and assume breach. Microsoft’s Advanced Compliance Solutions are an important part of Zero Trust. This post applies a Zero Trust lens to protecting an organization’s sensitive data and maintaining...

Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2020: Cyber Threat Sophistication on the Rise

Today, Microsoft is releasing a new annual report, called the Digital Defense Report, covering cybersecurity trends from the past year. This report makes it clear that threat actors have rapidly increased in sophistication over the past year, using techniques that make them harder to spot and tha...

Microsoft Security—detecting empires in the cloud

Microsoft consistently tracks the most advanced threat actors and evolving attack techniques. We use these findings to harden our products and platform and share them with the security community to help defenders everywhere better protect the planet. Recently, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence...

Microsoft Security: 6 tips for enabling people-centric cybersecurity with security training

Everyone knows about phishing scams, and most of us think we’re too smart to take the bait. Our confidence often reaches superhero levels when we’re logged onto a company network. As Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft, and previously at telco Swisscom, it’s my business to understand how well...

Microsoft delivers unified SIEM and XDR to modernize security operations

The threat landscape continues to increase in both complexity and the level of sophistication of the attacks we observe. Attackers target the most vulnerable resources in an organization and then traverse laterally to target high-value assets. No longer can you expect to stay safe by protecting...

Microsoft announces cloud innovation to simplify security, compliance, and identity

2020 will be remembered as a year of historic transformation. The pandemic has changed the way businesses operate and people work. One thing that has not changed is our basic human nature and the need to feel safe. Being safe and feeling safe is what allows us to do more, create more, and have...

Identity at Microsoft Ignite: Rising to the challenges of secure remote access and employee productivity

These past months have changed the way we work in so many ways. When businesses and schools went remote overnight, many of you had to adapt quickly to ensure your users could stay productive while working from home. Bad actors are trying to exploit these seismic shifts, making it more important...

Enable secure remote work, address regulations and uncover new risks with Microsoft Compliance

As we talk with a broad range of customers in the current environment, we hear some consistent challenges businesses are facing. With so many remote workers, people are creating, sharing, and storing data in new ways, which fosters productivity, but can also introduce new risks. A recent Microsof...

Vectra and Microsoft join forces to step up detection and response

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association MISA guest blog series. Click here to learn more about MISA. Traditional security operations center SOC processes typically involve a wide variety of disparate event notification tools that force overworked analysts to battl...

Industry-wide partnership on threat-informed defense improves security for all

MITRE Engenuity’s Center for Threat-Informed Defense has published a library of detailed plans for emulating the threat actor FIN6 which Microsoft tracks as TAAL, a collection of threat intelligence, MITRE ATT&CK data, supporting scripts, and utilities designed to enable red teams to emulate the...

Microsoft announces new Project OneFuzz framework, an open source developer tool to find and fix bugs at scale

Microsoft is dedicated to working with the community and our customers to continuously improve and tune our platform and products to help defend against the dynamic and sophisticated threat landscape. Earlier this year, we announced that we would replace the existing software testing experience...

Microsoft Security: Use baseline default tools to accelerate your security career

I wrote a series of blogs last year on how gamified learning through cyber ranges can create more realistic and impactful cybersecurity learning experiences and help attract tomorrow’s security workforce. With the global talent shortage in this field, we need to work harder to bring people into t...

STRONTIUM: Detecting new patterns in credential harvesting

Microsoft has tied STRONTIUM to a newly uncovered pattern of Office365 credential harvesting activity aimed at US and UK organizations directly involved in political elections. Analysts from Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC and Microsoft Identity Security have been tracking this new...

Accelerate your adoption of SIEM using Azure Sentinel and a new offer from Microsoft

Take advantage of the efficiency benefits of Cloud-native SIEM using Azure Sentinel Today, security needs are evolving faster than ever—and the importance of being agile and cost-effective has never been clearer. Security teams need to get more done, faster, with less budget. On-premises security...

3 ways Microsoft 365 can help you reduce helpdesk costs

With more people than ever working remotely, organizations must maximize employee productivity while protecting an ever-growing digital footprint. Many have stitched together specialized security solutions from different vendors to improve their cybersecurity posture, but this approach is expensi...

Force firmware code to be measured and attested by Secure Launch on Windows 10

You cannot build something great on a weak foundation – and security is no exception. Windows is filled with important security features like Hypervisor-protected code integrity HVCI and Windows Defender Credential Guard that protect users from advanced hardware and firmware attacks. For these...

Microsoft Security: How to cultivate a diverse cybersecurity team

Boost creative problem solving with a diverse cybersecurity team In cybersecurity, whether we are talking about cryptocurrency mining, supply chain attacks, attacks against IoT, or COVID-19-related phishing lures, we know that gaining the advantage over our adversaries requires greater diversity ...

Microsoft Security: What cybersecurity skills do I need to become a CISO?

Build the business skills you need to advance to Chief Information Security Officer For many cybersecurity professionals, the ultimate career goal is to land a chief information security officer CISO job. A CISO is an executive-level position responsible for cyber risk management and operations...

Microsoft Zero Trust deployment guide for your applications

Introduction More likely than not, your organization is in the middle of a digital transformation characterized by increased adoption of cloud apps and increased demand for mobility. In the age of remote work, users expect to be able to connect to any resource, on any device, from anywhere in the...

Stopping Active Directory attacks and other post-exploitation behavior with AMSI and machine learning

When attackers successfully breach a target network, their typical next step is to perform reconnaissance of the network, elevate their privileges, and move laterally to reach specific machines or spread as widely as possible. For these activities, attackers often probe the affected network’s...

Rethinking IoT/OT Security to Mitigate Cyberthreats

We live in an exciting time. We’re in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution—first steam, followed by electricity, then computers, and, now, the Internet of Things. A few years ago, IoT seemed like a futuristic concept that was on the distant horizon. The idea that your fridge would be...

How can Microsoft Threat Protection help reduce the risk from phishing?

Microsoft Threat Protection can help you reduce the cost of phishing The true cost of a successful phishing campaign may be higher than you think. Although phishing defenses and user education have become common in many organizations, employees still fall prey to these attacks. This is a problem...

How to detect and mitigate phishing risks with Microsoft and Terranova Security

Detect, assess, and remediate phishing risks across your organization A successful phishing attack requires just one person to take the bait. That’s why so many organizations fall victim to these cyber threats. To reduce this human risk, you need a combination of smart technology and people-centr...

How do I implement a Zero Trust security model for my Microsoft remote workforce?

Digital empathy should guide your Zero Trust implementation Zero Trust has always been key to maintaining business continuity. And now, it’s become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic to helping enable the largest remote workforce in history. While organizations are empowering people...

Microsoft and Corrata integrate to extend cloud app security to mobile endpoints

This blog post is part of the Microsoft Intelligence Security Association guest blog series. To learn more about MISA, go here. The growth of mobile and remote work and the emergence of the “post perimeter” world has made keeping track of shadow IT a huge challenge for enterprise IT teams. What...

Taking Transport Layer Security (TLS) to the next level with TLS 1.3

Transport Layer Security TLS 1.3 is now enabled by default on Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, starting with Build 20170, the first step in a broader rollout to Windows 10 systems. TLS 1.3 is the latest version of the internet’s most deployed security protocol, which encrypts data to provide a...