Holistic security strategy: how greater integration improves detection and response time

- Microsoft Secure Blog Staff - Microsoft

Today’s attackers have moved beyond “smash and grab” tactics to more sophisticated methods intended to maintain a long-term presence. These evolving threats complicate detection efforts as many organizations have variety of point solutions that make it difficult to effectively detect advanced threats and attack campaigns. Piecemeal approaches create challenges and might hamper security. Each new solution deploys unique vendor-specific dashboards, consoles, and logs that don’t always integrate well. Because of … Read more »

Latin America is stepping up to the plate in cybersecurity policy

- Paul Nicholas - Senior Director, Trustworthy Computing

A year ago Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS) asked themselves a question about cybersecurity: “Are We Ready in Latin America and the Caribbean?”. The conclusion of their 200 page report was essentially “No”, raising an alarm about Latin America’s critical situation in the cybersecurity arena. The report showed that Latin America was extremely vulnerable to potentially devastating cyber-attacks. Four in five states did not … Read more »

Security Data Scientists Without Borders – Thoughts from our first Colloquium

- Microsoft Secure Blog Staff - Microsoft

The move to the cloud is changing the security landscape. As a result, there is a surging interest in applying data-driven methods to security. In fact, there is a growing community of talented people focused on security data science. We’ve been shedding our respective “badges” and meeting informally for years, but recently decided to see how much progress we might make against some of our bigger challenges with a more … Read more »

What are Confidence building measures (CBMs) and how can they improve cybersecurity?

- Paul Nicholas - Senior Director, Trustworthy Computing

Cyberspace security is too often viewed through a prism of technological terms and concepts. In my experience, even supposedly non-technical discussions of cyberspace quickly devolve into heated debates about “vulnerability coordination”, “the latest malware”, “the best analytical tools”, “threat information sharing”, and so on. While these are interesting and important topics, it is ultimately people and their personal perspectives – not technology – that largely shape governments’ political, diplomatic and … Read more »

Tips for protecting your information and privacy against cybersecurity threats

- Microsoft Secure Blog Staff - Microsoft

This post is authored by Steven Meyers, security operations principal, Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center. Introducing a new video on best practices from the Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center In 2016, 4.2+ billion records were stolen by hackers. The number of cyberattacks and breaches in 2017 have risen 30 percent. The business sector leads in the number of records compromised so far, with more than 7.5 million exposed records in … Read more »

Tips for securing your identity against cybersecurity threats

- Microsoft Secure Blog Staff - Microsoft

This post is authored by Simon Pope, Principal Security Group Manager, Microsoft Security Response Center. Introducing new video on best practices from the Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center Ask any CISO or cybersecurity professional about their greatest security challenge, and it’s a good chance the answer will be “the actions of our people.” While virtually all employees, contractors, and partners have the best of intentions, the fact is that protecting their … Read more »

TLS 1.2 support at Microsoft

- Microsoft Secure Blog Staff - Microsoft

To share our recent experiences in engaging with this work we are today announcing the publication of the “Solving the TLS 1.0 Problem” whitepaper to aid customers in removing dependencies on TLS 1.0/1.1.

Cybercrime and freedom of speech – A counterproductive entanglement

- Microsoft Secure Blog Staff - Microsoft

This post is authored by Gene Burrus, Assistant General Counsel. As cybercrime becomes ever more pervasive, the need for states to devote law enforcement resources to battling the problem is apparent. However, states should beware using cybercrime legislation and enforcement resources as a vehicle for restricting speech or controlling content. Doing so risks complicating essential international cooperation and will risk de-legitimizing cybercrime legislation and enforcement. With the growing need for enforcement … Read more »

The CISO Perspective: Putting lessons from WannaCrypt into practice to avoid future threats

- Bret Arsenault - Chief Information Security Officer

Last month, customers and companies around the world were impacted by the WannaCrypt ransomware attack. Even those not impacted are assessing their risk and taking steps to help prevent such attacks. For everyone, including Microsoft, the attack is a stark reminder of the need for continued focus on security and proven operational techniques. So, after many conversations with my peers in the industry about the attacks in recent weeks and … Read more »

Cross-border cooperation: The road to a more stable and secure Internet

- Paul Nicholas - Senior Director, Trustworthy Computing

Australia and China have recently agreed to strengthen their bilateral cooperation in cybersecurity. Cooperation between states on cybersecurity is essential in order to combat cross-border cybercrime and to reduce the risks of inter-state cyberwar. Bilateral cybersecurity agreements between states can help build that cooperation. The real goal, however, should be to achieve multi-lateral consensus and agreement as a basis for a much needed Digital Geneva Convention. The internet is a … Read more »