7-zip now supports Windows ‘Mark-of-the-Web’ security feature
7-zip has finally added support for the long-requested 'Mark-of-the-Web' Windows security feature, providing better protection from malicious downloaded files.
Defending Ukraine: Early Lessons from the Cyber War
This report represents research conducted by Microsoft’s threat intelligence and data science teams with the goal of sharpening our understanding of the threat landscape in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The report also offers a series of lessons and conclusions resulting from the data gathered and analyzed. Notably, the report reveals new information about Russian efforts including an increase in network penetration and espionage activities amongst allied governments, non-profits and other organizations outside Ukraine. This report also unveils detail about sophisticated and widespread Russian foreign influence operations being used among other things, to undermine Western unity and bolster their war efforts. We are seeing these foreign influence operations enacted in force in a coordinated fashion along with the full range of cyber destructive and espionage campaigns. Finally, the report calls for a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to strengthen collective defenses – a task that will require the private sector, public sector, nonprofits and civil society to come together. The foreword of this new report, written by Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, offers additional detail below.
Lapsus$ hackers leak 37GB of Microsoft's alleged source code
The Lapsus$ hacking group claims to have leaked the source code for Bing, Cortana, and other projects stolen from Microsoft's internal Azure DevOps server.
7-zip now supports Windows ‘Mark-of-the-Web’ security feature
7-zip has finally added support for the long-requested 'Mark-of-the-Web' Windows security feature, providing better protection from malicious downloaded files.
Defending Ukraine: Early Lessons from the Cyber War
This report represents research conducted by Microsoft’s threat intelligence and data science teams with the goal of sharpening our understanding of the threat landscape in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The report also offers a series of lessons and conclusions resulting from the data gathered and analyzed. Notably, the report reveals new information about Russian efforts including an increase in network penetration and espionage activities amongst allied governments, non-profits and other organizations outside Ukraine. This report also unveils detail about sophisticated and widespread Russian foreign influence operations being used among other things, to undermine Western unity and bolster their war efforts. We are seeing these foreign influence operations enacted in force in a coordinated fashion along with the full range of cyber destructive and espionage campaigns. Finally, the report calls for a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to strengthen collective defenses – a task that will require the private sector, public sector, nonprofits and civil society to come together. The foreword of this new report, written by Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, offers additional detail below.
Lapsus$ hackers leak 37GB of Microsoft's alleged source code
The Lapsus$ hacking group claims to have leaked the source code for Bing, Cortana, and other projects stolen from Microsoft's internal Azure DevOps server.
7-zip now supports Windows ‘Mark-of-the-Web’ security feature
7-zip has finally added support for the long-requested 'Mark-of-the-Web' Windows security feature, providing better protection from malicious downloaded files.
Defending Ukraine: Early Lessons from the Cyber War
This report represents research conducted by Microsoft’s threat intelligence and data science teams with the goal of sharpening our understanding of the threat landscape in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The report also offers a series of lessons and conclusions resulting from the data gathered and analyzed. Notably, the report reveals new information about Russian efforts including an increase in network penetration and espionage activities amongst allied governments, non-profits and other organizations outside Ukraine. This report also unveils detail about sophisticated and widespread Russian foreign influence operations being used among other things, to undermine Western unity and bolster their war efforts. We are seeing these foreign influence operations enacted in force in a coordinated fashion along with the full range of cyber destructive and espionage campaigns. Finally, the report calls for a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to strengthen collective defenses – a task that will require the private sector, public sector, nonprofits and civil society to come together. The foreword of this new report, written by Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, offers additional detail below.
Lapsus$ hackers leak 37GB of Microsoft's alleged source code
The Lapsus$ hacking group claims to have leaked the source code for Bing, Cortana, and other projects stolen from Microsoft's internal Azure DevOps server.
ZINC weaponizing open-source software - Microsoft Security Blog
In recent months, Microsoft has detected a wide range of social engineering campaigns using weaponized legitimate open-source software by an actor we track as ZINC. Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) observed activity targeting employees in organizations across multiple industries including media, defense and aerospace, and IT services in the US, UK, India, and Russia. Based on the observed tradecraft, infrastructure, tooling, and account affiliations, MSTIC attributes this campaign with high confidence to ZINC, a state-sponsored group based out of North Korea with objectives focused on espionage, data theft, financial gain, and network destruction.
Microsoft-signed malicious Windows drivers used in ransomware attacks
Microsoft has revoked several Chardware developer accounts after drivers signed through their profiles were used in cyberattacks, including ransomware incidents.
Preparing for a Russian cyber offensive against Ukraine this winter
As we report more fully below, in the wake of Russian battlefield losses to Ukraine this fall, Moscow has intensified its multi-pronged hybrid technology approach to pressure the sources of Kyiv’s military and political support, domestic and foreign. This approach has included destructive missile and cyber strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, cyberattacks on Ukrainian and now foreign-based supply chains, and cyber-enabled influence operations[1]—intended to undermine US, EU, and NATO political support for Ukraine, and to shake the confidence and determination of Ukrainian citizens.
Nation-state cyberattacks become more brazen as authoritarian leaders ramp up aggression
On February 23, 2022, the cybersecurity world entered a new age, the age of the hybrid war, as Russia launched both physical and digital attacks against Ukraine. This year’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report provides new detail on these attacks and on increasing cyber aggression coming from authoritarian leaders around the world.
Raspberry Robin worm part of larger ecosystem facilitating pre-ransomware activity
Microsoft has discovered recent activity indicating that the Raspberry Robin worm is part of a complex and interconnected malware ecosystem, with links to other malware families and alternate infection methods beyond its original USB drive spread.
Exploited Windows zero-day lets JavaScript files bypass security warnings
A new Windows zero-day allows threat actors to use malicious JavaScript files to bypass Mark-of-the-Web security warnings. Threat actors are already seen using the zero-day bug in ransomware attacks.
New “Prestige” ransomware impacts organizations in Ukraine and Poland
The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) has identified evidence of a novel ransomware campaign targeting organizations in the logistics and transportation industry in Ukraine and Poland utilizing a previously unidentified ransomware payload.
In recent months, Microsoft detected weaponization of legitimate open-source software by an actor the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) tracks as ZINC, targeting employees at media, defense and aerospace, and IT service provider organizations in the US, UK, India, and Russia.
Microsoft Issues Out-of-Band Patch for Flaw Allowing Lateral Movement, Ransomware Attacks
Microsoft this week released an out-of-band security update for its Endpoint Configuration Manager solution to patch a vulnerability that could be useful to malicious actors for moving around in a targeted organization’s network. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2022-37972 and it has been described by Microsoft as a medium-severity spoofing issue. The tech giant has credited Brandon Colley of Trimarc Security for reporting the flaw.
Malicious OAuth applications abuse cloud email services to spread spam
Microsoft discovered an attack where attackers installed a malicious OAuth application in compromised tenants and used their Exchange Online service to launch spam runs.