Swedish Windows Security User Group

This post was coauthored by Diana Kelley, Cybersecurity Field CTO, and Sin John, EMEA Chief Security Advisor, Cybersecurity Solutions Group.

Youve got a big dinner planned and your dishwasher goes on the fritz. You call the repair company and are lucky enough to get an appointment for that afternoon. The repairperson shows up and says, Yes, its broken, but to figure out why I will need to run some tests. They start to remove your dishwasher from the outlet. What are you doing? you ask. Im taking it back to our repair shop for analysis and then repair, they reply. At this point, youre annoyed. You have a big party in three hours, and taking the dishwasher all the way back to the shop for analysis means someone will be washing dishes by hand after your partywhy not test it right here and right now so it can be fixed on the spot?

Now, imagine the dishwasher is critical business data located throughout your organization. Sending all that data to a centralized location for analysis will give you insights, eventually, but not when you really need it, which is now. In cases where the data is extremely large, you may not be able to move it at all. Instead it makes more sense to bring services and applications to your data. This at the heart of a concept called data gravity, described by Dave McCrory back in 2010. Much like a planet, your data has mass, and the bigger that mass, the greater its gravitational pull, or gravity well, and the more likely that apps and services are drawn to it. Gravitational movement is accelerated when bandwidth and latency are at a premium, because the closer you are to something the faster you can process and act on it. This is the big driver of the intelligent cloud/intelligent edge. We bring analytics and compute to connected devices to make use of all the data they collect in near real-time.

But what might not be so obvious is what, if anything, does data gravity have to do with cybersecurity and the security operations center (SOC) of tomorrow. To have that discussion, lets step back and look at the traditional SOCs, built on security information and event management (SIEM) solutions developed at the turn of the century. The very first SIEM solutions were predominantly focused on log aggregation. Log information from core security tools like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and anti-virus/malware tools were collected from all over a company and moved to a single repository for processing.

That may not sound super exciting from our current vantage point of 2018, but back in 2000 it was groundbreaking. Admins were struggling with an increasing number of security tools, and the ever-expanding logs from those tools. Early SIEM solutions gave them a way to collect all that data and apply security intelligence and analytics to it. The hope was that if we could gather all relevant security log and reporting data into one place, we could apply rules and quickly gather insights about threats to our systems and security situational awareness. In a way this was antidata gravity, where data moved to the applications and services rather than vice versa.

After the initial hype for SIEM solutions, SOC managers realized a few of their limitations. Trying to write rules for security analytics proved to be quite hard. A minor error in a rule led to high false positives that ate into analyst investigative time. Many companies were unable to get all the critical log data into the SIEM, leading to false negatives and expensive blind spots. And one of the biggest concerns with traditional SIEM was the latency. SIEM solutions were marketed as real-time analytics, but once an action was written to a log, collected, sent to the SIEM, and then parsed through the SIEM analytics engine, quite a bit of latency was introduced. When it comes to responding to fast moving cyberthreats, latency is a distinct disadvantage.

Now think about these challenges and add the explosive amounts of data generated today by the cloud and millions of connected devices. In this environment its not uncommon that threat campaigns go unnoticed by an overloaded SIEM analytics engine. And many of the signals that do get through are not investigated because the security analysts are overworked. Which brings us back to data gravity.

What was one of the forcing factors for data gravity? Low tolerance for latency. What was the other? Building applications by applying insights and machine learning to data. So how can we build the SOC of tomorrow? By respecting the law of data gravity. If we can perform security analytics close to where the data already is, we can increase the speed of response. This doesnt mean the end of aggregation. Tomorrows SOC will employ a hybrid approach by performing analytics as close to the data mass as possible, and then rolling up insights, as needed, to a larger central SOC repository for additional analysis and insight across different gravity wells.

Does this sound like an intriguing idea? We think so. Being practitioners, though, we most appreciate when great theories can be turned into real-world implementations. Please stay tuned for part 2 of this blog series, where we take the concept of tomorrows SOC and data gravity into practice for today.

こんにちは、垣内ゆりかです。 マイクロソフトでは、Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0, 1.1 の利用を廃止し、より安全

Every day, antivirus capabilities in Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) protect millions of customers from threats. To effectively scale protection, Windows Defender ATP uses intelligent systems that combine multiple layers of machine learning models, behavior-based detection algorithms, generics, and heuristics that make a verdict on suspicious files, most of the time in a fraction of a second.

This multilayered approach allows us to proactively protect customers in real-time, whether in the form of stopping massive malware outbreaks or detecting limited sophisticated cyberattacks. This quality of antivirus capabilities is reflected in the consistently high scores that Windows Defender ATP gets in independent tests and the fact that our antivirus solution is the most deployed in the enterprise.

The tradeoff of an intelligent, scalable approach is that some of our more aggressive classifiers from time to time misclassify normal files as malicious (false positives). While false positives are a very tiny occurrence compared to the large number of malware we correctly identify (true positives) and protect customers from, we are aware of the impact that misclassified files might have. Keeping false positives at a minimum is an equally important quality metric that we continually work to improve on.

Avoiding false positives is a two-way street between security vendors and developers. Publishing apps to the Microsoft Store is the best way for vendors and developers to ensure their programs are not misclassified. For customers, apps from the Microsoft Store are trusted and Microsoft-verified.

Here are other ways developers can raise the level of trust by both security vendors and customers and help make sure programs and files are not inadvertently detected as malware.

Digitally sign files

Digital signatures are an important way to ensure the integrity of software. By verifying the identity of the software publisher, a signature assures customers that they know who provided the software theyre installing or running. Digital signatures also assure customers that the software they received is in the same condition as when the publisher signed it and the software has not been tampered with.

Code signing does not necessarily guarantee the quality or functionality of software. Digitally signed software can still contain flaws or security vulnerabilities. However, because software vendors reputations are based on the quality of their code, there is an incentive to fix these issues.

We use the reputation of digital certificates to help determine the reputation of files signed by them. The reverse is also true: we use the reputation of digitally signed files to determine the reputation of the digital certificates they are signed with. One of the most effective ways for developers to reduce the chances of their software being detected as malware is it to digitally sign files with a reputable certificate.

The second part of reducing the risk of unintended detection is to build a good reputation on that certificate. Microsoft uses many factors to determine the reputation of a certificate, but the most important are the files that are signed by it. If all the files using a certificate have good reputation and the certificate is valid, then the certificate keeps a good reputation.

Extended validation (EV) code signing is a more advanced version of digital certificates and requires a more rigorous vetting and authentication process. This process requires a more comprehensive identity verification and authentication process for each developer. The EV code signing certificates require the use of hardware to sign applications. This hardware requirement is an additional protection against theft or unintended use of code signing certificates. Programs signed by an EV code signing certificate can immediately establish reputation with Windows Defender ATP even if no prior reputation exists for that file or publisher.

Keep good reputation

To gain positive reputation on multiple programs and files, developers sign files with a digital certificate with positive reputation. However, if one of the files gains poor reputation (e.g., detected as malware) or if the certificate was stolen and used to sign malware, then all of the files that are signed with that certificate will inherit the poor reputation. This situation could lead to unintended detection. This framework is implemented this way to prevent the misuse of reputation sharing.

We thus advise developers to not share certificates between programs or other developers. This advice particularly holds true for programs that incorporate bundling or use advertising or freemium models of monetization. Reputation accruesif a software bundler includes components that have poor reputation, the certificate that bundler is signed with gets the poor reputation.

Be transparent and respect users ability to choose

Malware threats use a variety of techniques to hide. Some of these techniques include file obfuscation, being installed in nontraditional install locations, and using names that dont reflect that purpose of the software.

Customers should have choice and control over what happens on their devices. Using nontraditional install locations or misleading software names reduce user choice and control.

Obfuscation has legitimate uses, and some forms of obfuscation are not considered malicious. However, many techniques are only employed to evade antivirus detection. Developers should refrain from using non-commercial packers and obfuscation software.

When programs employ malware-like techniques, they trigger flags in our detection algorithms and greatly increase the chances of false positives.

Keep good company

Another indicator that can influence the reputation of a file are the other programs the file is associated with. This association can come from what the program installs, what is installed at the same time as the program, or what is seen on the same machines as the file. Not all of these associations directly lead to detections, however, if a program installs other programs or files that have poor reputation, then by association that program gains poor reputation.

Understand the detection criteria

Microsofts policy aims to protect customers against malicious software while minimizing the restrictions on developers. The diagram below demonstrates the high-level evaluation criteria Microsoft uses for classifying files:

• Malicious software: Performs malicious actions on a computer
• Unwanted software: Exhibits the behavior of adware, browser modifier, misleading, monitoring tool, or software bundler
• Potentially unwanted application (PUA): Exhibits behaviors that degrade the Windows experience
• Clean: We trust the file is not malicious, is not inappropriate for an enterprise environment, and does not degrade the Windows experience

These evaluation criteria describe the characteristics and behavior of malware and potentially unwanted applications and guide the proper identification of threats. Developers should make sure their programs and files dont demonstrate undesirable characteristics or behavior to minimize chances their programs are not misclassified.

Challenging a detection decision

If you follow these pieces of advice and we unintentionally detect your file, you can help us fix the issue by reporting it through the Windows Defender Security Intelligence portal.

Customer protection is our top priority. We deliver this through Windows Defender ATPs unified endpoint security platform. Helping Microsoft maintain high-quality protection benefits customers and developers alike, allowing for an overall productive and secure computing experience.

 

 

Michael Johnson

Windows Defender Research

 

 

 

 

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Talk to us

Questions, concerns, or insights on this story? Join discussions at the Microsoft community and Windows Defender Security Intelligence.

Follow us on Twitter @WDSecurity and Facebook Windows Defender Security Intelligence.

I dont know about you, but I find large conferences overwhelming. Dont get me wrong, nothing beats the innovative potential of bringing a diverse group of brilliant people together to hash through thorny issues and share insights. But there are so many speakers, booths, and people, it can be a challenge to find the signal in all the noisedid I mention conferences are also really loud?

So last week when I stepped into the first of multiple showrooms at the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas for the Black Hat Briefing, I have to admit I felt a little nostalgia for the very first Black Hat Conference. It was 1997 at the old Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas. A casino with a long and colorful history, slated to close a few months after the conference ended. 1997: That was before Facebook and the iPhone, before the cloud. At the time, the RSA Conference was still mostly focused on cryptography, and those of us concerned about security vulnerabilities and how they impacted practitioners day in and day out had few opportunities to just get together and talk. The first Black Hat Briefing was very special. If my memory serves, there were only a couple hundred of us in attendancecompared to thousands todayand through those connections we built a community and an industry.

Building a community was key to creating the information security industry that exists today, and I believe that building community is just as critical now as we face down the new security threats of a cloud-and-edge world, an IoT world. We need the whole defender communitywhite hat hackers, industry, and governmentworking together to protect the security of our customers.

The security research community plays a fundamental role in community-based defense

Over the last few years, Microsoft has been expanding and redefining what makes up our security communityone of the many positive evolutions since that first Black Hat. Like most tech companies, we once believed that any hacker outside of the organization posed a risk, but as weve gotten to know each other through many years of hard-earned trust and collaboration, we, and the security research community, have learned that our values arent so different. Sometimes the only way to make something stronger is to break it. We know we cant on our own find all the gaps and errors in code that lead to vulnerabilities that criminals exploit to steal money and data. We need great minds both inside and outside our organization. Many of those great minds in the security research community collaborate with us through the Microsoft Security Response Center, and Black Hat was the perfect place to announce the subset of those researchers that made our annual Top 100 Security Researchers List.

 

We really appreciate the ongoing support from the community and encourage new researchers to report vulnerabilities to the Microsoft Security Response Center and participate in the Microsoft Bounty Program.

It takes a community to protect the security of our customers

As much as Microsoft values the relationship we have with researchers, we also attended Black Hat as industry partners. We want to help educate our peers on notable vulnerabilities and exploits, and share knowledge following major security events. As an example, one of our sessions focused on how Spectre and Meltdown are a wake-up call on multiple dimensions: how we engineer, how we partner, how we react when we find new security vulnerabilities, and how we need to become more coordinated. When I think about what was so exciting about that first conference, this is what comes to mind: those moments when we hear what our partners have learned, share what we know, and build on those insights to strengthen our collective response. The tech industry is increasingly interdependent. Its going to take all of us working together to protect the safety and security of our customers devices and data.

 

But the meeting of the minds at annual security conferences, while important, is not enough. Microsoft also believes that we need a more structured approach to our collaboration. Cybersecurity is not just about threats from hackers and criminal groups; it has increasingly become a situation where we’re facing a cyberweapons arms race with governments attacking users around the world. We know this is a challenge we must pursue with our partners and customers, with a sense of shared responsibility and a focus on constantly making it easier for everyone to benefit from the latest in security advances. Microsoft has been working to help organize the industry in pursuit of this goal.

This past April during the RSA Conference, we came together as initially 34 companies, now 44 companies, and agreed to a new Cybersecurity Tech Accord. In this accord, we all pledge to help protect every customer, regardless of nationality, and will refrain from helping governments attack innocent civilians. It’s a foundationon which we are buildingto take coordinated action and to work with all our partners and many others to strengthen the resilience of the ecosystem for all our customers.

I admit it, I do sometimes miss attending those small, tightly knit conferences of old. But Im even more inspired about the possibilities that I see as we continue to build on these collaborative models. Weve seen a lot of progress recently working with our partners and the security research community. If you listen closely, I think you can hear the signal breaking through.

Previously on this blog, we’ve talked about how MSRC automates the root cause analysis of vulnerabilities reported and found. After doing this, our next step is variant analysis: finding and investigating any variants of the vulnerability. It’s important that we find all such variants and patch them simultaneously, otherwise we bear the risk of these being exploited in the wild. In this post, I’d like to explain the automation we use in variant finding.

For the past year or so, we’ve been augmenting our manual code review processes with Semmle, a third-party static analysis environment. It compiles code to a relational database (the snapshot database – a combination of database and source code), which is queried using Semmle QL, a declarative, object-oriented query language designed for program analysis.

The basic workflow is that, after root cause analysis, we write queries to find code patterns that are semantically similar to the original vulnerability. Any results are triaged as usual and provided to our engineering teams for a fix to be developed. Also, the queries are placed in a central repository to be re-run periodically by MSRC and other security teams. This way, we can scale our variant finding over time and across multiple codebases.

In addition to variant analysis, we’ve been using QL proactively, in our security reviews of source code. This will be the topic of a future blog post. For now, let’s look at some real-world examples inspired by MSRC cases.

Previously on this blog, we’ve talked about how MSRC automates the root cause analysis of vulnerabilities reported and found. After doing this, our next step is variant analysis: finding and investigating any variants of the vulnerability. It’s important that we find all such variants and patch them simultaneously, otherwise we bear the risk of these being exploited in the wild. In this post, I’d like to explain the automation we use in variant finding.

For the past year or so, we’ve been augmenting our manual code review processes with Semmle, a third-party static analysis environment. It compiles code to a relational database (the snapshot database – a combination of database and source code), which is queried using Semmle QL, a declarative, object-oriented query language designed for program analysis.

The basic workflow is that, after root cause analysis, we write queries to find code patterns that are semantically similar to the original vulnerability. Any results are triaged as usual and provided to our engineering teams for a fix to be developed. Also, the queries are placed in a central repository to be re-run periodically by MSRC and other security teams. This way, we can scale our variant finding over time and across multiple codebases.

In addition to variant analysis, we’ve been using QL proactively, in our security reviews of source code. This will be the topic of a future blog post. For now, let’s look at some real-world examples inspired by MSRC cases.

Todays post was coauthored by Debraj Ghosh, Senior Product Marketing Manager, and Diana Kelley, Cybersecurity Field CTO.

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important goals for Microsoft 365 Security. In part 1 of this series, we discussed Microsofts overall security strategy for connecting with the broader security community, and in part 2, we looked at how Microsoft services help secure non-Microsoft services of an organizations IT environment.

In the final part of this blog series, we highlight how Microsoft 365 Security solutions work together to help customers secure their IT environments. The benefits of Microsoft 365 Security services are universal, as demonstrated by the fact that our customers are large and small, and focused on different industry verticals across the globe.

Helping enable a mobile workforce at a healthcare network

Sutter Health is a not-for-profit network of healthcare professionals and hospitals serving Northern California. CTO Wes Wrights main goal is to provide IT and software solutions that allow employees to maximize their time spent on patient and family care. Sutter Healths network employs nearly 52,000 people, supporting 24 acute care hospitals and care centers, serving more than 100 communities. Sutter has an ecosystem of 65,000 mobile devices and modernizing IT was not trivial for them. They deployed Microsoft Intune to help manage and support an internal app store called the Sutter Intune Store. Intune also helps ensure Sutters clinical and business partners can access and use Sutter Health authorized apps from anywhere, at any time. Their Intune-powered solution is designed to:

• Manage and secure any mobile device used by the workforce to access company data.
• Manage and secure the mobile apps used by their workforce.
• Protect company information even after it is accessed.
• Ensure devices and apps are compliant with company security policies.

With services like Intune (Figure 1), simplifying security management and reducing IT complexity, Sutter Health can support the latest devices, embrace modern apps, leverage a distributed workforce, and deliver the highest quality patient care.

Figure 1. The Intune architecture diagram.

Enhancing productivity through security at a power company

Wrtsil is a Finnish company manufacturing and servicing power sources and other equipment for the marine and energy markets. Joachim Kjellman, solutions manager at Wrtsil was looking for a solution with conditional access and multifactor authentication (MFA) capabilities. He selected Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), which enables single sign-on capability for all company resources anywhere with internet access, removing the need of unreliable VPN connections. Additionally, with Conditional Access, Wrtsil can provide remote access to apps that can be secured with MFA and managed when originating from unmanaged devices.Azure AD (Figure 2) is designed to help organizations:

• Provide seamless access.
• Facilitate collaboration.
• Unlock IT efficiencies.
• Enhance security and compliance.

Figure 2. Azure AD overview.

Azure AD also supports seamless collaboration (even on large-scale, complex projects) between Wrtsil and its contractors and partners. Azure AD B2B collaboration features ensure that access to shared resources is heavily protected. Azure AD has helped Wrtsil IT staffers save time and money, enabling Wrtsil to remain focused on serving their global customer base.

Securing an entire IT environment at a transportation firm

Throughout this series, we have discussed how Microsoft 365 Security services integrate well with the myriad IT solutions our customers utilize. However, some of our customers chose Microsoft 365 Security services to help secure their entire environment. HS1 Limited operates and maintains infrastructure for the high-speed railway connecting St. Pancras International Station in London and the Channel Tunnel, joining international high-speed routes between London, Paris, and Brussels, along with several domestic routes. The 50-person firm works with hundreds of counterparts and vendors, so security and collaboration are high priorities. Shawn Marcellin, IT and facilities manager at HS1 Limited needed a highly secure, collaborative solution without investing in a full datacenter and turned to Microsoft 365 E5. Marcellin adopted Microsoft 365 E5 for its advanced security features, including Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection, and Office 365 Threat Intelligence. Identity management through Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium P2 was another advantage of his choosing Microsoft 365 E5protecting data with Microsoft Cloud App Security and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection. Marcellin is confident that the move to a total cloud-based, secure solution will continue to benefit HS1 Limited.

Figure 3. The entire Microsoft 365 Security reference architecture.

To learn more about how Microsoft security solutions fit together, read Cybersecurity Reference Architecture: Security for a Hybrid Enterprise.

Digging deeper

These are only a few examples of organizations using Microsoft 365 Security services to secure their extended or entire IT ecosystem. We encourage you to visit the Microsoft Secure site and learn more about the full scope of Microsoft 365 Security capabilities. Also, check out more customer stories to learn how organizations leverage Microsoft 365 Security.

To get started envisioning a plan, onboarding, and driving user adoption, go to FastTrack.microsoft.com, sign in with your subscription ID, and complete the Request for Assistance Form.

Thanks for reading this series. We hope you will try the services discussed in this blog to start benefitting from their capabilities, which include:

• Microsoft Intune
• Azure Active Directory
• Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection
• Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection
• Microsoft Cloud App Security

Today, we released security updates to provide additional protections against malicious attackers. As a best practice, we encourage customers to turn on automatic updates.
More information about this month’s security updates can be found on the Security Update Guide.
MSRC team

2018 年 8 月 15 日 (日本時間)、マイクロソフトは以下のソフトウェアのセキュリティ更新プログラムを公開しまし

Today, we released security updates to provide additional protections against malicious attackers. As a best practice, we encourage customers to turn on automatic updates.
More information about this month’s security updates can be found on the Security Update Guide.
MSRC team

This blog is part of a series that responds to common questions we receive from customers about deployment of Microsoft 365 security solutions. In this series youll find context, answers, and guidance for deployment and driving adoption within your organization. Check out our last blog, Protect your data in files, apps, and devices.

Constantly evolving threats to your company data can cause even the most conscientious employee to unknowingly open infected files or click on malicious web links. Security breaches are inevitable. You need to discover threats quickly, remediate immediately, and mitigate the impact of malware and breaches.

Many common types of threats target attack vectors such as email, network endpoints, and user credentials. In this blog, we explain how Microsoft 365 threat protection solutions interoperate threat detection across these attack vectors (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Threat detection interoperates across Microsoft 365.

Protect identities: Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and Azure Advanced Threat Protection (Azure ATP)

Azure ATP provides end-to-end network security by protecting user identities and credentials in stored in Azure Active Directory. To prevent identity credential attacks, Azure AD conditional access detects risk events, such as users with leaked credentials, sign-ins from anonymous IP addresses, impossible travel to atypical locations, infected devices, and IP addresses with suspicious activity or unfamiliar locations.

Azure ATP detects suspicious activities across the network attack surface, such as:

• Reconnaissance work, during which attackers gather information on how the environment is built, what the different assets are, and which entities exist.
• Lateral movement cycles, during which attackers invest time and effort in spreading their attack deeper inside your network.
• Domain dominance (persistence), during which attackers capture the information, allowing them to resume their campaign using various sets of entry points, credentials, and techniques.

These services that protect specific parts of the attack surface can also share signals to alert services protecting other surfaces of the enterprise.

Azure ATP detects these suspicious activities and surfaces the information, including a clear view of who, what, when, and how, in the Azure ATP workspace portal, which can be accessed by signing in to your Azure AD user account.

Protect email: Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (Office 365 ATP)

Threat protection for Office 365 begins with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, which provides protection against all known malicious links and malware. Office 365 ATP builds on this protection by offering holistic and ongoing protection across your Office 365 environment, including email and business apps, by securing user mailboxes, business-critical files, and online storage against malware campaigns in real-time.

Office 365 ATP Safe Links helps protect your environment by offering time-of-click protection from malicious links. If a link is unsafe, the user is warned not to visit the site or informed that the site has been blocked. Office 365 ATP and Exchange Online Protection can be configured in the Office 365 admin center.

Protect endpoints: Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP)

For endpoint attacks, Windows Defender ATP provides near-instant detection and blocking of new and emerging threats using advanced file and process behavior monitoring and other heuristic solutions. These endpoint sensors collect and process behavioral signals from the operating system, which are then translated into insights, detections, and recommended responses to advanced threats. Windows Defender ATP offers dedicated protection updates based on machine learning, human and automated big-data analyses, and in-depth threat resistance research to identify attacker tools, techniques, and procedures, and to generate alerts when these are observed in collected sensor data.

Microsoft Device Guard is a feature of Windows 10 that provides increased security against malware and zero-day attacks by blocking anything other than trusted apps. Device Guard is managed in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr).

Deployment tips from the experts

Now that you know more about how Microsoft 365 security solutions can protect your data, here are several proven tips to put it all into action.

Consider the key attack vectors. Devices, email, network, and identity credentials are the most common areas for cybersecurity attacks. To help secure these vectors:

• Protect identitiesDetect suspicious activities across the network attack surface by signing in to the Azure ATP workspace portal with your Azure AD user account.
• Protect emailConfigure Office 365 ATP and Exchange Online Protection in the Office 365 admin center to protect against malicious links and phishing attacks.
• Protect endpointsSet up the endpoints in your organization so that Windows Defender ATP, which is built in to Windows 10, can get sensor data from them. You do this by onboarding your endpoints to the service and by configuring the individual security controls.

Plan for success with FastTrack. This valuable service comes with your subscription at no additional charge. Whether youre planning your initial rollout, needing to onboard your product, or driving end-user adoption, FastTrack is your benefit service that is ready to assist you. Get started at FastTrack for Microsoft 365.

Want to learn more?

For more information and guidance on this topic, stay tuned for the white paper Discover threats quickly, remediate immediately, and mitigate the impact of malware and breaches coming soon!

More blog posts from this series:

• Tips for getting started on your security deployment
• Accelerate your security deployment with FastTrack for Microsoft 365
• First things first: Envisioning your security deployment
• Now that you have a plan, its time to start deploying
• New FastTrack benefit: Deployment support for co-management on Windows 10 devices
• Assessing Microsoft 365 security solutions using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• Enable your users to work securely from anywhere, anytime, across all of their devices
• Protect your data in files, apps, and devices

In January 2018, Microsoft released an advisory and security updates for a new class of hardware vulnerabilities involving speculative execution side channels (known as Spectre and Meltdown). In this blog post, we will provide a technical analysis of a new speculative execution side channel vulnerability known as L1 Terminal Fault (L1TF) which has been assigned CVE-2018-3615 (for SGX), CVE-2018-3620 (for operating systems and SMM), and CVE-2018-3646 (for virtualization).

In January 2018, Microsoft released an advisory and security updates for a new class of hardware vulnerabilities involving speculative execution side channels (known as Spectre and Meltdown). In this blog post, we will provide a technical analysis of a new speculative execution side channel vulnerability known as L1 Terminal Fault (L1TF) which has been assigned CVE-2018-3615 (for SGX), CVE-2018-3620 (for operating systems and SMM), and CVE-2018-3646 (for virtualization).

Harnessing the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence has enabled Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) next-generation protection to stop new malware attacks before they can get started often within milliseconds. These predictive technologies are central to scaling protection and delivering effective threat prevention in the face of unrelenting attacker activity.

Consider this: On a recent typical day, 2.6 million people encountered newly discovered malware in 232 different countries (Figure 1). These attacks were comprised of 1.7 million distinct, first-seen malware and 60% of these campaigns were finished within the hour.

Figure 1. A single day of malware attacks: 2.6M people from 232 countries encountering malware

While intelligent, cloud-based approaches represent a sea change in the fight against malware, attackers are not sitting idly by and letting advanced ML and AI systems eat their Bitcoin-funded lunch. If they can find a way to defeat machine learning models at the heart of next-gen AV solutions, even for a moment, theyll gain the breathing room to launch a successful campaign.

Today at Black Hat USA 2018, in our talk Protecting the Protector: Hardening Machine Learning Defenses Against Adversarial Attacks, we presented a series of lessons learned from our experience investigating attackers attempting to defeat our ML and AI protections. We share these lessons in this blog post; we use a case study to demonstrate how these same lessons have hardened Microsofts defensive solutions in the real world. We hope these lessons will help provide defensive strategies on deploying ML in the fight against emerging threats.

Lesson: Use a multi-layered approach

In our layered ML approach, defeating one layer does not mean evading detection, as there are still opportunities to detect the attack at the next layer, albeit with an increase in time to detect. To prevent detection of first-seen malware, an attacker would need to find a way to defeat each of the first three layers in our ML-based protection stack.

Figure 2. Layered ML protection

Even if the first three layers were circumvented, leading to patient zero being infected by the malware, the next layers can still uncover the threat and start protecting other users as soon as these layers reach a malware verdict.

Lesson: Leverage the power of the cloud

ML models trained on the backend and shipped to the client are the first (and fastest) layer in our ML-based stack. They come with some drawbacks, not least of which is that an attacker can take the model and apply pressure until it gives up its secrets. This is a very old trick in the malware authors playbook: iteratively tweak prospective threats and keep scanning it until its no longer detected, then unleash it.

Figure 3. Client vs. cloud models

With models hosted in the cloud, it becomes more challenging to brute-force the model. Because the only way to understand what the models may be doing is to keep sending requests to the cloud protection system, such attempts to game the system are out in the open and can be detected and mitigated in the cloud.

Lesson: Use a diverse set of models

In addition to having multiple layers of ML-based protection, within each layer we run numerous individual ML models trained to recognize new and emerging threats. Each model has its own focus, or area of expertise. Some may focus on a specific file type (for example, PE files, VBA macros, JavaScript, etc.) while others may focus on attributes of a potential threat (for example, behavioral signals, fuzzy hash/distance to known malware, etc.). Different models use different ML algorithms and train on their own unique set of features.

Figure 4. Diversity of machine learning models

Each stand-alone model gives its own independent verdict about the likelihood that a potential threat is malware. The diversity, in addition to providing a robust and multi-faceted look at potential threats, offers stronger protection against attackers finding some underlying weakness in any single algorithm or feature set.

Lesson: Use stacked ensemble models

Another effective approach weve found to add resilience against adversarial attacks is to use ensemble models. While individual models provide a prediction scoped to a particular area of expertise, we can treat those individual predictions as features to additional ensemble machine learning models, combining the results from our diverse set of base classifiers to create even stronger predictions that are more resilient to attacks.

In particular, weve found that logistic stacking, where we include the individual probability scores from each base classifier in the ensemble feature set provides increased effectiveness of malware prediction.

Figure 5. Ensemble machine learning model with individual model probabilities as feature inputs

As discussed in detail in our Black Hat talk, experimental verification and real-world performance shows this approach helps us resist adversarial attacks. In June, the ensemble models represented nearly 12% of our total malware blocks from cloud protection, which translates into tens of thousands of computers protected by these new models every day.

Figure 6. Blocks by ensemble models vs. other cloud blocks

Case study: Ensemble models vs. regional banking Trojan

“The idea of ensemble learning is to build a prediction model by combining the strengths of a collection of simpler base models.”
— Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, Jerome Friedman

One of the key advantages of ensemble models is the ability to make a high-fidelity prediction from a series of lower-fidelity inputs. This can sometimes seem a little spooky and counter-intuitive to researchers, but uses cases weve studied show this approach can catch malware that the singular models cannot. Thats what happened in early June when a new banking trojan (detected by Windows Defender ATP as TrojanDownloader:VBS/Bancos) targeting users in Brazil was unleashed.

The attack

The attack started with spam e-mail sent to users in Brazil, directing them to download an important document with a name like Doc062108.zip inside of which was a document that is really a highly obfuscated .vbs script.

Figure 7. Initial infection chain

Figure 8. Obfuscated malicious .vbs script

While the script contains several Base64-encoded Brazilian poems, its true purpose is to:

• Check to make sure its running on a machine in Brazil
• Check with its command-and-control server to see if the computer has already been infected
• Download other malicious components, including a Google Chrome extension
• Modify the shortcut to Google Chrome to run a different malicious .vbs file

Now whenever the user launches Chrome, this new .vbs malware instead runs.

Figure 9. Modified shortcut to Google Chrome

This new .vbs file runs a .bat file that:

• Kills any running instances of Google Chrome
• Copies the malicious Chrome extension into %UserProfile%\Chrome
• Launches Google Chrome with the load-extension= parameter pointing to the malicious extension

Figure 10. Malicious .bat file that loads the malicious Chrome extension

With the .bat files work done, the users Chrome instance is now running the malicious extension.

Figure 11. The installed Chrome extension

The extension itself runs malicious JavaScript (.js) files on every web page visited.

Figure 12. Inside the malicious Chrome extension

The .js files are highly obfuscated to avoid detection:

Figure 13. Obfuscated .js file

Decoding the hex at the start of the script, we can start to see some clues that this is a banking trojan:

Figure 14. Clues in script show its true intention

The .js files detect whether the website visited is a Brazilian banking site. If it is, the POST to the site is intercepted and sent to the attackers C&C to gather the users login credentials, credit card info, and other info before being passed on to the actual banking site. This activity is happening behind the scenes; to the user, theyre just going about their normal routine with their bank.

Ensemble models and the malicious JavaScript

As the attack got under way, our cloud protection service received thousands of queries about the malicious .js files, triggered by a client-side ML model that considered these files suspicious. The files were highly polymorphic, with every potential victim receiving a unique, slightly altered version of the threat:
Figure 15. Polymorphic malware

The interesting part of the story are these malicious JavaScript files. How did our ML models perform detecting these highly obfuscated scripts as malware? Lets look at one of instances. At the time of the query, we received metadata about the file. Heres a snippet:

Report time	2018-06-14 01:16:03Z
SHA-256	1f47ec030da1b7943840661e32d0cb7a59d822e400063cd17dc5afa302ab6a52
Client file type model	SUSPICIOUS
File name	vNSAml.js
File size	28074
Extension	.js
Is PE file	FALSE
File age	0
File prevalence	0
Path	C:\Users\<user>\Chrome\1.9.6\vNSAml.js
Process name	xcopy.exe

Figure 16 File metadata sent during query to cloud protection service

Based on the process name, this query was sent when the .bat file copied the .js files into the %UserProfile%\Chrome directory.

Individual metadata-based classifiers evaluated the metadata and provided their probability scores. Ensemble models then used these probabilities, along with other features, to reach their own probability scores:

Model	Probability that file is malware
Fuzzy hash 1	0.01
Fuzzy hash 2	0.06
ResearcherExpertise	0.64
Ensemble 1	0.85
Ensemble 2	0.91

Figure 17. Probability scores by individual classifiers

In this case, the second ensemble model had a strong enough score for the cloud to issue a blocking decision. Even though none of the individual classifiers in this case had a particularly strong score, the ensemble model had learned from training on millions of clean and malicious files that this combination of scores, in conjunction with a few other non-ML based features, indicated the file had a very strong likelihood of being malware.

Figure 18. Ensemble models issue a blocking decision

As the queries on the malicious .js files rolled in, the cloud issued blocking decisions within a few hundred milliseconds using the ensemble models strong probability score, enabling Windows Defender ATPs antivirus capabilities to prevent the malicious .js from running and remove it. Here is a map overlay of the actual ensemble-based blocks of the malicious JavaScript files at the time:

Figure 19. Blocks by ensemble model of malicious JavaScript used in the attack

Ensemble ML models enabled Windows Defender ATPs next-gen protection to defend thousands of customers in Brazil targeted by the unscrupulous attackers from having a potentially bad day, while ensuring the frustrated malware authors didnt hit the big pay day they were hoping for. Bom dia.

 

Further reading on machine learning and artificial intelligence in Windows Defender ATP

• The evolution of malware prevention (white paper)
• Windows Defender Antivirus cloud protection service: Advanced real-time defense against never-before-seen malware (blog)
• Detonating a bad rabbit: Windows Defender Antivirus and layered machine learning defenses (blog)
• How artificial intelligence stopped an Emotet outbreak (blog)
• Behavior monitoring combined with machine learning spoils a massive Dofoil coin mining campaign (blog)
• Machine learning vs. social engineering (blog)

Indicators of compromise (IoCs)

• Doc062018.zip (SHA-256: 93f488e4bb25977443ff34b593652bea06e7914564af5721727b1acdd453ced9)
• Doc062018-2.vbs (SHA-256: 7b1b7b239f2d692d5f7f1bffa5626e8408f318b545cd2ae30f44483377a30f81)
• zobXhz.js 1f47(SHA-256: ec030da1b7943840661e32d0cb7a59d822e400063cd17dc5afa302ab6a52)

 

 

 

Randy Treit, Holly Stewart, Jugal Parikh
Windows Defender Research
with special thanks to Allan Sepillo and Samuel Wakasugui

 

 

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Each year, more and more governments are developing policies to address security challenges presented by an increasingly digitized world. And to support those efforts, Im excited today to announce the release of Microsofts new Cybersecurity Policy Framework, a resource for policymakers that provides an overview of the building blocks of effective cybersecurity policies and that is aligned with the best practices from around the globe. Nations coming online today, and building their cybersecurity infrastructures, should notand need notbe burdened with the stumbling blocks that characterized previous generations of cybersecurity policies. Instead, such nations should be empowered to leapfrog outdated challenges and unnecessary hurdles.

For years, Microsoft has worked with policymakers in advanced and emerging economies, and across many social and political contexts, to support the development of policies to address a wide range of cybersecurity challenges. This new publication captures and distills the important lessons learned from those years of experience partnering with governments. And as increasing numbers of countries wrestle with how to best address cybersecurity challenges, the Cybersecurity Policy Framework is an indispensable resource for the policymakers joining this work.

According to the last analysis provided by the United Nations, half of the countries on earth today either have or are developing national cybersecurity strategies. I have little doubt that in the next decade every single outstanding country will add its name to that list. And this trend highlights the importance of this new resource. The policies established today will impact how technologies are used for years to come and how safe or dangerous the online world becomes for all of us. Truly, there is no going back, only forward.

The Cybersecurity Policy Framework is not one-stop shopping for cybersecurity policymakers, but it does serve as an important umbrella document, providing a high-level overview of concepts and priorities that must be top of mind when developing an effective and resilient cybersecurity policy environment.

Specifically, this new resource outlines:

• National strategies for cybersecurity.
• How to establish a national cyber agency.
• How to develop and update cybercrime laws.
• How to develop and update critical infrastructure protections.
• International strategies for cybersecurity.

We at Microsoft have been at this work for a long time and have developed a wide variety of resources to help those who are working to position their industries and nations to capitalize on the benefits of new technologiesso many that they can often be difficult to find! And this highlights another strength of the Cybersecurity Policy Framework, while it is not one-stop shopping, each section does provide an overview of a critical policy topic as well as links to the associated and more in-depth resources my team has developed over the years to assist policymakers. In this way, this new resource serves not only as essential, high-level guidance, but also as a key to a broader catalogue of resources built on years of experience partnering with governments around the world.

Reading through this new resource, I am proud of the work we have done in pursuit of a safer online world. Important progress has been made and these foundational principles underscore much todays cybersecurity discourse. However, we haveand will always havemore work to do as a result of the changes and innovations in technology always on the horizon, and their implications for cybersecurity. Im glad to put this resource forward today to support a new generation of policymakers and also look forward to partnering with them to tackle the new challenges we will face together tomorrow.

Download your copy of the Cybersecurity Policy Framework today.

This morning we are excited to unveil the security researcher leaderboard at the Black Hat Security Conference. This list recognizes the top security researchers who have contributed research to the Microsoft products and services. If you are curious on how we build the list, check out our blog from last week on The Making of the Top 100 Researcher List.

This morning we are excited to unveil the security researcher leaderboard at the Black Hat Security Conference. This list recognizes the top security researchers who have contributed research to the Microsoft products and services. If you are curious on how we build the list, check out our blog from last week on The Making of the Top 100 Researcher List.

Security is a fundamental component of the trusted and productive Windows experience that we deliver to customers through modern platforms like Windows 10 and Windows 10 in S mode. As we build intelligent security technologies that protect the modern workplace, we aim to always ensure that customers have control over their devices and experiences.

To protect our customers from the latest threats, massive amounts of security signals and threat intelligence from the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph are processed by security analysts and intelligent systems that identify malicious and other undesirable software. Our evaluation criteria describe the characteristics and behavior of malware and potentially unwanted applications and guide the proper identification of threats. This classification of threats is reflected in the protection delivered by the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) unified endpoint security platform.

Malware: Malicious software and unwanted software

Among the big classifications of threats, customers may be most familiar with malicious software. Malicious software might steal personal information, lock devices until a ransom is paid, use devices to send spam, or download other malicious software. Examples of these types of threats are keyloggers and ransomware. Malware can get into devices through various infection vectors, including exploits, which undermine users choice and control of their devices. Windows Defender ATP’s next generation protections detect and block these malicious programs using local machine learning models, behavior-based detection, generics and heuristics, and cloud-based machine learning models and data analytics.

Some threats, on the other hand, are classified as unwanted software. These are applications that dont keep customers in control of devices through informed choices and accessible controls are considered unwanted. Examples of unwanted behavior include modifying browsing experience without using supported browser extensibility models, using alarming and coercive messages to scare customers into buying premium versions of software, and not providing a clear and straightforward way to install, uninstall or disable applications. Like malicious software, unwanted software threats are malware.

Using a model that leverages predictive technologies, machine learning, applied science, and artificial intelligence powers Windows Defender ATP to detect and stop malware at first sight, as reflected in consistently high scores in independent antivirus tests.

Potentially unwanted applications

Some applications do not exhibit malicious behavior but can adversely impact the performance or use of devices. We classify these as potentially unwanted applications (PUA). For example, we noted the increased presence of legitimate cryptocurrency miners in enterprise environments. While some forms of cryptocurrency miners are not malicious, they may not be authorized in enterprise networks because they consume computing resources.

Unlike malicious software and unwanted software, potentially unwanted applications are not malware. Enterprise security administrators can use the PUA protection feature to block these potentially unwanted applications from downloading and installing on endpoints. PUA protection is enabled by default in Windows Defender ATP when managed through System Center Configuration Manager.

In March 2018, we started surfacing PUA protection definitions on VirusTotal. We have also updated our evaluation criteria page to describe the specific categories and descriptions of software that we classify as PUA. These are:

Browser advertising software: Software that displays advertisements or promotions or prompts the user to complete surveys for other products or services in software other than itself. This includes, for example, software that inserts advertisements in browser webpages.

Torrent software: Software that is used to create or download torrents or other files specifically used with peer-to-peer file-sharing technologies.

Cryptomining software: Software that uses your computer resources to mine cryptocurrencies.

Bundling software: Software that offers to install other software that is not digitally signed by the same entity. Also, software that offers to install other software that qualify as PUA based on the criteria outlined in this document.

Marketing software: Software that monitors and transmits the activities of the user to applications or services other than itself for marketing research.

Evasion software: Software that actively tries to evade detection by security products, including software that behaves differently in the presence of security products.

Poor industry reputation: Software that trusted security providers detect with their security products. The security industry is dedicated to protecting customers and improving their experiences. Microsoft and other organizations in the security industry continuously exchange knowledge about files we have analyzed to provide users with the best possible protection.

Customer protection is our top priority. Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP) incorporates next-generation protection, attack surface reduction, endpoint detection and response, and automated investigation and remediation, and advanced hunting capabilities. We adjust, expand, and update our evaluation criteria based on customer feedback as well as new and emerging trends in the threat landscape. We encourage customers to help us identify new threats and other undesirable software by submitting programs that exhibit behaviors outlined in the evaluation criteria.

 

 

Michael Johnson

Windows Defender Research

 

 

 

 

 

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Questions, concerns, or insights on this story? Join discussions at the Microsoft community and Windows Defender Security Intelligence.

Follow us on Twitter @WDSecurity and Facebook Windows Defender Security Intelligence.

Black Hat USA 2018 brings together professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. This is an exciting time as our Microsoft researchers, partners, and security experts will showcase the latest collaborations in defense strategies for cybersecurity, highlight solutions for security vulnerabilities in applications, and bring together an ecosystem of intelligent security solutions. Our objective is to arm business, government, and consumers with deeply integrated intelligence and threat protection capabilities across platforms and products.

Security researchers play an essential role in Microsofts security strategy and are key to community-based defense. To show our appreciation for their hard work and partnership, each year at Black Hat USA, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) highlights the contributions of these researchers through the list of Top 100 security researchers reporting to Microsoft (either directly or through a third party) during the previous 12 months. While one criterion for the ranking is volume of fixed reports a researcher has made, the severity and impact of the reports is very important to the ranking also. Given the number of individuals reporting to Microsoft, anyone ranked among the Top 100 is among some of the top talent in the industry.

In addition to unveiling the Top 100 and showcasing Microsoft security solutions at Booth #652, there are a number of featured Microsoft speakers and sessions:

• Eric Doerr, Matt Linton, Art Manion, and Christopher Robinson: Behind the Speculative Curtain: The True Story of Fighting Meltdown and Spectre
• Matt Miller, Anders Fogh, and Christopher Ertl: Wrangling the Ghost: The Inside Story to Addressing Speculative Execution Side Channel Vulnerabilities
• Joe Bialek and Nico Joly: “A Dive into Hyper-V Architecture & Vulnerabilities”
• Jordan Rabet: Hardening Hyper-V through Offensive Security Research
• Holly Stewart, Jugal Parikh, and Randy Treit: Protecting the Protector Hardening Machine Learning Defenses Against Adversarial Attacks
• David Weston: ZEROing Trust: Do Zero Trust Approaches Deliver Real Security?

Join us at these sessions during the week of August 4-9, 2018 in Las Vegas and continue the discussion with us in Booth #652, where we will have product demonstrations, theatre presentations, and an opportunity to learn more about our Top 100 and meet with some of Microsofts security experts and partners.

This blog is part of a series that responds to common questions we receive from customers about deployment of Microsoft 365 security solutions. In this series youll find context, answers, and guidance for deployment and driving adoption within your organization. Check out our last blog, Enable your users to work securely from anywhere, anytime, across all of their devices.

Most companies focus their security solutions around users, devices, and apps, but often overlook the data that they are trying to protect. In this blog, we dig into some of the most challenging data protection scenarios our customers encounter.

How can I make sure company data is safe when employees use their own devices for work?

To help ensure your organizations data is safe on employee-owned devices, Microsoft 365 security solutions give you control and protection throughout the data lifecycle. With interoperating solutions for identity and access management, endpoint protection, information protection, and mobile device management (MDM), Microsoft 365 helps you protect your data against the complicated risks of a mobile landscape.

To build a comprehensive strategy for information protection, start by managing employee identities with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Azure AD gives you visibility and control over user identities, allowing you to manage what users can access. It allows your users the ability to securely sign in to business apps and access appropriate company data on their own devices.

Your employees use mobile devices for both personal and work tasks throughout the day, moving quickly among apps and files and potentially mixing up work and personal data. You want to make sure users can be productive while you prevent data loss. You also want to have the ability to protect company data even when accessed from devices that arent managed by you.

You can use Microsoft Intune app protection policies (Figure 1) to help protect your companys data. Because Intune app protection policies can be used independent of any MDM solution, you can use it to protect your companys data with or without enrolling devices in a device management solution. By implementing app-level policies, you can restrict access to company resources and keep data within the purview of your IT department. These policies enable you to provide parameters for how your users interact with or use data in their Intune-managed apps, for example by restricting copy-and-paste and save-as functions.

Figure 1. Intune App Protection policies allow you to restrict access to company resources.

Conditional access in Azure AD (Figure 2) lets you assign conditions that must be met in order for users to gain access. By setting conditional access policies, you can apply the right access controls under the required conditions. Configure conditional access policies to address risks based on user sign-in, network location, unmanaged devices, and client applications.

Figure 2. Conditional access lets you assign conditions that must be met in order for users to gain access.

Protect against accidental data leaks by using Windows Information Protection (WIP) to help secure business data when it leaves your employees’ devices. WIP can be configured through Intune and it allows you to restrict copy-and-paste functions, prevent unauthorized apps from accessing business data, and discriminate between corporate and personal data on the device so it can be wiped if necessary.

How can I make it easier for employees to meet my companys strict compliance requirements for data access and sharing?

Classify and protect documents and emails by applying labels with Azure Information Protection. Labels can be applied automatically by administrators who define rules and conditions manually by users, or by a combination where users are given recommendations. The classification is identifiable regardless of where the data is stored or with whom its shared. For example, you can configure a report document so that it can be accessed only by people in your organization, and control whether that document can be edited, or restricted to read-only, or prevent it from being printed. You can configure emails similarly, and also prevent them from being forwarded or prevent the use of the Reply All option.

How can I protect data when an employee loses their device?

If your employees use their own devices to access or store company information, you can remotely wipe data from managed business apps, like Word and SharePoint, with Intune. Company-owned devices can be managed through Intune MDM, giving you the flexibility to wipe an entire device (factory reset) or just wipe company data.

Deployment tips from our experts

Now that you know more about how Microsoft 365 security solutions can protect your data, here are three proven tips to put it all into action.

Keep your identities safe. Manage employee identities with Azure AD for visibility over user identities and control over what users can access. Configure conditional access policies to apply the right access controls to address access risks.

Manage the devices in your environment with Intune. Enable Intune to be your mobile management strategy to manage the apps that employees use to do business. You can control the apps employees can access, and you can wipe a device when someone leaves the company.

Keep your company data safe. Restrict access to company resources using Intune app protection policies to help protect your companys data. Deploy Azure Information Protection and set up your data classification, labels, and automatic policies to control access by labeling, classifying, and encrypting documents according to their level of security. Then use WIP to protect against accidental data leaks.

Plan for success with FastTrack. This valuable service comes with your subscription at no additional charge. Whether youre planning your initial rollout, needing to onboard your product, or driving end-user adoption, FastTrack is your benefit service that is ready to assist you. Get started at FastTrack for Microsoft 365.

Want to learn more?

For more information and guidance on this topic, stay tuned for the white paper Protect your data in files, apps, and devices, within and across organizations coming soon!

More blog posts from this series:

• Tips for getting started on your security deployment
• Accelerate your security deployment with FastTrack for Microsoft 365
• First things first: Envisioning your security deployment
• Now that you have a plan, its time to start deploying
• New FastTrack benefit: Deployment support for co-management on Windows 10 devices
• Assessing Microsoft 365 security solutions using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• Enable your users to work securely from anywhere, anytime, across all of their devices