Attack simulation training in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 now Generally Available
Published Jan 06 2021 10:04 AM 38.6K Views
Microsoft

Attack simulation training Generally Available 

We are pleased to announce the General Availability (GA) of Attack simulation training in Microsoft Defender for Office 365. Delivered in partnership with Terranova Security, Attack simulation training is an intelligent social engineering risk management tool that automates the creation and management of phishing simulations to help customers detect, prioritize and remediate phishing risks by using real phish and hyper-targeted training to change employee behaviors. To see a demo of the product tune into the video at Microsoft Ignite 2020.

 

Emulate real threats with intelligent simulations  

Intelligent simulations automate simulation and payload management, user targeting, schedule and cleanup. In the Microsoft 365 Security Center, administrators can launch a simulation and choose a technique commonly used by attackers and target users.  

 

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Attack simulation training dashboard

 

Wide variety of Phishing Techniques

Following the simple steps outlined in the workflow, administrators can choose from the top five social engineering techniques and select the phish template from a list of real attacks seen in their tenant. Optionally customers can upload their own template and then select the users to whom the simulation will be sent.  

 

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Phishing Techniques available

 

Phish Template Library from Real Phish Emails

To maximize accuracy, Attack simulation training pulls its phishing templates from real world phish attackers seen in the customers environment. The security administrator can automate a “payload harvester” that collects and neutralizes phish emails received by the organization.

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Payloads Available

 

Through the real payload harvester, Attack simulation training trains employees to identify and report the kinds of emails real attackers will send them. The security administrator can set up targeted payload harvesting as well, using conditions like technique used, department targeted and frequency.

 

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Payload Harvesting Conditions

 

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Finally, security administrators can add ‘phishing indicators’ like an incorrect domain name, an urgency tip or a misspelled company name to train end users on commonly-seen phishing indicators.

 

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Add indicators to phishing templates

 

 User targeting and training assignment

User targeting is automated, and the administrator can use any address book properties to filter for a user list and target them. The administrator can also quickly import a list of “repeat offenders” or employees who have failed a simulation in the past and target the simulation to this group.

 

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Target users based on address book filters

 

The administrator can then assign training tailored to a user’s behavior in the simulation. Microsoft recommends training to assign based on learning pathways and our intelligence into which training is effective for which kinds of behavior. The administrator can also choose to assign training themselves. For example, an administrator may choose to assign 3 trainings to users who were compromised in the simulation but only 2 to those who clicked and 1 to all users. The landing page on which the end user will land to access this training are wholly customizable for the look and voice of your brand. Finally, the administrator has the option to schedule the simulation to launch right away or at a later time, which can be customized by recipient time-zone.  

 

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Assign Training

Customized Role Based Access ensures that administrating the simulation and training is a secure and diversified workflow.

 

Quantify social engineering risk and prioritize remediation through training

The training effectiveness metric, which plots your organization’s actual compromise rate in a simulation against Microsoft’s predicted compromise rate, measures the effectiveness of the training program. Overlay the dates of training completion and simulations to correlate which trainings caused a drop in compromise rate and evaluate their effectiveness. 

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Training Effectiveness Report

 

Gain visibility over your organization’s training completion and simulation status through completeness and coverage metrics and track your organization’s progress against the baseline predicted compromise rate. Every reporting dashboard can be filtered in different ways and exported for reporting.  Multiple reporting views allowing you to drill down on training efficacy, training completion, repeat offenders and coverage.

 

Reinforce the human firewall with industry-leading Security Awareness Training

Terranova Security’s huge library of phish training content enables personalized and highly specific training targeting based on the user’s behavior during a simulation.

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Training Library

Nanolearningsmicrolearnings, and interactivity

 cater to diverse learning styles and reinforce awareness. Additionally, all trainings are available in 40+ languages and accessible to the highest standards to meet the needs of Microsoft’s global customers.  

Attack simulation training enables organizations to improve their security posture by training their employees effectively and changing risky behavior. Organizations can choose from multiple training options to best fit their needs – using Microsoft’s recommended learning pathways, choosing to assign training manually, or choosing not to add training to a simulation.

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Assigning Training

 

E3 Trial

As we mentioned in our blog announcing the expansion of public preview to E3 license holders, we will continue to offer a subset of Attack simulation training capabilities to E3 customers as a trial. The trial offering contains the ability to use a Credential Harvest payload and the ability to select from 2 training experiences ISA Phishing and Mass Market Phishing. The trial offering will not include any other phishing techniques, automated simulation creation and management, conditional payload harvesting, and the complete catalog of Terranova Security trainings.

 

To get started today, go to Attack simulation training in your M365 Security and Compliance Center or use this link: aka.ms/AttackSim. 

22 Comments
Brass Contributor

Will other languages be available for the training module? If yes - what is the timeline?

Brass Contributor

Hi,

 

Cool feature, we love that. However, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox keep blocking phishing links... If I choose one from the links and insert it's fine but if simulate phishing and send it out to users the link is being blocked by those two browsers. The error says: it's blocked by google safe browsing.

 

Could you please have a look?

 

Thanks.

Gabor

Copper Contributor

Actually same issue as @gabormicskei. Exactly month ago for example templatern.com was working but now it does not. Templateau.com is working now  but I'm afraid that will also be reported as deceptive by Chrome & Firefox in near future.
The URLs work if disabling Safe browsing feature but that can generate additional security risk + management overhead to disable it temporarily from user computers and enabling it back after simulation.
Whitelisting the URLs in SafeBrowsing feature have not been working yet as wanted.

And also same as @KubaBorkowski, now we are kind of forced to use english with customers and if end users do not work natively in english, that can be a barrier for not using this. For example the landing page where you can only edit header and body for a small amount of text. Indicator titles and other not customizable texts are in english and can cause confusion and suspicion in users if there are two languages mixed in it. 

Brass Contributor

does the templates are available in French or plan to be released ?

Copper Contributor

Is there a way to not include guest accounts in the coverage reports?

Copper Contributor

Thank you. BTW, 
"To see a demo of the product tune into our announcement video at Microsoft Ignite 2020" - link doesn't work.

Copper Contributor

@RukmaSen 

Hello,

 

Could you provide me with more details on the "payload harvester"?

I am not quite sure what this feature can do.

 

Is it a feature that creates new payloads based on actual malicious mails recevied by organizations?

 

Also, is the "payload harvester" the "Automation" tab in attack stimulation screen?

Copper Contributor

@Shawn225 my understanding is as you have described, however it doesn't seem to matter how many automations i create it doesn't collect any items. Spent an hour on a call with a Tech Lead from Microsoft but no further forward on it really. Zero documentation out there on this. For me if it does as it says on the tin (e.g. Automations are automated flows you can use to collect payloads to launch simulations) then it really takes the attack sim training to the level that we want to use it across our business, the generic stuff is good, however we get a lot of company specific stuff, and it would be good to use that to target our users with. 

Copper Contributor

Also @Shawn225 , @RukmaSen response here details how automations "should" work...

 

Re: Attack simulator roadmap - Microsoft Tech Community

 

i will keep trying to find out if there are any further config requirements to get it to work, if i find any i will let you know.

Copper Contributor

Is there a way to assign Training after the Simulation was launched and concluded?

 

I would like to assign some training to the failing users but I don't find how to do it ones the simulation is completed.

Copper Contributor

@matttate 

Thank you for your addtional information!

I had the same experience,, no matter how many automations I create, it didnt collect anything.

 

I am looking forward to hearing more from you! 

Copper Contributor

The landing page for end user training, what they're presented with when they access the training link, is a big deal breaker for me on this service. The experience is not user friendly with several links on the side that users don't need to see. It doesn't look like there are any available controls for customization of the end user experience

Copper Contributor

I am also a bit perplexed by the Automations tab functionality. It already has 2 automations there and the conditions are to simply detect emails from a sender. But that's already possible in a message trace. I was expecting a bit more like a set template to run something in the future. Not sure what purpose this Automations serves.

Copper Contributor

@Vig_Mud @Shawn225 

 

My support request is sat with product support engineers via escalation no news from them yet. When I hear something I will post on here.

Copper Contributor

While creating a simulation, I'm unable to select the multiple payloads. Is it the expected behaviour?
If it is, then it's not worth it I guess. Any suggestions?

Copper Contributor

Hi. 

 

Licensing and compliance question... 

If an admin has an M365 E5 license, and the rest of the user base has M365 Business Premium licenses - can the admin run the attack simulation against the rest of the user base and would the usage of the tool be compliant in that scenario? 

Copper Contributor

Hi,

 

Its possible to run the attack simulations tests with one M365 E5 license. I have seen that in my tenant. However, Microsoft documentation suggests otherwise or isn't specific about this bit. Its working though for me.

Copper Contributor

Is there any documentation on payload harvesting and payload automation?

Copper Contributor

@RahulSingh no, that would be helpful!

 

I've been working with the engineers on it, and it's terrible. So far it only picks up if as a user I carry out the task, eg click on a link in an email. 

 

Here I am with advanced threat protection and can see emails being blocked,  quarantined etc but I can't use these it has to be once the email gets in and the user has done something with it....too late then! 

 

 

Copper Contributor

Is there a way to customize the landing page "you were just phished" after the user has clicked on the "malicious link" in the simulated phishing email? And also is there a way to change the wording on the "Learn More" page? There is a possibility to change the text under the attack creation but the headline is not editable. In my opinion, not being able to place company logo and name on these pages will make the user think that they landed on a malicious site and they will get out of there as quickly as they can! Not even thinking to complete any training. It is a huge drawback from the usability perspective. I would appreciate some advice! 

Copper Contributor

Still looking for an answer to this question please...

 

Hi. 

 

Licensing and compliance question... 

If an admin has an M365 E5 license, and the rest of the user base has M365 Business Premium licenses - can the admin run the attack simulation against the rest of the user base and would the usage of the tool be compliant in that scenario? 

Copper Contributor

How can I stop compromised users from getting training notification or reminders?

 

What does the exclude option in the simulation report does?

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‎May 11 2021 02:06 PM
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