Comprehensive Identity Protection—Across Cloud and On-Premises
Hybrid IT environments, identity is the new perimeter—and protecting it requires visibility across both cloud and on-premises systems. While Microsoft Entra secures cloud identities with intelligent access controls, Microsoft Defender for Identity brings deep insight into your on-premises Active Directory. Together, they form a powerful duo for comprehensive identity protection. Why Hybrid Identity Protection Matters Most organizations haven’t fully moved to the cloud. Legacy systems, on-prem applications, and hybrid user scenarios are still common, and attackers know it. They exploit these gaps using techniques like: Pass-the-Hash and Pass-the-Ticket attacks Credential stuffing and brute-force logins Privilege escalation and lateral movement Without visibility into on-prem identity activity, these threats can go undetected. That’s where Defender for Identity steps in. What Is Microsoft Defender for Identity? Defender for Identity is part of Microsoft Defender XDR—a cloud-based solution that monitors on-premises Active Directory for suspicious behavior. It uses behavioral analytics and threat intelligence to detect identity-based attacks in real time. Key capabilities: Detects compromised accounts and insider threats Monitors lateral movement and privilege escalation Surfaces risky users and abnormal access patterns Integrates with Microsoft 365 Defender and Sentinel for unified response Why It Pairs Perfectly with Microsoft Entra Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD) protects cloud identities with features like Conditional Access, Multifactor Authentication, and Identity Governance. But Entra alone can’t see what’s happening in your on-prem AD. By combining Entra and Defender for Identity, you get: End-to-end visibility across cloud and on-prem environments Real-time threat detection for suspicious activities like lateral movement, privilege escalation, and domain dominance Behavioral analytics to identify compromised accounts and insider threats Integrated response capabilities to contain threats quickly and minimize impact Actionable insights that help strengthen your identity posture and reduce risk Together, they deliver comprehensive identity protection—giving you the clarity, control, and confidence to defend against modern threats. Real-World Impact Imagine a scenario where an attacker gains access to a legacy on-prem account and begins moving laterally across systems. Defender for Identity detects the unusual behavior and flags the account as risky. Entra then blocks cloud access based on Conditional Access policies tied to that risk signal—stopping the attack before it spreads. Getting Started Deploy Defender for Identity sensors on your domain controllers Install a sensor - step-by-step instructions to install Defender for Identity sensors on your domain controllers to begin monitoring on-premises identity activity. Activate the sensor on a domain controller - Guidance on activating the installed sensor to ensure it starts collecting and analyzing data. Deployment overview - A high-level walkthrough of the Defender for Identity deployment process, including prerequisites and architecture. Connect Defender for Identity to Microsoft 365 Defender Integration in the Microsoft Defender portal - Learn how to connect Defender for Identity to Microsoft 365 Defender for centralized threat detection and response. Pilot and deploy Defender for Identity - Best practices for piloting Defender for Identity in your environment before full-scale deployment. Enable risk-based Conditional Access in Entra Configure risk policies in Entra ID Protection - Instructions for setting up risk-based policies that respond to identity threats in real time. Risk-based access policies overview - An overview of how Conditional Access uses risk signals to enforce adaptive access controls. Use Entra ID Governance to enforce least privilege Understanding least privilege with Entra ID Governance - Explains how to apply least privilege principles using Entra’s governance tools. Best practices for secure deployment - Recommendations for securely deploying Entra ID Governance to minimize identity-related risks. Integrate both with Microsoft Sentinel for advanced hunting Microsoft Defender XDR integration with Sentinel - How to connect Defender for Identity and other Defender components to Microsoft Sentinel for unified security operations. Send Entra ID data to Sentinel - Instructions for streaming Entra ID logs and signals into Sentinel for deeper analysis. Microsoft Sentinel data connectors - A catalog of available data connectors, including those for Entra and Defender for Identity, to expand your threat detection capabilities. Final Thoughts It's the perfect time to evaluate your identity protection strategy. By pairing Microsoft Entra with Defender for Identity, you gain full visibility across your hybrid environment—so you can detect threats early, respond quickly, and protect every identity with confidence. Ready to strengthen your identity perimeter? Start by deploying Defender for Identity and configuring Entra policies today.Cybersecurity Starts Here: Strong Passwords for Nonprofits
In the nonprofit world, trust is everything. Whether you're protecting donor data, safeguarding beneficiary information, or managing internal systems, your digital security matters. One of the simplest—and most powerful—ways to protect your organization is by using strong passwords. These tools form the first line of defense against cyber threats and help ensure your mission stays on track. Why Strong Passwords Matter Weak passwords are like unlocked doors—they invite trouble. Cybercriminals often exploit simple or reused passwords to gain unauthorized access, impersonate staff, steal sensitive data, or disrupt operations. A strong password acts as a digital lock: hard to guess, harder to crack. Characteristics of a strong password: At least 12 characters long A mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols Unique for every account Not based on personal info (no pet names, birthdays, or favorite sports teams!) Microsoft Tools That Help You Stay Secure Microsoft offers nonprofit-friendly tools to help enforce strong password policies and protect user identities: Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) Centralized identity and access management Multi-factor authentication (MFA) to prevent unauthorized logins Conditional access policies and role-based access control Microsoft 365 Security Center Monitor password-related alerts and suspicious sign-ins Enforce password expiration and complexity policies View security recommendations tailored to your organization Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Detects brute-force password attacks and credential theft Protects devices from malware and phishing attempts Integrates with Microsoft 365 for unified threat response Tips for Nonprofit Teams Building a culture of cybersecurity starts with small, consistent actions: Make it policy: Require strong passwords use across your organization Train your team: Host a lunch-and-learn or share a how-to guide on password safety Enable MFA: Add multi-factor authentication for all accounts Audit regularly: Review access and update credentials when staff roles change Clean up old accounts: Remove unused logins and shared credentials Your Mission Deserves Protection Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue—it’s a mission-critical priority. By adopting strong password practices, you’re taking a proactive step to protect your people, your data, and your impact. Microsoft’s ecosystem offers scalable, nonprofit-friendly tools to help you build a secure foundation—so you can focus on what matters most: serving your community.Strengthen Your Security Posture This October with Smarter Endpoint Protection
As organizations accelerate digital transformation, endpoints have become the frontline of defense—and the most frequent target. From phishing emails to fileless malware, attackers are exploiting gaps in visibility and response. It’s no longer enough to react after the fact. You need security that’s proactive, intelligent, and built for scale. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint delivers exactly that—combining real-time detection, automated remediation, and deep threat analytics to help you stay ahead of adversaries. Detection: Smarter Than Signature-Based Security Defender for Endpoint uses a multi-layered detection strategy that goes far beyond traditional methods: Behavioral Analysis: It monitors how apps and users behave, flagging anomalies like privilege escalation or lateral movement. Machine Learning & AI: Defender analyzes trillions of signals daily to identify patterns that indicate emerging threats—even zero-day attacks. Threat Intelligence: Backed by Microsoft’s global security graph, it detects known malware, ransomware, and nation-state tactics in real time. Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR): It continuously collects and analyzes endpoint data to surface suspicious activity and indicators of compromise. Response: Automated, Precise, and Scalable Once a threat is detected, Defender doesn’t just alert—it acts: Automated Investigation & Remediation: Defender uses AI to investigate alerts, determine root cause, and automatically contain or remove threats. Attack Timeline: Security teams get a visual map of the attack’s progression, helping them understand how it started and spread. Live Response: Analysts can remotely connect to compromised devices, run scripts, collect forensic data, and take corrective action. Integration with Microsoft Sentinel: Defender feeds threat data into your SIEM for broader visibility and correlation across your environment. Real-World Impact Take the example of a nonprofit organization targeted by a phishing campaign. Defender for Endpoint detected unusual PowerShell activity, isolated the device, and triggered an automated investigation. Within minutes, the threat was neutralized—no data loss, no downtime. Why It Matters During Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to evaluate your endpoint security. Defender for Endpoint doesn’t just detect threats—it empowers your team to respond with speed and confidence. Getting Started with Microsoft Security 1. Review Your Microsoft Secure Score - Start by assessing your current security posture in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal. Secure Score provides a prioritized list of recommendations to improve your organization's security based on real usage and configurations. Link: Assess your security posture through Microsoft Secure Score - Microsoft Defender XDR | Microsoft Learn 2. Enable Automated Investigation & Remediation (AIR) - Reduce response time and manual effort by turning on AIR. It automatically investigates alerts, determines root causes, and takes remediation actions—helping you contain threats faster. Link: Use automated investigations to investigate and remediate threats - Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Microsoft Learn 3. Explore Threat Analytics in Defender - Threat Analytics provides expert-driven insights into emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and attack techniques—tailored to your environment. Use it to stay ahead of adversaries and understand how global threats impact your organization. Link: Threat analytics in Microsoft Defender XDR - Microsoft Defender XDR | Microsoft Learn 4. Connect Microsoft Defender to Sentinel - Integrate Defender with Microsoft Sentinel to unify your security operations. This enables centralized monitoring, advanced hunting, and automated incident response across your entire digital estate. Link: Connect Microsoft Defender XDR data to Microsoft Sentinel | Microsoft Learn This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, empower your organization to stay one step ahead of evolving threats. With Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, you gain intelligent, automated protection and deep visibility—so you can detect, respond, and neutralize risks before they turn into breaches.Securing Data with Microsoft Purview IRM + Defender: A Hands-On Lab
Hi everyone I recently explored how Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM) integrates with Microsoft Defender to secure sensitive data. This lab demonstrates how these tools work together to identify, investigate, and mitigate insider risks. What I covered in this lab: Set up Insider Risk Management policies in Microsoft Purview Connected Microsoft Defender to monitor risky activities Walkthrough of alerts triggered → triaged → escalated into cases Key governance and compliance insights Key learnings from the lab: Purview IRM policies detect both accidental risks (like data spillage) and malicious ones (IP theft, fraud, insider trading) IRM principles include transparency (balancing privacy vs. protection), configurable policies, integrations across Microsoft 365 apps, and actionable alerts IRM workflow follows: Define policies → Trigger alerts → Triage by severity → Investigate cases (dashboards, Content Explorer, Activity Explorer) → Take action (training, legal escalation, or SIEM integration) Defender + Purview together provide unified coverage: Defender detects and responds to threats, while Purview governs compliance and insider risk This was part of my ongoing series of security labs. Curious to hear from others — how are you approaching Insider Risk Management in your organizations or labs?
Microsoft Defender (for Business) not showing onboarded device via Intune
I am having some real fun with Devices not being shown in Microsoft Defender (for Business) after following the necessary instructions provided by Microsoft. Devices are not showing in the Microsoft Defender portal. I have used the local onboarding scripting method and gone directly through Intune. Would there be a conflict running the two? The account being used to perform these tasks is a Global Admin (even with Security Administrator rights). In respect of Intune, the Connection service between Intune and Defender for Endpoint (EDR) is fine. I have used a preconfigured EDR policy option to onboard the device, and I have checked the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Advanced Threat Protection, which states an OnboardingInfo value, indicating that a device has been onboarded to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. I do have an issue relating to Default Device Compliance Policy - Has a compliance policy assigned and a policy issue for 'create local admin user account', but Intune is saying the device is compliant. Would these issues cause an issue, and what else should I check for?Deep Dive: Insider Risk Management in Microsoft Purview
Hi everyone I recently explored the Insider Risk Management (IRM) workflow in Microsoft Purview and how it connects across governance, compliance, and security. This end-to-end process helps organizations detect risky activities, triage alerts, investigate incidents, and take corrective action. Key Phases in the IRM Workflow: Policy: Define rules to detect both accidental (data spillage) and malicious risks (IP theft, fraud, insider trading). Alerts: Generate alerts when policies are violated. Triage: Prioritize and classify alerts by severity. Investigate: Use dashboards, Content Explorer, and Activity Explorer to dig into context. Action: Take remediation steps such as user training, legal escalation, or SIEM integration. Key takeaways from my lab: Transparency is essential (balancing privacy vs. protection). Integration across Microsoft 365 apps makes IRM policies actionable. Defender + Purview together unify detection + governance for insider risk. This was part of my ongoing security lab series. Curious to hear from the community — how are you applying Insider Risk Management in your environments or labs?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) Live Response and Performance Script.
Importance of MDE Live Response and Scripts Live Response is crucial for incident response and forensic investigations. It enables analysts to: Collect evidence remotely. Run diagnostics without interrupting users. Remediate threats in real time. For more information on MDE Live Response visit the below documentation. Investigate entities on devices using live response in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint - Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Microsoft Learn PowerShell scripts enhance this capability by automating tasks such as: Performance monitoring. Log collection. Configuration validation. This automation improves efficiency, consistency, and accuracy in security operations. For more details on running performance analyzer visit the below link. Performance analyzer for Microsoft Defender Antivirus - Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Microsoft Learn While performance analyzer is run locally on the system to collect Microsoft Defender Anti-Virus performance details , in this document we are describing on running the performance analyzer from MDE Live Response console. This is a situation where Security administrators do not have access to the servers managed by Infra administrators. Prerequisites Required Roles and Permissions To use Live Response in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE), specific roles and permissions are necessary. The Security Administrator role, or an equivalent custom role, is typically required to enable Live Response within the portal. Users must possess the “Manage Portal Settings” permission to activate Live Response features. Permissions Needed for Live Response Actions Active Remediation Actions under Security Operations: Take response actions Approve or dismiss pending remediation actions Manage allowed/blocked lists for automation and indicators Unified Role-Based Access Control (URBAC): From 16/02/2025, new customers must use URBAC. Roles are assigned to Microsoft Entra groups. Access must be assigned to device groups for Live Response to function properly. Setup Requirements Enable Live Response: Navigate to Advanced Features in the Defender portal. Only users with the “Manage Portal Settings” permission can enable this feature. Supported Operating System Versions: Windows 10/11 (Version 1909 or later) Windows Server (2012 R2 with KB5005292, 2016 with KB5005292, 2019, 2022, 2025) macOS and Linux (specific minimum versions apply) Actual Script Details and Usage The following PowerShell script records Microsoft Defender performance for 60 seconds and saves the output to a temporary file: # Get the default temp folder for the current user $tempPath = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath() $outputFile = Join-Path -Path $tempPath -ChildPath "DefenderTrace.etl" $durationSeconds = 60 try { Write-Host "Starting Microsoft Defender performance recording for $durationSeconds seconds..." Write-Host "Recording will be saved to: $outputFile" # Start performance recording with duration New-MpPerformanceRecording -RecordTo $outputFile -Seconds $durationSeconds Write-Host "Recording completed. Output saved to $outputFile" } catch { Write-Host "Failed to start or complete performance recording: $_" } 🔧 Usage Notes: Run this script in an elevated PowerShell session. Ensure Defender is active, and the system supports performance recording. The output .etl file can be analyzed using performance tools like Windows Performance Analyzer. Steps to Initiate Live Response Session and Run the script. Below are the steps to initiate a Live Response session from Security.Microsoft.com portal. Below screenshot shows that console session is established. Then upload the script file to console library from your local system. Type “Library” to list the files. You can see that script got uploaded to Library. Now you execute the script by “run <file name>” command. Output of the script gets saved in the Library. Run “getfile <path of the file>” to get the file downloaded to your local system download folder. Then you can run Get-MpPerformanceReport command from your local system PowerShell as shown below to generate the report from the output file collected in above steps. Summary and Benefits This document outlines the use of MDE Live Response and PowerShell scripting for performance diagnostics. The provided script helps security teams monitor Defender performance efficiently. Similar scripts can be executed from Live Response console including signature updates , start/stop services etc. These scripts are required as a part of security investigation or MDE performance troubleshooting process. Benefits: Faster incident response through remote diagnostics. Improved visibility into endpoint behaviour. Automation of routine performance checks. Enhanced forensic capabilities with minimal user disruption.Highlighting the importance of securing your business during National Small Business Week
It is a common misconception that cyberattacks only threaten large corporations. In reality, 1 in 3 small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have experienced a cyberattack (1), ranging from phishing schemes to ransomware attacks. The average cost of a cyberattack is over $250K up to $7M (2), which can be a significant financial loss for a small business. This National Small Business Week, we want to highlight product innovations, customer stories, and resources. To help you understand the importance of cybersecurity and discover ways to protect your small and medium business. Microsoft 365 Business Premium helps you run your business, securely. Many small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team to manage their security needs. As a result, they need a simple and affordable solution. Microsoft 365 Business Premium combines essential security and productivity capabilities in a solution that is easy to use and cost-effective. It provides layered protection across user identities, devices, email and collaboration apps, and data security. To meet the growing needs of small businesses, we announced AI-powered phishing protection in Defender for Office 365. This helps detect and filter business email compromise (BEC) with 99.5% accuracy. We integrate with some of the top managed detection and response (MDR) providers such as Huntress, Blackpoint Cyber, Chorus Cyber, and ConnectWise MDR. For partners, we introduced the SMB-Verified Solution Status within the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). The status highlights purpose-built technology solutions for SMBs and MSPs. As your security needs grow, Microsoft 365 E5 Security is available as an add-on: As cyberthreats continue to grow, and as cyber insurance and regulatory requirements evolve, many small businesses are now looking for enterprise-level security. To support the growing security needs, Microsoft now offers Microsoft 365 E5 Security as an add-on for Business Premium. E5 Security brings enterprise-grade protection on top of Business Premium. It gives organizations access to Microsoft’s most sophisticated security technologies. The Microsoft 365 E5 Security suite is cost-effective, saving organizations up to 57% compared to buying each product individually. Microsoft 365 E5 Security adds additional enterprise-grade XDR capabilities to what is already available in Business Premium. Such as: Identity, access, and protection controls: Business Premium includes Microsoft Entra ID P1, providing single sign-on, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and device and IP location based conditional access helping SMBs manage user identities and enable access from anywhere. Entra ID P2, as part of Microsoft 365 E5 Security, has Entra ID Protection offering risk-based conditional access that helps block identity attacks in real time using behavioral analytics and signals from both user risk and sign-in risk. Entra ID P2 also includes ID Governance capabilities to help automate workflows and processes that give users access to resources. With Privileged Identity Management (PIM) companies can provide users with only the minimum privileges needed to accomplish the tasks they're authorized to perform. Microsoft 365 E5 Security has Microsoft Defender for Identity which identifies, detects, and investigates threats for on-premises identities. Email and Collaboration security: Business Premium includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1, which provides anti-phishing and anti-malware defenses, including Safe Links and Safe Attachments for real-time scanning of URLs and files sent via email, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. Microsoft 365 E5 Security includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2, which enhances the protections in P1. Providing automated investigation and response capabilities, as well as cyber-attack simulation training for both email and Microsoft Teams. Defender for Office 365 now offers end-to-end protection in Microsoft Teams. Organizations can report suspicious Teams messages, leverage advanced threat hunting capabilities within Teams, and gain more control over external organizational communications. Device Security Business Premium includes Microsoft Defender for Business (MDB) which brings AI-powered endpoint detection and response with automatic attack disruption, automated investigation and remediation, across Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices. E5 Security includes Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2 adds advanced hunting, access to threat experts, and 6 months of data retention on the device. E5 Security also includes Microsoft Defender for IoT, which helps protect connected devices such as network printers and cameras. Software-as-a- service (SaaS) security: Microsoft 365 E5 Security introduces Defender for Cloud Apps, which helps prevent breaches caused by SaaS app misconfigurations—a common attack vector. Defender for Cloud Apps enables automated and continuous monitoring of SaaS apps to reduce security vulnerabilities and increase compliance by detecting misconfigurations and providing remediation steps for risky configurations. Lean more about Microsoft 365 E5 Security. See Customers in Action: “It’s valuable that Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides all the native controls for us to implement security benchmarks in audits and dramatically reduce the attack surface area”- JJ Milner, Cloud Architect and Managing Director, Global Micro Solutions Acumen Group partnered with Global Micro Solutions, a Microsoft partner, to help implement Business Premium due to increasingly complex mobile device management and security requirements as they scaled. “As part of our Microsoft E5 license which provides security features such as data loss prevention (DLP) and information labeling, we get just about every app under the sun and the more we delve into it, the more we can use it”- Danielle Brautigan, General and Finance Manager, McGees Property McGees Property switched to Microsoft 365, moving from on-premises servers and services to the cloud after being hit by a ransomware attack. The attack locked McGee’s employees out of their files for more than four weeks, forcing them to work from personal email accounts. Resources: At Microsoft, we have created multiple resources to help highlight the importance of cybersecurity and how to get started with Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Are you a customer? Visit our website to learn more about Microsoft Security solutions for SMBs. Are you a partner? Check out our partner playbooks to get started on your SMB managed services journey,– Microsoft 365 Business Premium Partner Playbook and Microsoft 365 E5 Security deck. References: [1, 2] 7 cybersecurity trends and tips for small and medium businesses to stay protected, Scott Woodgate. October 31, 2024Making the Most of Attack Simulation Training: Dynamic Groups, Automation, and User Education
Learn how to maximize the impact of Attack Simulation Training in Microsoft Defender for Office 365. This guide covers dynamic groups, automation, localization, and reporting to help you build a scalable and effective security awareness program.Protect AI apps with Microsoft Defender
Stay in control with Microsoft Defender. You can identify which AI apps and cloud services are in use across your environment, evaluate their risk levels, and allow or block them as needed — all from one place. Whether it’s a sanctioned tool or a shadow AI app, you’re equipped to set the right policies and respond fast to emerging threats. Microsoft Defender gives you the visibility to track complex attack paths — linking signals across endpoints, identities, and cloud apps. Investigate real-time alerts, protect sensitive data from misuse in AI tools like Copilot, and enforce controls even for in-house developed apps using system prompts and Azure AI Foundry. Rob Lefferts, Microsoft Security CVP, joins me in the Mechanics studio to share how you can safeguard your AI-powered environment with a unified security approach. Identify and protect apps. Instantly surface all generative AI apps in use across your org — even unsanctioned ones. How to use Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. Extend AI security to internally developed apps. Get started with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Respond with confidence. Stop attacks in progress and ensure sensitive data stays protected, even when users try to bypass controls. Get full visibility in Microsoft Defender incidents. Watch our video. QUICK LINKS: 00:00 — Stay in control with Microsoft Defender 00:39 — Identify and protect AI apps 02:04 — View cloud apps and website in use 04:14 — Allow or block cloud apps 07:14 — Address security risks of internally developed apps 08:44 — Example in-house developed app 09:40 — System prompt 10:39 — Controls in Azure AI Foundry 12:28 — Defender XDR 14:19 — Wrap up Link References Get started at https://aka.ms/ProtectAIapps Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics? As Microsoft’s official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft. Subscribe to our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MicrosoftMechanicsSeries Talk with other IT Pros, join us on the Microsoft Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-mechanics-blog/bg-p/MicrosoftMechanicsBlog Watch or listen from anywhere, subscribe to our podcast: https://microsoftmechanics.libsyn.com/podcast Keep getting this insider knowledge, join us on social: Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSFTMechanics Share knowledge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-mechanics/ Enjoy us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msftmechanics/ Loosen up with us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@msftmechanics Video Transcript: - While generative AI can help you do more, it can also introduce new security risks. Today, we’re going to demonstrate how you can stay in control with Microsoft Defender to discover the GenAI cloud apps that people in your organization are using right now and approve or block them based on their risk. And for your in-house developed AI apps, we’ll look at preventing jailbreaks and prompt injection attacks along with how everything comes together with Microsoft Defender incident management, to give you complete visibility into your events. Joining me once again to demonstrate how to get ahead of everything is Microsoft Security CVP, Rob Lefferts. Welcome back. - So glad to be back. - It’s always great to have you on to keep us ahead of the threat landscape. In fact, since your last time on the show, we’ve seen a significant increase in the use of generative AI apps, and some of them are sanctioned by IT but many of them are not. So what security concerns does this raise? - Each of those apps really carries their own risk, and even in-house developed apps aren’t necessarily immune to risk. We see some of the biggest risks with Consumer apps, especially the free ones, which are often designed to collect training data as users upload files into them or paste content into their prompts that can then be used to retrain the underlying model. So, before you know it, your data might be part of the public domain, that is, unless you get ahead of it. - And as you showed, this use of your data is often written front and center in the terms and conditions of these apps. - True, but not everyone reads all the fine print. To be clear, people go into these apps with good intentions, to work more efficiently and get more done, but they don’t always know the risks; and that’s where we give you the capabilities you need to identify and protect Generative AI SaaS apps using Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. And you can combine this with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for your internally developed apps alongside the unified incident management capabilities in Microsoft Defender XDR where the activities from both of these services and other connected systems come together in one place. - So given just how many cloud apps there are out there and a lot of companies building their own apps, where would you even start? - Well, for most orgs, it starts with knowing which external apps people in your company are using. If you don’t have proactive controls in place yet, there’s a pretty good chance that people are bringing their own apps. Now to find out what they’re using, right from the unified Defender portal, you can use Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps for a complete view of cloud apps and websites in use inside your organization. The signal comes in from Defender-onboarded computers and phones. And if you’re not already using Defender for Cloud Apps, let me start by showing you the Cloud app catalog. Our researchers at Microsoft are continually identifying and classifying new cloud apps as they surface. There are over 34,000 apps across all of these filterable categories that are all based on best practice use cases across industries. Now if I scroll back up to Generative AI, you’ll see that there are more than 1,000 apps. And I’ll click on this control to filter the list down, and it’s a continually expanding list. We even add to it when existing cloud apps integrate new gen AI capabilities. Now once your signal starts to come in from your managed devices, moving back over to the dashboard, you’ll see that I have visibility into the full breadth of Cloud Apps in use, including Generative AI apps and lots of other categories. The report under Discovered apps provides visibility into the cloud apps with the broadest use within your managed network. And from there, you can again see categories of discovered apps. I’ll filter by Generative AI again, and this time it returns the specific apps in use in my org. Like before, each app has a defined risk score of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, based on a number of parameters. And if I click into any one of them, like Microsoft Copilot, I can see the details as well as how they fair for general areas, a breadth of security capabilities, as well as compliance with standards and regulations, and whether they appear to meet legal and privacy requirements. - And this can save a lot of valuable time especially when you’re trying to get ahead of risks. - And Defender for Cloud Apps doesn’t just give you visibility. For your managed devices enrolled into Microsoft Defender, it also has controls that can either allow or block people from using defined cloud apps, based on the policies you have set as an administrator. From each cloud app, I can see an overview with activities surrounding the app with a few tabs. In the cloud app usage tab, I can drill in even more to see usage, users, IP addresses, and incident details. I’ll dig into Users, and here you can see who has used this app in my org. If I head back to my filtered view of generative AI apps in use, on the right you can see options to either sanction apps so that people can keep using them, or unsanction them to block them outright from being used. But rather than unsanction these apps one-by-one like Whack-a-Mole, there’s a better way, and that’s with automation based on the app’s risk score level. This way, you’re not manually configuring 1,000 apps in this category; nobody wants to do that. So I’ll head over to policy management, and to make things easier as new apps emerge, you can set up policies based on the risk score thresholds that I showed earlier, or other attributes. I’ll create a new policy, and from the dropdown, I’ll choose app discovery policy. Now I’ll name it Risky AI apps, and I can set the policy severity here too. Now, I’m going to select a filter, and I’ll choose category first, I’ll keep equals, and then scroll all the way down to Generative AI and pick that. Then, I need to add another filter. In this case, I’m going to find and choose risk score. I’ll pause for a second. Now what I want to happen is that when a new app is documented, or an existing cloud app incorporates new GenAI capabilities and meets my category and risk conditions, I want Defender for Cloud Apps to automatically unsanction those apps to stop people from using them on managed devices. So back in my policy, I can adjust this slider here for risk score. I’ll set it so that any app with a risk score of 0 to 6 will trigger a match. And if I scroll down a little more, this is the important part of doing the enforcement. I’ll choose tag app as unsanctioned and hit create to make it active. With that, my policy is set and next time my managed devices are synced with policy, Defender for Endpoint will block any generative AI app with a matching risk score. Now, let’s go see what it looks like. If I move over to a managed device, you’ll remember one of our four generative AI apps was something called Fakeyou. I have to be a little careful with how I enunciate that app name, and this is what a user would see. It’s clearly marked as being blocked by their IT organization with a link to visit the support page for more information. And this works with iOS, Android, Mac, and, of course, Windows devices once they are onboarded to Defender. - Okay, so now you can see and control which cloud apps are in use in your organization, but what about those in-house developed apps? How would you control the AI risks there? - So internally developed apps and enterprise-grade SaaS apps, like Microsoft Copilot, would normally have the controls and terms around data usage in place to prevent data loss and disallow vendors from training their models on your data. That said, there are other types of risks and that’s where Defender for Cloud comes in. If you’re new to Defender for Cloud, it connects the security team and developers in your company. For security teams, for your apps, there’s cloud security posture management to surface actions to predict and give you recommendations for preventing breaches before they happen. For cloud infrastructure and workloads, it gives you insights to highlight risks and guide you with specific protections that you can implement for all of your virtual machines, your data infrastructure, including databases and storage. And for your developers, using DevOps, you can even see best practice insights and associated risks with API endpoints being used, and in Containers see misconfigurations, exposed secrets and vulnerabilities. And for cloud infrastructure entitlement management, you can find out where you have potentially overprovisioned or inactive entitlements that could lead to a breach. And the nice thing is that from the central SecOps team perspective, these signals all flow into Microsoft Defender for end-to-end security tracking. In fact, I have an example here. This is an in-house developed app running on Azure that helps an employee input things like address, tax information, bank details for depositing your salary, and finding information on benefits options that employees can enroll into. It’s a pretty important app to ensure that the right protections are in place. And for anyone who’s entered a new job right after graduation, it can be confusing to know what benefits options to choose from, things like 401k or IRA for example in the U.S., or do you enroll into an employee stock purchasing program? It’s actually a really good scenario for generative AI when you think about it. And if you can act on the options it gives you to enroll into these services, again, it’s super helpful for the employees and important to have the right controls in place. Obviously, you don’t want your salary, stock, or benefits going into someone else’s account. So if you’re familiar with how generative AI apps work, most use what’s called a system prompt to enforce basic rules. But people, especially modern adversaries, are getting savvy to this and figuring out how to work around these basic guardrails: for example, by telling these AI tools to ignore their instructions. And I can show you an example of that. This is our app’s system prompt, and you’ll see that we’ve instructed the AI to not display ID numbers, account numbers, financial information, or tax elections with examples given for each. Now, I’ll move over to a running session with this app. I’ve already submitted a few prompts. And in the third one, with a gentle bit of persuasion, basically telling it that I’m a security researcher, for the AI model to ignore the instructions, it’s displaying information that my company and my dev team did not want it to display. This app even lets me update the bank account IBAN number with a prompt: Sorry, Adele. Fortunately, there’s a fix. Using controls as part of Azure AI Foundry, we can prevent this information from getting displayed to our user and potentially any attacker if their credentials or token has been compromised. So this is the same app on the right with no changes to the system message behind it, and I’ll enter the prompts in live this time. You’ll see that my exact same attempts to get the model to ignore its instructions no matter what I do, even as a security researcher, have been stopped in this case using Prompt Shields and have been flagged for immediate response. And these types of controls are even more critical as we start to build more autonomous agentic apps that might be parsing messages from external users and automatically taking action. - Right, and as we saw in the generated response, protection was enforced, like you said, using content safety controls in Azure AI Foundry. - Right, and those activities are also passed to Defender XDR incidents, so that you can see if someone is trying to work around the rules that your developers set. Let me quickly show you where these controls were set up to defend our internal app against these types of prompt injection or jailbreak attempts. I’m in the new Azure AI Foundry portal under safety + security for my app. The protected version of the app has Prompt shields for jailbreak and indirect attacks configured here as input filters. That’s all I had to do. And what I showed before was a direct jailbreak attack. There can also be indirect attacks. These methods are a little sneakier where the attacker, for example, might poison reference data upstream with maybe an email sent previously or even an image with hidden instructions, which gets added to the prompt. And we protect you in both cases. - Okay, so now you have policy protections in place. Do I need to identify and track issues in their respective dashboards then? - You can, and depending on your role or how deep in any area you want to go, all are helpful. But if you want to stitch together multiple alerts as part of something like a multi-stage attack, that’s where Defender XDR comes in. It will find the connections between different events, whether the user succeeded or not, and give you the details you need to respond to them. I’m now in the Defender XDR portal and can see all of my incidents. I want to look at a particular incident, 206872. We have a compromised user account, but this time it’s not Jonathan Wolcott; it’s Marie Ellorriaga. - I have a feeling Jonathan’s been watching these shows on Mechanics to learn what not to do. - Good for him; it’s about time. So let’s see what Marie, or the person using her account, was up to. It looks like they found our Employee Assistant internal app, then tried to Jailbreak it. But because our protections were in place, this attempt was blocked, and we can see the evidence of that from this alert here on the right. Then we can see that they moved on to Microsoft 365 Copilot and tried to get into some other finance-related information. And because of our DLP policies preventing Copilot from processing labeled content, that activity also wouldn’t have been successful. So our information was protected. - And these controls get even more important, I think, as agents also become more mainstream. - That’s right, and those agents often need to send information outside of your trust boundary to reason over it, so it’s risky. And more than just visibility, as you saw, you have active protections to keep your information secure in real-time for the apps you build in-house and even shadow AI SaaS apps that people are using on your managed devices. - So for anyone who’s watching today right now, what do you recommend they do to get started? - So to get started on the things that we showed today, we’ve created end-to-end guidance for this that walks you through the entire process at aka.ms/ProtectAIapps; so that you can discover and control the generative AI cloud apps people are using now, build protections into the apps you’re building, and make sure that you have the visibility you need to detect and respond to AI-related threats. - Thanks, Rob, and, of course, to stay up-to-date with all the latest tech at Microsoft, be sure to keep checking back on Mechanics. Subscribe if you haven’t already, and we’ll see you again soon.
