Today, we’re thrilled to introduce new features for securing and governing in the age of AI. We are announcing new capabilities in Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview that will make it easier for teams to manage, protect ,and govern AI applications at work.
<p>This article in our <a href="/b/security/archive/2012/07/31/microsoft-s-free-security-tools-series-introduction.aspx">series</a> on Microsoft’s free security tools is focused on a tool called the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7558">Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer</a> (MBSA). Many years ago before Windows Update was available, servicing software was much more painful than it is today. Microsoft released security updates weekly, and there were few deployment technologies available to help determine which systems needed which updates. I wrote an <a href="/b/security/archive/2012/03/26/trustworthy-computing-learning-about-threats-for-over-10-years-part-6.aspx">article on this topic</a> if you are interested in a walk down memory lane. For those IT administrators that lived through those days, the MBSA was a godsend. Today, 10 years later, the MBSA is still a free security tool that many, many IT Professionals use to help manage the security of their environments. </p>
We’ve received reports of a recent email scam that spoofs the Microsoft Services Agreement. The scam email message replaces legitimate links in the agreement with links that can compromise your computer when clicked. If you receive mail that looks like the real agreement or asks you to click a suspicious link or to provide personal […]
<p>In July, we kicked off a blog series focused on "<a href="/b/security/archive/2012/07/31/microsoft-s-free-security-tools-series-introduction.aspx">Microsoft's Free Security Tools</a>." The series highlights free security tools that Microsoft provides to help make IT professionals' and developers' lives easier. A good tool can save a lot of work and time for those people responsible for developing and managing software. In the series we discuss many of the benefits each tool can provide and include step by step guidance on how to use each. Below is a summary of the tools covered in the series and a brief overview of each.</p>
<p>This article in our <a href="/b/security/archive/2012/07/31/microsoft-s-free-security-tools-series-introduction.aspx">series</a> focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on a tool called <strong>Portqry</strong>. This tool is a TCP/IP connectivity test tool, port scanner, and local port monitor. Portqry is useful for troubleshooting networking issues as well as verifying network security related configurations. Because of this broad functionality, I have heard some Information Technology (IT) Professionals refer to this tool as a “Swiss army knife” of tools.</p>
Empower your defenders to detect hidden patterns, harden defenses, and respond to incidents faster with generative AI.
Today we released a downloadable tool called a “Fix it” for Internet Explorer. On September 21, we will release a cumulative update for Internet Explorer through Windows Update. We recommend that you install this update immediately. If you have automatic updating enabled on your computer, you won’t need to take any action – it will […]
<p>This article in our <a href="/b/security/archive/2012/07/31/microsoft-s-free-security-tools-series-introduction.aspx">series </a>focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on a tool called <strong>Windows Defender Offline</strong>. Windows Defender Offline is a standalone software application that is designed to help detect malicious and other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits that try to install themselves on a PC. Once on a PC, this software might run immediately, or it might run at unexpected times. Windows Defender Offline works by scanning an operating system to check the authenticity of any communication the operating system has with the Internet. If there is an application deemed unsafe, it will alert the user and block the contents of the application until the user either accepts or denies the risk.</p>
<p>As the adoption of cloud computing continues to rise, and customers demand 24/7 access to their services and data, reliability remains a challenge for cloud service providers everywhere. As I said in the recent <a href="/b/trustworthycomputing/archive/2012/06/05/cloud-fundamentals-video-series-reliability-in-the-cloud.aspx">Cloud Fundamentals video on reliability</a>, it’s not a matter of <i>if</i> an outage will occur; it’s strictly a matter of <i>when</i>. This means it’s critical for organizations to understand how best to design and deliver reliable cloud services. Microsoft manages a cloud-based infrastructure supporting more than 200 services, 1 billion customers, and 20 million businesses in more than 76 markets worldwide. So we understand what it takes to build and deliver highly-reliable cloud platforms, solutions, and services that are secure and private.</p>
<p>This article in our <a href="/b/security/archive/2012/07/31/microsoft-s-free-security-tools-series-introduction.aspx">series</a> focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on the <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9707345">Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) banned.h header file</a>. This is an important tool for developers who are trying to minimize the number of security vulnerabilities that exist in the C or C++ code they write. It’s also important for IT Professionals to know about this tool as they can ask the ISVs and developers of the applications they deploy and operate in their environments whether they were developed using banned.h.</p>
Govern, protect, and manage all of your data with Microsoft Purview, comprehensive solutions to help give you better visibility and control.
During my first 7 years at Microsoft, I spent most of my time working on security features such as access control, authentication, cryptography and so on. The next 12 years were spent in product groups and the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) team working on software design, development and testing practices across the company in order […]
Rogue security software (also known as "scareware") creates pop-up warnings that look like legitimate security updates. It provides limited or no security and generates erroneous or misleading alerts.
