Implementing Foundational Security Controls for Every Office 365 Environment

In our previous post, we provided an overview of each of the 12 Foundational Security Controls that should be implemented for every Office 365 environment to deter business email compromise (BEC), account takeover (ATO) attacks, and unauthorized data access.

Foundational Security Controls for Every Office 365 Environment

As many organizations continue to adjust to an extended and potentially permanent remote workforce, dependency on cloud services has increased rapidly – as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated in a recent earnings release – “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” The following post is intended to help organizations that may have recently begun using or have increased their usage of Office 365. 

Please note Microsoft continues to evolve their platform and these recommendations are current as of this posting.

Microsoft Sentinel: Monitoring Audio/Video Conferencing Software

This blog expands upon SecureSky’s “Top 10 Audio/Video Conferencing Security Best Practices” blog posted on April 8, 2020. If you have not read that blog yet, we encourage you to do so, as it provides recommendations on settings to harden various audio/video conferencing tools that you may use within your organization.

Attackers Exploit Gap in Office 365 Best Practice Guidelines

July 28, 2020 Update: Due to the complexities documented in this blog post, Microsoft is rolling out changes to e-mail forwarding configuration in Office 365. SecureSky is testing the changes that are documented at the following Microsoft URL, and will update this blog post after completion of testing to address these changes: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide.

With a six times increase in COVID-19 themed incidents, security professionals need to take advantage of every possible configuration and security control to protect against this growing amount of attacks.  Today we will discuss how attackers are leveraging a gap in Office 365 best practices that allows undetected eavesdropping on victim’s emails.

When attackers gain control of an account in Office 365, one of the first steps they often take is to configure email forwarding in the compromised environment. Attackers configure email forwarding in order to see new emails that arrive in the victim’s inbox – which can be responses to attacker phishing attempts sent to the victim contacts. In order to disguise their presence, the attacker does not want the victim to see those emails. 

Microsoft Security Defaults – A Step in the Right Direction, but Customers Should Do More

We understand that managing security for Office 365 can be difficult and complex. As we continue to see common identity-related attacks against authentication like password spray, replay, phishing and malware-based increasing into today’s uncertain world it's imperative that we understand Microsoft’s “Security Defaults”.   

Top 10 Audio/Video Conferencing Security Best Practices

With the recent shift of much of the global workforce to home office work environments, it’s a good time to revisit Audio/Video conferencing security best practices. In this blog we will highlight what we consider the Top 10 ways you can train your employees to practice good, risk-reducing security hygiene when scheduling, creating and running online meetings using one of many popular audio/video conferencing platforms. We will also highlight ways to implement detection and alerting controls for audio/video conferencing platforms that offer such robust security features.

SecureSky Cyber Threat Center Sees Greater Than 6 Times Increase In Attacks

But There’s Still a Lot of Good Things Happening In These Trying Times! One of the most staggering statistics reported recently from the SecureSky Cyber Threat Center is seeing a 6x-7x increase in fraudulent scams and BEC cases in the last 30 days, with COVID-19 themes – phishing, fake investment, charities, prevention or treatment offers and testing scams. We have seen similar trending of overall phishing volumes from multiple clients and email gateway providers, which correlates to the sharp uptick in case volume, as well as click rates.

Top 10 Ways To Reduce WFH Bandwidth Consumption

In the new work-from-home (and school-from-home) era, between adding your family “full-time” to your home wifi and the cloud providers and ISPs scrambling to increase capacity, many of you have probably already experienced some network slow down or lag. Here are SecureSky’s “Top 10” ways to decrease load and, hopefully, increase your speed:

Will Coronavirus Affect Security Operations?

You cannot open a news site or turn on the television today without rightfully hearing about the coronavirus. While governments and medical systems scramble to respond and contain the virus, it is not clear if the virus will reach epidemic or pandemic levels, how quickly treatment options will become available or how the virus will affect the health and related productivity of large portions of the global population.

The Cloud Balancing Act: Improving Business Outcomes without Degrading Your Security Posture

Who knew that way back in 1964 Bob Dylan would predict the challenges we’re facing with the cloud in 2020. Times they are a-changin’. We’re in the midst of an evolution in IT, led by the rapid adoption of cloud computing, which promises to produce better business outcomes. While most of us have our security posture top-of-mind in the face of these changes, it’s easy to become complacent, think that we have it covered and rely a little too heavily on the out-of-the-box security offered by our cloud providers. In Dylan’s prophetic words, “It’s time to start swimming or sink like a stone.”