Investigating User Account Compromises in Office 365

Unfortunately, almost every organization at some point will have to manage a situation where a user’s account has been compromised. In this blog post, we present O365 native tools and techniques that organizations can utilize.

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 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”.   

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.”

Dudear or Not Dudear – Analyzing A Recent Phishing Attempt

Following the Tweet from the Microsoft Security Intelligence account January 30, 2020 (https://twitter.com/MsftSecIntel/status/1222995250911703041?s=20), we at SecureSky were a little curious whether we had come across any evidence that phishing attempts against our own organization or our clients were part of this recently revived campaign. Not that we really need a reason to do this kind of research but given this announcement, we decided to put some time into this.

CIS Microsoft 365 Benchmark v1.1 Released

I am pleased to have participated in and been named a co-editor of the most recent release (version 1.1) of the Center for Internet Security Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark. Sharing SecureSky’s extensive O365 incident response experience and security controls recommendations to give back to the O365 security community was a great opportunity.