Machine learning vs. social engineering

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2018 13:00:56 +0000

Machine learning is a key driver in the constant evolution of security technologies at Microsoft. Machine learning allows Microsoft 365 to scale next-gen protection capabilities and enhance cloud-based, real-time blocking of new and unknown threats. Just in the last few months, machine learning has helped us to protect hundreds of thousands of customers against ransomware,

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Hunting down Dofoil with Windows Defender ATP

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2018 15:00:18 +0000

Dofoil is a sophisticated threat that attempted to install coin miner malware on hundreds of thousands of computers in March, 2018. In previous blog posts we detailed how behavior monitoring and machine learning in Windows Defender AV protected customers from a massive Dofoil outbreak that we traced back to a software update poisoning campaign several

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Why Windows Defender Antivirus is the most deployed in the enterprise

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2018 16:58:23 +0000

Statistics about the success and sophistication of malware can be daunting. The following figure is no different: Approximately 96% of all malware is polymorphic meaning that it is only experienced by a single user and device before it is replaced with yet another malware variant. This is because in most cases malware is caught

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Poisoned peer-to-peer app kicked off Dofoil coin miner outbreak

Credit to Author: Windows Defender Research| Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 22:27:06 +0000

On March 7, we reported that a massive Dofoil campaign attempted to install malicious cryptocurrency miners on hundreds of thousands of computers. Windows Defender Antivirus, with its behavior monitoring, machine learning technologies, and layered approach to security detected and blocked the attack within milliseconds.Windows 10 S, a special configuration of Windows 10 providing Microsoft-verified security,

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How artificial intelligence stopped an Emotet outbreak

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2018 14:43:26 +0000

At 12:46 a.m. local time on February 3, a Windows 7 Pro customer in North Carolina became the first would-be victim of a new malware attack campaign for Trojan:Win32/Emotet. In the next 30 minutes, the campaign tried to attack over a thousand potential victims, all of whom were instantly and automatically protected by Windows Defender

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Now you see me: Exposing fileless malware

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2018 14:00:21 +0000

Attackers are determined to circumvent security defenses using increasingly sophisticated techniques. Fileless malware boosts the stealth and effectiveness of an attack, and two of last years major ransomware outbreaks (Petya and WannaCry) used fileless techniques as part of their kill chains. The idea behind fileless malware is simple: If tools already exist on a device

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A worthy upgrade: Next-gen security on Windows 10 proves resilient against ransomware outbreaks in 2017

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:00:31 +0000

Adopting reliable attack methods and techniques borrowed from more evolved threat types, ransomware attained new levels of reach and damage in 2017. The following trends characterize the ransomware narrative in the past year: Three global outbreaks showed the force of ransomware in making real-world impact, affecting corporate networks and bringing down critical services like hospitals,

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Microsoft teams up with law enforcement and other partners to disrupt Gamarue (Andromeda)

Credit to Author: Windows Defender ATP| Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2017 23:06:44 +0000

Today, with help from Microsoft security researchers, law enforcement agencies around the globe, in cooperation with Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), announced the disruption of Gamarue, a widely distributed malware that has been used in networks of infected computers collectively called the Andromeda botnet. The disruption is the culmination of a journey that started in

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