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Ignite<\/a> is Microsoft\u2019s main annual conference for bringing together its enterprise users and IT community. It\u2019s no surprise then that security is one of the main topics at the event, with almost 150 sessions<\/a> dedicated to the topic. And just as unsurprisingly, Microsoft is also using the event to announce a number of new security features, largely around its Microsoft 365 offerings. What ties many of these updates together is that they rely on security services and machine-learning based risk assessments that run in the cloud.<\/p>\n Microsoft 365<\/a> is a relatively new program, but it\u2019s essentially a subscription offering that gives businesses of any size access to Office 365, Windows 10, Microsoft\u2019s enterprise mobility services and other tools (based on the subscription tier).<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with some more general security updates, though. Azure Active Directory (AAD), Microsoft\u2019s identity and access management system, currently manages 450 billion authentications per month and because those authentications are all running through Microsoft\u2019s cloud, the company probably has a better view of what\u2019s happening with identity than virtually any other company. This \u201cIntelligent Security Graph,\u201d as Microsoft calls it, form the basis of a number of updates the company is announcing today.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most valuable things that we\u2019ve built ever is the intelligent security graph and that\u2019s where we bring all of this data together. In that graph, every enterprise identity now has a risk score attached to it,\u201d Microsoft\u2019s\u00a0Brad Anderson, CVP Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security,\u00a0told me ahead of today\u2019s announcements. \u201cHaving a lot of data is great, but having the right unique data is incredible.\u201d Conway also noted that over 10 terabyte of data flow through this algorithm every day.<\/p>\n The most important of these is probably Cloud App Security<\/em>, which allows IT to monitor and control how employees use their cloud-based applications. Typically, IT doesn\u2019t have much insight here and while admins may be able to control how documents flow through an internal email system, it\u2019s harder to control the documents a user may share through a third-party file storage service in the cloud. With this, IT can decide that it\u2019s ok for a user to access a certain cloud app from an unmanaged device, but that the user isn\u2019t allowed to download a document from that service.<\/p>\n Microsoft is also making it easier for IT to give conditional access to some files and it\u2019s implementing support for two-step authentication from RSA, Duo and Trusona.<\/p>\n Moving on to the Microsoft 365 world, one of the most interesting updates here is an enhancement to Office 365 message encryption that will allow you to send encrypted messages to users outside of Office 365, including those who use consumer services like Gmail and Outlook.com. Sadly, the details here remain a bit vague, but Microsoft\u2019s Andrew Conway, the general manager of product marketing for its enterprise mobility and security solutions, tells me that the idea here is to make the experience seamless for everybody involved.<\/p>\n Email is also the main vector for phishing attacks, so the company today also launched an update to the Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection<\/em> service that now also covers links and files shared in SharePoint Online, OneDrive for business and Teams, the company\u2019s Slack competitor.<\/p>\n At some point, even the best security system will see a breach, though. At that point, it\u2019s about detecting unusual activity as soon as possible. Using the Security Graph and Microsoft\u2019s on-premises threat detection tools, the new Azure Advanced Threat Protection<\/em> service now looks at who is accessing which files at what time and from where to scan for unusual behavior. For Windows machines, Microsoft has now also built Hexadite<\/a>\u2018s AI tech, which it acquired for $100 million<\/a> earlier this year, into the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection<\/em> service (these names definitely follow a certain pattern, but nobody is going to say they roll off the tongue\u2026).<\/p>\n In addition to these Active Directory and Office updates, Microsoft is also launched a new security tool for Azure, the Azure Security Center<\/em>. This new tool watches over workloads that can run across clouds and automatically looks for potential threats.<\/p>\n
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