The last thing we all need this year is an identity crisis. Fear not, hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla are here with Maria Puertas Calvo, Data Science Lead of Microsoft’s Identity Security and Protection Team, to learn how AI is being used to protect our personal identities. Maria also reveals previously undisclosed information – her favorite food and her famous top-secret recipe, so get ready to take notes!  Later, the hosts bring back a previous guest, Geoff McDonald, ML Research Lead a ..read more

Every day there are literally billions of authentications across Microsoft – whether it’s someone checking their email, logging onto their Xbox, or hopping into a Teams call – and while there are tools like Multi-Factor Authentication in place to ensure the person behind the keyboard is the actual owner of the account, cyber-criminals can still manipulate systems. Catching one of these instances should be like catching the smallest needle in the largest haystack, but with the algorithms put into place by the Identity Security team at Microsoft, that haystack becomes much smaller, and that need ..read more

In this episode, hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla speak with Hardik Suri of the Microsoft Defender ATP Research Team about using behavior-based detection and machine learning to block attacks against Exchange servers, and why it’s so critical to patch and enable security capabilities.   Then they speak to Dr. Karen Lavi, a Senior Data Science Lead in the Microsoft Defender Research Team, on the neuroscience of threat detection, and how her team is using AI and machine learning to predict and prevent malware attacks.  In This Episode, You Will Learn:   Why Exch ..read more

Digital crime-fighter Donal Keating revisits the podcast, but this time… it’s personal. *cue dramatic crime-fighting music* The Director of Innovation and Research of the Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) at Microsoft joins hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla to regale us with the origin story of the DCU and his captivating career exploits. Whether it’s tales of his early days preventing Windows 98 counterfeits in Ireland or the many international law enforcement raids he’s participated in…there’s no shortage to Donal’s crime-fighting adventures. In This Episode ..read more

Yeehaw! “Data Cowboy” is in the building. Join us as Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla sit down with Ram Shankar Siva Kumar, aka “Data Cowboy” at Microsoft, for an exciting conversation about the release of a new adversarial ML threat matrix created for security analysts. Have no fear, we made sure to find out how Ram acquired the name, “Data Cowboy”, so saddle up and get ready for the ride! Stick around to hear Nic and Natalia explore the urgency of surfacing threats at a faster rate with Justin Carroll, a Threat Analyst at Microsoft, and why it is more important now than ever before. In Thi ..read more

Ransomware attacks have never been so successful. The returns from these attacks are soaring and only becoming easier to conduct. In chapter two of the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, the growing threat of cybercrime is covered in great detail. As we continue to go over the MDDR, it's more apparent than ever that the cybercrime economy and services it provides are stronger and more complex than ever. Cryptocurrency, malware, and adversarial machine learning are just a few of the topics we believe need to be covered in more detail.   In this episode of Security Unlocked, host’s Nat ..read more

The success of crypto inspired dozens of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Tether, and Dogecoin. Today, people worldwide use cryptocurrencies to buy things, sell things, and make investments. One thing is certain; digital currencies are here to stay, no matter how many times you have to explain what a bitcoin is. Unfortunately, it also created the world of cryptojacking, a form of cybercrime that remains completely hidden from the target and can infect millions of computers with cryptojacking malware. Which brings us to the fundamental question: What can organizations do to protect themsel ..read more

In this episode, hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla speak with Mike Flowers and Cole Sodja of the Microsoft Protection Team, and Justin Carroll of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Global Engagement and Response team, about how they’re using machine learning to identify and model lateral movement attacks. Then they speak to Dr. Anna Bertiger, Senior Applied Scientist at Microsoft, on how she’s using math to catch villains and make computer networks safer.   In This Episode, You Will Learn: What are lateral movement attacks How machine learning helps address security challenges Why g ..read more

Disinformation refers to the calculated use of false information to influence others and has been a steadily growing form of information warfare. Unfortunately, disinformation is everywhere these days, often hidden in plain sight. Criminals will also adapt and take advantage of technologies, such as AI and deepfakes, to increase the effectiveness of disinformation campaigns. Of course, there are ways to combat these types of attacks, and we cover recommendations for protecting the enterprise in the 2021 Microsoft Digital Defense Report (MDDR).   In this episode of Security Unlocked ..read more

Everything is exciting and new when you're a kid, and curiosity inspires many of us to branch out and try new things. For some, that means drawing from our imagination or trying all kinds of sports. And for others it means spending days at the library, checking out books on modem communications, and eventually hacking into the local dial-up community service. That's just a random example, of course... Either way, curiosity can be a powerful tool, even at a young age. To the point that it may help kickstart a career, you didn't even know existed.   In this episode of Security Unlocked ..read more