Latest news and updates about Security.
Microsoft is urging organizations to begin testing certificate ecosystems now for post-quantum authentication readiness. The company’s PQC TLS Pilot Program and Windows 11 support for ML-DSA certificates give PKI teams a controlled way to identify interoperability, performance, and operational issues before production adoption becomes necessary.
Microsoft Security’s FORGE Lab shared three operational lessons from using AI for vulnerability research at scale across Windows and open-source software. The findings show that the real challenge is no longer just discovering bugs with AI, but validating, deduplicating, and remediating them fast enough to turn research into shipped security fixes.
Microsoft says AI is dramatically increasing the volume and pace of vulnerability discovery, especially for on-premises software, forcing CISOs to rethink patching and resilience strategies. The company recommends faster patch prioritization, broader use of AI-assisted scanning, and stronger defense-in-depth with Microsoft Baseline Security Mode to reduce exposure.
Microsoft's 2026 Digital Defense Report highlights how AI and growing system interconnectedness are reshaping both cyberattacks and defense strategies. The report emphasizes that organizations must secure AI, identities, data, and cloud environments together while improving signal correlation across tools to detect modern threats faster.
Microsoft says government agencies were the most targeted sector in 2026, accounting for 27% of observed cyber threat activity. The company urges public-sector leaders to focus on five resilience priorities, including faster response, AI security, bidirectional information sharing, and planning for incidents that spread across suppliers and essential services.
Microsoft has published its security guide for Microsoft Ignite 2026, highlighting AI-first security themes, a dedicated Security Pre-Day, and technical sessions focused on securing identities, data, devices, clouds, and AI agents. For IT and security teams, the event offers an early look at Microsoft’s roadmap and practical guidance for building an AI-ready security strategy.
Microsoft is tracking active exploitation of CVE-2026-73570, an unauthenticated command injection flaw affecting internet-facing Zimbra mail servers with the optional zimbra-snmp package installed and SNMP notifications enabled. The issue can lead to web shell deployment, privilege escalation, mailbox data theft, and persistent remote access, making immediate patching and configuration review critical for administrators.
Microsoft security researchers observed phishing campaigns in July 2026 that used a legitimate MSP360 RMM installer disguised as meeting invites, PDF updates, and other lures to gain remote access. Attackers then deployed ConnectWise ScreenConnect for redundant persistence, highlighting the need for tighter controls on remote management tools and better detection of unapproved RMM activity.
Microsoft’s latest DART cyberattack report shows how a single compromised identity was used to access Azure DevOps, alter pipelines, and harvest Kubernetes credentials. The case highlights how tightly connected identity, DevOps, and cloud environments can let attackers move far beyond source code, making stronger identity and pipeline controls essential.
Microsoft reports that Star Blizzard has shifted to larger-scale phishing campaigns and a new malware delivery technique called RedFlick. The change lowers the number of steps needed to infect victims with the CosmicPulse backdoor, increasing risk for governments, NGOs, think tanks, and organizations linked to support for Ukraine.
Microsoft Threat Intelligence has uncovered NeedyMantis, a modular post-compromise malware family used in limited targeted intrusions across telecom, education, nonprofit, intergovernmental, and government contractor sectors. The report matters for defenders because the malware is designed to maintain long-term access, evade analysis, and support follow-on activity through DLL sideloading, custom archives, and modular loaders.
Microsoft Security Research detailed Azure-focused attacks by Storm-3168, a threat actor linked to agentic ransomware activity that used compromised service principals for reconnaissance, destructive actions, and credential collection. The findings highlight the growing risk of exposed workload identity secrets and reinforce the need for least privilege, secret rotation, recovery protection, and Defender for Cloud protections.