Security Unlocked

Electricity is all around us. In fact, you’re using it to read this right now. It powers (no pun intended) our everyday lives, and it works without us having to think about it. It’s kind of like breathing. I mean, you don’t have to tell your lungs “Hey! Start breathing right now!” But just like with breathing, the problems that can follow an interruption of electricity can be deadly. It shouldn’t...

8 trillion. It’s kind of a big number, right? That’s how many signals are collected, processed, and analyzed by Microsoft’s security team every single day. Those signals are travelling from the cloud, coming through endpoints, coming through Bing, coming through Xbox. All of these signals are turned into intelligence, and if you’re a cloud user, that intelligence is an asset to your security. By m...

How likely are you to fall for a scam? Survey Says… depends on your demographic. Scammers are evolving, from cold calls on the phone, to computer desktop pop-ups with nagging alarm sounds, to buying out search terms like “email support.” Tech support scams have become an ever-present threat in our online world with 3 out of 5 people globally experiencing them and 1 out of 6 people actually giving...

Every occupation has its unique jargon that allows professionals to speak their own language and understand each other’s shorthand.  Those of us in the world of cybersecurity are no exception as we frequently toss around acronyms and abbreviations, but how can we cybersecurity professionals communicate all of this crucial ingrained knowledge to people who haven’t the faintest idea about technology...

Ready for a riddle? What do 40 hypothetical high school students and our guest on this episode have in common? Why they can help you understand complex cyber-attack methodology, of course!  In this episode of Security Unlocked, hosts  Nic Fillingham  and  Natalia Godyla  are brought back to school by Principal Security Researcher,  Jonathan Bar Or who discusses vulnerabilities in NETGEAR Firmware....

There used to be a time when our appliances didn’t talk back to us, but it seems like nowadays everything in our home is getting smarter. Smart watches, smart appliances, smart lights - smart everything! This connectivity to the internet is what we call the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s becoming increasingly common for our everyday items to be “smart,” and while that may provide a lot of benefits...

Is it just me, or do you also miss the good ole days of fraudulent activity? You remember the kind I’m talking about, the emails from princes around the world asking for just a couple hundred dollars to help them unfreeze or retrieve their massive fortune which they would share with you. Attacks have grown more nuanced, complex, and invasive since then, but because of the unbelievable talent at Mi...

How does that old saying go? Keep your friends close and keep your understanding of a threat actor’s underlying behavior and functionality of tradecraft closer? As new tools are developed and implemented for individuals and businesses to protect themselves, wouldn’t it be great to see how they hold up against different attacks without actually having to wait for an attack to happen? Microsoft’s ne...

We’ve all had a family dinner, Netflix binge, or otherwise relaxing moment ruined by a telemarketer trying to sell you something you didn't need – a magazine subscription, insurance, you name it! But recently, people have been getting calls that are much more sinister in nature; people claiming to be employees of Microsoft, or Apple, or Amazon, have been calling unsuspecting victims and urging the...

We’re formally sending out a petition to change the phrase “Jack of all trades” to “Hyrum of all trades” in honor of this episode’s guest,  Hyrum Anderson . In this episode, hosts  Natalia Godyla  and  Nic Fillingham  sit down with  Hyrum Anderson  who, when he’s not fulfilling his duties as the Principal Architect of the Azure Trustworthy ML group, spends his time playing accordions, making chees...

It’s an all out offensive on today’s episode while we talk about how the best defense is a good offense. But before we plan our attack, we need to know our vulnerabilities, and that’s where our guest comes in.   On this episode, hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla  are joined by Will Pearce , who discusses his role as AI Red Team Lead from the Azure Trustworthy ML Group and how he works to fin...

It’s our 30th episode! And in keeping with the traditional anniversary gift guide, the 30th anniversary means a gift of pearls. So from us to you, dear listener, we’ve got an episode with some  pearls  of wisdom!   On today’s episode, hosts  Nic Fillingham  and  Natalia Godyla  bring back returning champion,  Nazmus Sakib , to take us through the new  Security Signals Report . Sakib walks us throu...

On this week’s Security Unlocked we’re featuring for the second and final time, a special crossover episode of our sister-podcast, Security Unlocked: CISO Series with Bret Arsenault.    Lululemon has been on the forefront of athleisure wear since its founding in 1998, but while many of its customers look at it exclusively as a fashion brand,  at a deeper level this fashion empire is bolstered by a...

Threat actors are pesky and, once again, they’re up to no good. A new methodology has schemers compromising online forms where users submit their information like their names, email addresses, and, depending on the type of site, some queries relating to their life. This new method indicates that the attackers have figured out a way around the CAPTCHA’s that have been making us all prove we’re not...

On this week’s Security Unlocked, we’re pulling a bait and switch! Instead of our regularly scheduled programming, we’re going to be featuring the first episode of our new podcast, Security Unlocked: CISO Series with Bret Arsenault. Each episode is going to feature Microsoft’s CISO Bret Arsenault sitting down with other top techies in Microsoft and other companies in the industry.   In its inaugur...

Remember the good ole days when we spent youthful hours playing hide and seek with our friends in the park? Well it turns out that game of hide and seek isn’t just for humans anymore. Researchers have begun putting A.I. to the test by having it play this favorite childhood game over and over and having the software optimize its strategies through automated reinforcement training.   In today’s epis...

Anyone who’s ever watched boxing knows that great reflexes can be the difference between a championship belt and a black eye. The flexing of an opponent’s shoulder, the pivot of their hip - a good boxer will know enough not only to predict and avoid the incoming upper-cut, but will know how to turn the attack back on their opponent.  Microsoft’s newest capabilities in Defender puts cyber attackers...

All of us have seen – or at least, are familiar with – the antics of Tom and Jerry or Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. In each one the coyote or the cat set up these elaborate plans to sabotage their foe, but time and time again, the nimble mouse and the speedy bird are able to outsmart their attackers. In our third episode discussing Ensuring Firmware Security, hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia God...

Throughout the course of this podcast series, we’ve had an abundance of great conversations with our colleagues at Microsoft about how they’re working to better protect companies and individuals from cyber-attacks, but today we take a look at a different source of malfeasance: the insider threat. Now that most people are working remotely and have access to their company’s data in the privacy of th...

How many languages do you speak? The average person only speaks one or two languages, and for most people that’s plenty because even as communities are becoming more global, languages are still very much tied to geographic boundaries. But what happens when you go on the internet where those regions don’t exist the same way they do in real life? Because the internet connects people from every corne...

For Women’s History Month, we wanted to share the stories of just a few of the amazing women who make Microsoft the powerhouse that it is. To wrap up the month, we speak with Valecia Maclin , brilliant General Engineering Manager of Customer Security & Trust, about the human element of cybersecurity.  In discussion with hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla , Valecia speaks to how she transi...

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 s...

If you use email, there is a good chance you’re familiar with email scams. Who hasn’t gotten a shady chain letter or suspicious offer in their inbox? Cybercriminals have been using email to spread malware for decades and today’s methods are more sophisticated than ever. In order to stop these attacks from ever hitting our inboxes in the first place, threat analysts have to always be one step ahead...

Today is International Women’s Day, and we are celebrating with a very special episode of Security Unlocked. Hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla revisit their favorite interviews with some of the prominent women featured previously on the podcast. We speak with Holly Stewart , a Principal Research Lead at Microsoft and known in the Defender organization as “The Queen of AI.” Holly shares how b...

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...