How Microsoft AccountGuard is helping secure countries ahead of five national elections
Microsoft is working to fight cyberattacks on high-risk organizations and individuals.
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What you need to know
Microsoft is expanding its enterprise-grade identify and access management protections to all AccountGuard members in 31 countries. Thecompany announcedthe expansion recently and outlines how it will help protect people at risk of cyberattacks. Here’s afull list of the countriesthat will benefit from the expansion.
Specifically, the expansion includes multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, conditional access policies, privileged identity management, and access governance.
Microsoft’s AccountGuard is a program for organizations and individuals in the political space. It’s designed to help those that are likely to be targets of cybersecurity threats. Here’s a quick list of what the service provides, asexplained by Microsoft:
With the recentattack on Microsoft Exchangeservers, and theSolarWinds attacks, it’s clear that nation-state actors are targetting people and organizations.
“The addition of new features to AccountGuard provides new ways to protect online accounts for political parties, candidates and their staff, health care workers, human rights defenders, journalists and certain other customers who are at greatest risk from nation-state hackers,” says Microsoft in its blog post.
The expansion comes just as five democracies are leading up to elections. The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Estonia, and the Czech Republic all have national elections coming up, so people and organizations should benefit from the expanded protections.
Microsoft explains in its blog post:
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Improving the security of political actors – particularly in an election year – is a critical step to help prevent “hack-and-leak” operations where cybercriminals or foreign governments steal a campaign official’s emails and release them online, which in turn can help fuel disinformation campaigns. These challenges pose an even greater concern in an environment where much of the campaign coordination and even the campaigning itself is taking place online in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to expanding provided protections for AccountGuard members, Microsoft isexpanding its partnership with Yubico. Up to 25,000YubiKeyswill be provided by Yubico to high-profile and high-risk organizations free of cost.
“Yubico is a valued partner for Microsoft AccountGuard and the YubiKey is our recommended hardware-based multi-factor authentication solution,” says Tom Burt, corporate vice President, customer security & trust, Microsoft. “We’re working with individuals whose security is at risk by sophisticated attackers. Knowing that we can give AccountGuard customers the most advanced form of phishing protection, at no cost, is a tremendous win across the board.”
Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He’s covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean’s journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_.
