{"id":125414,"date":"2023-01-26T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/?p=125414"},"modified":"2023-05-15T22:57:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T05:57:18","slug":"2023-identity-security-trends-and-solutions-from-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2023\/01\/26\/2023-identity-security-trends-and-solutions-from-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 identity security trends and solutions from Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to 2023! I wanted to kick this year off by having a quick look at the trends in identity security<\/a>, what you can do about it, and what Microsoft is doing to help you. One of the things we talk about on the team is \u201cshiny object syndrome\u201d\u2014there are a ton of innovative and scary attacks and research out there. Unfortunately, each one tends to pull us into \u201cbut what about\u2026\u201d where we\u2019re being asked how we will handle the nascent headline grabber. This approach can whipsaw teams and prevent the completion of our defense projects, leaving us exposed to old and new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attackers will innovate\u2014our response in the defender community needs to be thoughtful and strategic. But we don’t need to panic. We can take as an example ransomware attacks. These are scary and grab headlines because of crippling work stoppages or huge ransoms. But recent studies by Expert Insights<\/a> confirm what we\u2019ve known for ages\u2014more often than not, attacks like ransomware are the second stage, predicated by an identity compromise. In fact, if you read all the attention-grabbing headlines, you\u2019ll find that most novel techniques rely on compromising identity first. This shows the importance of getting our identity basics right and keeping our eyes on the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pamela Dingle gave a keynote at Authenticate 2022 in which she discussed identity attacks in terms of waves (and has recapped on LinkedIn<\/a>\u2014if you haven’t read it, you should). She was kind enough to let me weigh in, and I\u2019m going to borrow the paradigm to frame our guidance. Pam likened escalating identity attacks to threats in a voyage in her talk. These threats decrease in volume as they increase in sophistication and novelty: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graphic<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is an awesome frame for thinking through the attacks, so we\u2019ll use it here to complement her blog with concrete features and guidance. I am adding one more threat to her framework\u2014the critical importance of posture agility that helps us deal with the next \u201crogue wave.\u201d Hopefully, this framing will help you build out a strategic approach that addresses the critical issues you are facing now, help you invest thoughtfully for emerging threats, and set you up for defensive agility in the year ahead. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Password attacks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Simple password attacks are pervasive. They are the water we swim in. I detail these extensively in “Your Password Doesn’t Matter<\/a>.” The dominant three attacks are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n