Volume 18 of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) is now available at http://microsoft.com/sir.

This volume of the SIR focuses on the second half of 2014 and contains longer term trend data as well. SIR volume 18 contains data, insights and practical guidance on a range of global and regional cybersecurity threats including vulnerability disclosures, malware and unwanted software including the latest on Ransomware, malicious websites such as drive-by download sites, and exploit activity including exploits used in targeted attacks. Deep dives into the threat landscape in over 100 countries/regions are also available.

The “Featured Intelligence” section of the report is on “The life and times of an exploit.” This section explores the increased speed at which some attackers are able to reverse engineer security updates, illustrating the critical need to update systems as quickly as possible once security updates have been published by vendors.

The SIR also contains actionable guidance to help mitigate the threats reported to us from hundreds of millions of systems worldwide. This also includes guidance based on the threats that Microsoft’s IT department, MSIT, detect and mitigate in the course of protecting Microsoft’s corporate network which spans every region of the world.

Susan Hauser, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Enterprise Partner Group highlights some of the key findings in the new SIR and guidance for enterprise customers on her blog.

Tim Rains

Chief Security Advisor

Worldwide Cybersecurity & Data Protection