How attackers take advantage of Microsoft 365 services

The most common cause of cloud security incidents is compromised credentials for human or non-human identities. Once an attacker gains control of an identity, they can quickly move to other areas of the environment, including sensitive data stores. Microsoft 365 is a frequent target due to its popularity and numerous integrations with other platforms and services. Attackers often exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft 365 by compromising identities through methods like phishing, credential stuffing, and password spraying. They may then use their access to manipulate settings for other Microsoft 365 services or download data from them, leading to costly data breaches. To detect malicious activity within Microsoft 365, it's essential to monitor various stages of an attack, such as initial access, persistence, privilege escalation, defense evasion, collection, and exfiltration. Datadog Cloud SIEM provides a Microsoft 365 content pack to simplify the process of monitoring these activities and offers comprehensive visibility into user activity within Microsoft 365 services.