All democracies are weak to overseas malign affect, notably during times of heightened geopolitical competitors. Over the previous yr, overseas state actors equivalent to Russia and China have tried to unduly affect political outcomes all through Africa by spreading conspiracy theories, creating faux information websites, and exacerbating present social divisions.
Microsoft just lately launched this yr’s Microsoft Digital Protection Report, which outlines the evolving menace panorama. The report highlights that NGOs and suppose tanks are the fourth most-targeted sector globally by state-sponsored menace teams.
In response to more and more refined digital threats, Microsoft is enhancing its dedication to cybersecurity in Africa by the introduction of Microsoft AccountGuard to the continent.
Defending African democratic establishments
Microsoft AccountGuard, which is a part of our Democracy Ahead Initiative, is a cybersecurity service that provides an additional layer of safety to high-risk, extremely focused organizations. Microsoft AccountGuard is out there free of charge to organizations utilizing Microsoft 365 and will help safe their on-line accounts.
AccountGuard is designed to guard organizations that assist a wholesome democracy – entities within the political, electoral, journalism, suppose tank, human rights and nonprofit sectors – from nation–state cyberattacks. This system will initially be obtainable in three new markets in Africa: Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, whereas we actively discover future enlargement alternatives in Ghana and elsewhere. Furthermore, increasing AccountGuard will broaden entry to Microsoft’s cybersecurity options, together with enhanced menace detection and notification companies, serving to African organizations handle evolving digital threats.
Malicious actors typically select the trail of least resistance. That’s why integrating Microsoft AccountGuard into present safety measures offers a further layer of protection, serving to to detect and mitigate state-sponsored assaults.
AccountGuard offers the power to ship proactive menace notification alerts to assist guarantee eligible establishments are shortly knowledgeable of potential safety dangers and cyber threats together with assaults by recognized nation-state actors. These protections lengthen not solely to organizational accounts but in addition to private accounts (e.g., Hotmail, Outlook, Skype, and Xbox accounts) of staff and associates, together with the non-public accounts of political marketing campaign employees, IT admins, board members, or their fast members of the family. Entry to incident response companies can present knowledgeable steering on safety incidents, serving to organizations perceive the character of assaults and restoration processes. Moreover, safety trainings, greatest apply sources, workshops, and webinar entry, and a direct line of assist to Microsoft’s Democracy Ahead staff assist organizations and people perceive how one can higher defend themselves from future assaults.
AccountGuard additionally works with a spread of trusted safety companions ought to organizations want further assist, together with Yubico for extremely safe authentication options, and Quorum Cyber for cybersecurity assessments and incident response.
Increasing the influence of Microsoft AccountGuard
On this period of AI, we sadly witness many malicious actors utilizing giant language fashions (LLMs) to execute phishing assaults, ransomware assaults, and password spray assaults to call a couple of. To guard in opposition to these threats, it’s crucial that we guarantee clients are supported to defend in opposition to the assorted avenues that attackers might try to use.
Microsoft’s enlargement of AccountGuard to Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa provides to the 36 international locations within the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania the place the service is presently obtainable. It marks the start of additional investments throughout the area because the service continues to grow to be extra extensively accessible.
We encourage all AccountGuard-eligible clients in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria to study extra and enroll right this moment by visiting the web site at accountguard.microsoft.com.
