All democracies are susceptible to overseas malign affect, notably in periods of heightened geopolitical competitors. Over the previous 12 months, overseas state actors akin to Russia and China have tried to unduly affect political outcomes all through Africa by spreading conspiracy theories, creating faux information websites, and exacerbating current social divisions.
Microsoft not too long ago launched this 12 months’s Microsoft Digital Protection Report, which outlines the evolving risk panorama. The report highlights that NGOs and suppose tanks are the fourth most-targeted sector globally by state-sponsored risk teams.
In response to more and more refined digital threats, Microsoft is enhancing its dedication to cybersecurity in Africa by way of 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 on the market without spending a dime to organizations utilizing Microsoft 365 and may 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 growth alternatives in Ghana and elsewhere. Furthermore, increasing AccountGuard will broaden entry to Microsoft’s cybersecurity options, together with enhanced risk detection and notification companies, serving to African organizations handle evolving digital threats.
Malicious actors usually select the trail of least resistance. That’s why integrating Microsoft AccountGuard into current safety measures supplies an extra layer of protection, serving to to detect and mitigate state-sponsored assaults.
AccountGuard supplies the flexibility to ship proactive risk notification alerts to assist guarantee eligible establishments are rapidly knowledgeable of potential safety dangers and cyber threats together with assaults by identified 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 rapid members of the family. Entry to incident response companies can present professional steering on safety incidents, serving to organizations perceive the character of assaults and restoration processes. Moreover, safety trainings, greatest observe assets, workshops, and webinar entry, and a direct line of assist to Microsoft’s Democracy Ahead group assist organizations and people perceive how you can higher defend themselves from future assaults.
AccountGuard additionally works with a variety 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 impression 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 towards these threats, it’s crucial that we guarantee prospects are supported to defend towards the varied avenues that attackers might try to take advantage of.
Microsoft’s growth 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 at the moment obtainable. It marks the start of additional investments throughout the area because the service continues to develop into extra broadly accessible.
We encourage all AccountGuard-eligible prospects in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria to be taught extra and enroll in the present day by visiting the web site at accountguard.microsoft.com.