Tech giant Microsoft has rolled out new security offering to provide non-profit organizationss with additional security in the event of a nation-state attack.
Microsoft said the new program would deliver monitoring and notifications for state-sponsored malware activity, assessment of organizational and infrastructure risks to help improve posture, and provide security training, for both IT employees and end-users.
According to Microsoft, non-profits are increasingly targeted by state-sponsored threat actors, but typically lack the adequate resources to keep data safe, which could have devastating impact on everyone involved, ranging from participants to volunteers and donors.
“Our objective is to support 10,000 organizations in the first year, with a three-year goal of providing these services to 50,000 organizations worldwide,” Microsoft said in a statement.
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As part of the new offering, Microsoft is providing AccountGuard for Non-Profits, a service now available in 32 countries and which notifies organizations if threat actors believed to be working on behalf of governments have targeted or compromised Microsoft 365, Outlook, or Hotmail accounts.
Also included are free security assessments, where a non-profit organization could better understand vulnerabilities in their environment, to create and prioritize a plan to improve security, and free training pathways for IT administrators and end-users, to teach them strategies on how to protect themselves from scams and other types of online attacks.
According to Microsoft’s 2021 Digital Defense Report, NGOs and think tanks were the second most targeted sector last year, accounting for roughly 30% of all of the notification of state-sponsored activity.
“It’s up to all of us to support non-profits as they work on the front lines of need around the world. Volunteers, partners, donors and employees continue to accomplish great things in the face of great need,” Microsoft said.
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