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Thursday, 20 July 2023 10:45

Microsoft expands logging access, but holds back some premium features Featured

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Microsoft expands logging access, but holds back some premium features Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

Apparently stung by the criticism of both vendors and security practitioners over the lack of logs to analyse a recent breach of its cloud service, Microsoft has backed down to some extent on charging customers for providing access to logging services.

But the company has still held back on providing full logging access, saying: "Additional Audit Premium features [which] include longer default retention periods and automation support for importing log data into other tools for analysis" would have to be bought.

As iTWire reported, well-known American security expert Jake Williams, a former NSA elite hacker, weighed in on the breach at a number of government agencies, saying it was not acceptable that any security provider should charge a logging tax.

He was referring to a report about Volexity security expert Steven Adair saying he could not find out details about a client's breached email account because of a lack of logs.

Microsoft provides basic logging with its products, but customers have to pay more to obtain comprehensive logs.

On Wednesday, Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice-president for Security, Compliance, Identity and Management, said in a blog post that cloud logging accessibility and flexibility would be expanded.

"Over the coming months, we will include access to wider cloud security logs for our worldwide customers at no additional cost," she said. "As these changes take effect, customers can use Microsoft Purview Audit to centrally visualise more types of cloud log data generated across their enterprise."

The breach in question was discovered by employees of the US State Department who then informed Microsoft about it.

Microsoft's post about the breach left open the possibility that the attackers, claimed to be from China, had managed to gain entry to the company's key management system.

Sophos security researcher Paul Ducklin had a dig at Microsoft over its lack of clarity about the breach, writing a post that he headlined, "...a tale of two semi-zero days".

Said Ducklin: "Zero-days, as you know, are security holes that the Bad Guys found first and figured out how to exploit, thus leaving no days available during which even the keenest and best-informed security teams could have patched in advance of the attacks.

"Technically, therefore, these two Storm-0558 holes [that the attackers used in the Microsoft breach] can be considered zero-days, because the crooks busily exploited the bugs before Microsoft was able to deal with the vulnerabilities involved.

"However, given that Microsoft carefully avoided the word 'zero-day' in its own coverage, and given that fixing the holes didn’t require all of us to download patches, you’ll see that we referred to them in the headline above as semi-zero days, and we’ll leave the description at that."

Jakkal added: "As our expanded logging defaults roll out, Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard) customers will receive deeper visibility into security data, including detailed logs of email access and more than 30 other types of log data previously only available at the Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium) subscription level.

"In addition to new logging events becoming available, Microsoft is also increasing the default retention period for Audit Standard customers from 90 days to 180 days.

"Commercial and government customers with E5/G5 licenses already using Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium) will continue to receive access to all available audit logging events, including intelligent insights, which help determine the scope of potential compromise by using the Audit log search in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and the Office 365 Management Activity API.

"Additional Audit Premium features include longer default retention periods and automation support for importing log data into other tools for analysis."

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency welcomed the Microsoft move to offer additional logging without any extra payment.

Eric Goldstein, CISA executive assistant director for Cybersecurity, said: "While vendors can offer wider logging access at specific cloud licensing levels, this approach makes it harder to investigate intrusions.

"Asking organisations to pay more for necessary logging is a recipe for inadequate visibility into investigating cyber security incidents and may allow adversaries to have dangerous levels of success in targeting American organisations.

"That’s why we applaud Microsoft’s announcement to make necessary logs identified by CISA and our partners as most critical to identifying cyber-attacks available to customers without additional cost.

"While we understand it will take time to roll out such a major step, this effort will enhance cyber defense and incident response for every Microsoft customer.

"As a founding partner in the Joint Cyber Defence Collaborative, Microsoft’s decision is also a significant step toward creating a world where technology is safe and secure by design."

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Sam Varghese

Sam Varghese has been writing for iTWire since 2006, a year after the site came into existence. For nearly a decade thereafter, he wrote mostly about free and open source software, based on his own use of this genre of software. Since May 2016, he has been writing across many areas of technology. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years in India (Indian Express and Deccan Herald), the UAE (Khaleej Times) and Australia (Daily Commercial News (now defunct) and The Age). His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.

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