Microsoft is expanding its AccountGuard cybersecurity service to twelve new European markets that include Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania. Slovakia, Latvia, Portugal and Spain.
We’ve reported on Microsoft’s AccountGuard several times over the past year as awarness for of cyberattacks and domestic and international electroal malfesence appears to be on the rise around the world.
As of yesterday, February 20, 2019, Microsoft will have empowered fourteen European countries, the US and Canada with a portion of its Defending Democracy Program.
Microsoft’s DDP is an even larger initiative to protect electoral campaigns from hacking, increased transparency into political advertisments online, exploration of new technological solutions to cybersecurity and mounting a defense against disinformation campaigns.
However, this latest Microsoft news centers around twelve new countries getting access to the subset of the DDP which consist of cyber threat notifications on a nation-state and international level all via orginizational email systems.
Eligible organizations can invite selected staff and other associates to enroll, and notification will only occur with the consent of the account owner. Organizations can get protection for external individuals helping with a campaign, board members of non-profit organizations, or volunteers. When we detect threats, we will work directly with participating organizations to notify them and help them secure their systems.
In addition to email notifications of threats, electoral campaigns within the expanded AccountGuard release will also get assestments and guideance on ways to patch up and secure their networks and email systems with solutions such as two-factor authentication, security update installs and more.
For more on AccountGuard, Microsoft’s full Defend Democracy Program and details on the latest list of participating orginizations, I invite you to read up on our coverage here.
