Advanced Persistent Threat Protection and Detection

Many organizations are attacked by advanced persistent threats (APTs). An APT is a highly targeted attack designed to access and exploit an organization’s information. Microsoft provides several on-premises products and hosted services to thwart such attacks or make it easier to detect a successful attack and limit its impact. However, since such attacks often exploit social engineering to gain a foothold in the organization or involve actions of a rogue employee with the necessary credentials to access critical information, employee training and proper administrative procedures may be as important as security tools.

Advanced Persistent Threats

An APT targets an organization to gain access to and exploit the organization’s data. These threats are advanced because each attack uses highly tailored and sophisticated social engineering and programming techniques to exploit both human and software vulnerabilities to gain access to an organization’s systems. They are persistent threats because the attack continually reaches further and further into the organization being attacked, over a long period—often several months.