This article in our free security tools series focuses on the benefits of the URLScan Security Tool . Attackers often use websites to conduct phishing attacks or distribute malware. According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 13 , there were 4.4 phishing sites per 1,000 Internet hosts...

This article in our free security tools series focuses on the benefits of the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager tool (SCM). One of the most important tools for managing and securing Windows environments is Group Policy. Group Policy is often used in enterprise environments to help control what users...

This article in our free security tools series focuses on the benefits of the Microsoft Anti-Cross-site Scripting Library (Anti-XSS). Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an attack technique in which an attacker inserts malicious HTML and JavaScript into a vulnerable webpage, often in an effort to distribute...

This article in our series on Microsoft’s free security tools is focused on a tool called the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). Many years ago before Windows Update was available, servicing software was much more painful than it is today. Microsoft released security updates weekly, and...

In July, we kicked off a blog series focused on " Microsoft's Free Security Tools ." The series highlights free security tools that Microsoft provides to help make IT professionals' and developers' lives easier. A good tool can save a lot of work and time for those people responsible for developing and...

This article in our series focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on a tool called Portqry . This tool is a TCP/IP connectivity test tool, port scanner, and local port monitor. Portqry is useful for troubleshooting networking issues as well as verifying network security related configurations...

This article in our series focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on a tool called Windows Defender Offline . Windows Defender Offline is a standalone software application that is designed to help detect malicious and other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits that try to install...

This article in our series focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) banned.h header file . This is an important tool for developers who are trying to minimize the number of security vulnerabilities that exist in the C or C++ code they write. It’s...

This article in our series focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on a tool called BinScope Binary Analyzer . This tool can be helpful for both developers and IT professionals that are auditing the security of applications that they are developing or deploying/managing. I have often said...

This article in our series focused on Microsoft’s free security tools is on the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). EMET is a very popular security tool among the CISOs and security professionals I talk to because it helps them manage security mitigations for applications running in...