Security Researcher

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Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers’ heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate.

Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.

Do you want to join the Microsoft GHOST team as a Security Researcher specializing in Identity? Are you interested in being intimately involved in the latest, cutting-edge developments in the security industry and having a direct impact on the security of all Microsoft customers? Are you interested in a fast-paced job full of new opportunities? If so, you might be a candidate for the IDFIRE team within the Global Hunting, Oversight, and Strategic Triage (GHOST) organization. IDFIRE, is the premier identity cyber threat hunting and investigation team in the industry. We are looking for an experienced Security Researcher with a strong analytical background to join our team to perform threat hunts, assist with investigations, develop threat intelligence, and to cultivate investigation best practices into Microsoft tooling and products.

We partner with data scientists and engineers to ensure the integrity and security of the services we operate (Entra & Microsoft Account), as well as the consumer and commercial identities we manage. We are seeking a talented individual to join our world-class team of Security Researchers. Your passion for protecting customers, comfort with ambiguity, and motivation to deliver consistently exceptional performance under high pressure, will be highly valued.

Your ability to efficiently sift through PB sized datasets via automation to extract key insights in a timely manner, will be critical in helping us continue to successfully execute against our mission.

If you are motivated by the challenge of using your skills & knowledge to help protect Microsoft and the world from cyber threats - come join us!

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Required Qualifications

A Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science or Engineering or comparable experience in a related discipline with related work experience along with the following:

• Proven knowledge of security fundamentals across Microsoft platforms (Client, Server, Cloud).
• Strong understanding of malware and the modern threat landscape, especially identity-based attacks.
• Familiarity and understanding of SQL or Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries (or experience with large database/SIEM query languages such as Splunk/Humio/Kibana, etc.).
• Familiarity and understanding of Jupyter Notebooks, or building equivalent threat hunting automations with scripting languages.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with some of the following is a distinct advantage:

• Active Directory subject matter expertise.
• Experience with sophisticated threat actor evidence including familiarity with typical Indicators of Compromise (IOCs), Indicators of Activity (IOAs) and Tools. Techniques and Procedures (TTPs).
• Use of forensic analysis tools such as X-Ways Forensics®, WinHex®, Encase®, FTK®, etc Microsoft Azure and/or Office365 platform knowledge and experience.
• Experience with various forensic log artifacts found in SIEM logs, web server logs, AV logs, protection logs such as HIDS and NIDS logs . Familiarity with Microsoft Defender 365 security stack (for Endpoints, Identity, Cloud, etc), especially with Advanced Hunting query writing. Excellent understanding of Windows internals and where trace evidence can be found .
• Knowledge of third-party cybersecurity solutions, especially EDR and SIEM solutions.
• Linux and/or macOS forensic analysis and threat hunting skills. Technical certifications based on domain (e.g., Azure, SharePoint) Investigation/Cybersecurity/Digital Forensics/DFIR certifications (e.g. CISSP, SANS GIAC, etc) .

#GHOST, #IDFIRE, #MSFTSecurity

Other Requirements:

• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:
  • Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

• Respond to security incidents (on-call) spanning fraud, abuse and compromise and identity-related operational issues to identify, isolate, remediate, and root cause.
• Performing deep analysis of attacker activity in on-premises and cloud environments.
• Identifying potential threats, allowing for proactive defense before an actual incident.
• Building proof-of-concept and prototype threat hunting tools, automations, and new capabilities.
• Driving product and tooling improvements by conveying learnings from threat hunting and incident response at scale to engineering partner teams .
• Identifies, prioritizes, and targets complex security issues that cause negative impact to customers.
• Creates and drives adoption of relevant mitigations and provide proactive guidance .
• Works with others to synthesize research findings into recommendations for mitigation of security issues. Shares across teams. Drives change within team based on research findings.