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<p class="MsoNormal">Although we’ve always discussed urgent priority requests as being available to both LEA and non-LEA, we are regularly asked why non-LEA should be allowed to use this type of request. We’ve seen this again in the public comments, with new
suggestions that a non-LEA requestor must route urgent requests through a government agency rather than making such a request themselves.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To clarify why it’s not sufficient to limit these requests to law enforcement and government agents, I asked my Digital Crime Unit and state actor cyberdefense teams for details. Here’s what they said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in" type="disc">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Law enforcement (LE) and Microsoft priorities do not always overlap such that what we consider an emergency, where this information could be
necessary to protect our customers ( such as a threat to our infrastructure or our customer’s infrastructure), is the same as an emergency for LE.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">The threshold for what is important to protect our customers is often different or lower than the threshold for a LE emergency as outlined
below – but nonetheless just as important. <o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">When a customer or partner is under attack, we would not necessarily engage LE. We would only notify/contact the customer directly since the
impact is on their tenant. LE engagement is then at their discretion.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Here are some scenarios where we would likely make urgent data requests separate from LE engagement:
<o:p></o:p></span></li><ul style="margin-top:0in" type="circle">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level2 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">a large banking establishment or school district under ransomware attack<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level2 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">a nation state actor targeting multiple human rights organizations with persistent spear phishing attacks<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level2 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">a nation state actor using a malicious domain to compromise and steal information from members of the United Nations<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in;mso-list:l1 level2 lfo4"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">a nation state actor purchasing large swaths of domains to target multiple organizations in the oil and gas industry, then using them in a
large-scale intrusion campaign<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Remember that abuse of the Urgent Priority request mechanism is already defined as an activity which may lead to loss of accreditation, even for LEA. That safeguard would be certainly be invoked quickly if the privilege were abused by
a non-LEA requester.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I look forward to discussing this topic soon.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">/marksv<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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