This is the biggest change to Microsoft’s security efforts in nearly 20 years.
Alternate title: Microsoft closes barn door after last horse seen leaving and starting a bot farm.
Microsoft is now announcing a huge cybersecurity effort, dubbed the Secure Future Initiative (SFI). This new approach is designed to change the way Microsoft designs, builds, tests, and operates its software and services today. It’s the biggest change to security efforts inside Microsoft since the company announced its Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) in 2004 after Windows XP fell victim to a huge Blaster worm attack that knocked PCs offline in 2003.
It comes just months after Microsoft was accused of “blatantly negligent” cybersecurity practices related to a major breach that targeted its Azure platform.
“Satya Nadella, Rajesh Jha, Scott Guthrie, and I have put significant thought into how we should respond to the increasingly more sophisticated threats,” explains Charlie Bell, head of Microsoft security, in an internal memo distributed today.
“As a company, we are committed to building an AI-based cyber shield that will protect customers and countries around the world,” explains Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, in a blog post today.
Part of the criticism leveled at Microsoft in recent months has been focused on the amount of time it takes the company to respond to major security vulnerabilities.
“We should all abhor determined nation state efforts that seek to install malware or create or exploit other cybersecurity weaknesses in the networks of critical infrastructure providers,” says Smith in his blog post today.
“These bear no connection to the espionage efforts that governments have pursued for centuries and instead appear designed to threaten the lives of innocent civilians in a future crisis or conflict.”
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