Microsoft wants to double its IT security efforts
Microsoft is clearly taking the CISA accusations seriously. CEO Nadella spoke to analysts about putting security before everything else.
(Bild: heise online/vbr)
In a so-called earnings call, in which companies typically discuss their quarterly figures with investors and analysts, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company would be focusing more on IT security. This announcement follows massive accusations from the US cybersecurity authority CISA, which has accused Microsoft of security failures in the context of the Azure master key stolen last year, among other things.
On Thursday last week, during the Axios conference call, Nadella informed analysts that security permeates every layer of the technical stack and is the top priority, according to a report. He emphasized that the company is intensifying its focus on this crucial area, prioritizing security over all other features and investments.
Microsoft under pressure
Microsoft is coming under increasing pressure. The US authorities are reacting somewhat slowly, but all the more gruffly, to the serious IT security incidents at Microsoft last year. Chinese-located attackers were able to spy on emails from government agencies and gained access to almost all Microsoft cloud applications such as Sharepoint and Teams. With the captured Azure master key, customer apps in the cloud could also be accessed.
Later, state-supported criminals from Russia were able to gain access to Microsoft's IT security department from Midnight Blizzard. This was due to a lack of multifactor authentication and a default password, as it turned out at the beginning of this year.
At the beginning of April, the Cyber Safety Review Board of CISA published its report on the theft of the Azure master key. In it, it accuses Microsoft of multiple failures in cybersecurity. The authority recommends that the company should postpone the development of new functions for the cloud until substantial security improvements have been made. Nadella has obviously understood the signs of the times and wants to win back the trust of authorities and other customers by literally announcing the implementation of this demand.
(dmk)