Microsoft is overhauling its software security after major Azure cloud attacks

▤ Summary

“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. And coupled with a global network of datacenters, we are determined to use AI to detect threats at a speed that is as fast as the interest itself.” 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. This means that even if an attacker gets through our layered defenses in the course of targeting encryption keys, the key data is designed to be inaccessible within automated systems that do not require human touch.” In September, cybersecurity research firm Wiz disclosed that 38TB of data had accidentally been exposed by Microsoft AI researchers thanks to an Azure feature called SAS tokens. “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.

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