Microsoft is undergoing organizational adjustments to enhance cybersecurity measures throughout its products and services, focusing on holding senior leadership directly responsible. Charlie Bell, Microsoft's executive vice president of security, outlined these changes in a recent blog post aimed at reassuring customers and the US government of the company's dedication to bolstering cybersecurity amidst evolving threats.
One key aspect of this initiative involves tying a portion of the compensation for the company's Senior Leadership Team to the progress made in fulfilling security plans and milestones. Additionally, Microsoft is implementing significant changes to elevate security governance, including organizational restructuring, enhanced oversight, controls, and reporting mechanisms.
These measures encompass appointing a deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to each product team, ensuring direct reporting of the company's threat intelligence team to the enterprise CISO, and fostering collaboration among engineering teams across Microsoft Azure, Windows, Microsoft 365, and security groups to prioritize security.
Bell's announcement follows a recent assessment by the US Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), highlighting the need for strategic and cultural improvements in Microsoft's cybersecurity practices. The CSRB identified areas where Microsoft could have prevented a notable cyber incident involving a breach of its Exchange Online environment by the Chinese cyber-espionage group Storm-0558, which compromised user emails from various organizations, including government agencies.
Microsoft previously launched the Secure Future Initiative (SFI) to address emerging threats, incorporating measures such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and enhanced threat modelling throughout the development lifecycle of its products. The initiative also aims to integrate more secure default settings across Microsoft's product portfolio and strengthen identity protection while enhancing cloud vulnerability response and mitigation times.
Bell's update provided further details on Microsoft's approach, emphasizing six key pillars: protecting identities and secrets, safeguarding cloud tenants and production systems, securing networks, fortifying engineering systems, monitoring and detecting threats, and expediting response and remediation efforts.
To achieve these goals, Microsoft plans to implement various measures, such as automatic rotation of signing and platform keys, continuous enforcement of least privileged access, and network isolation and segmentation. Efforts will also focus on inventory management of software assets and implementing zero-trust access to source code and infrastructure.
While the full impact of these changes may take time to materialize, Microsoft remains a prominent target for cyberattacks. Despite ongoing challenges, industry experts like Tom Corn, chief product officer at Ontinue, acknowledge the ambitious scope of Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative and its potential to streamline operationalization for broader benefit.
