Microsoft touts new, holistic approach to enterprise security

Microsoft is putting a lot of effort and money into building a holistic security platform that combines the attack protection, detection and response features built into Windows 10, Office 365, Azure, and the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite to help companies safeguard their data regardless of where it resides.

Talking at the Microsoft Government Cloud Forum in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company is spending more than  $1 billion a year in research and development to build security into its products, because “security has to be core to the operational systems used by enterprises.”

The company showed on stage how Windows 10’s Microsoft Passport, Windows Hello and Credential Guard provide secure authentication and integrate with Azure Active Directory; how Advanced Threat Analytics can detect anomalous login patterns, brute-force and pass-the-hash attacks; and how the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) can be used to manage data and applications on mobile devices and work with Microsoft Intune and Azure Rights Management Services (RMS) to prevent accidental data leaks.

The company is also working with industry partners to integrate third-party apps and services into its own products. For example, the Azure Security Center, which is now in private preview, allows users to integrate threat detection and protection technologies into their cloud-based infrastructure from a number of security vendors including Barracuda, Checkpoint, Cisco Systems, CloudFlare, F5 Networks, Imperva, Incapsula, and Trend Micro.

Box, Adobe, and SAP Fiori will also provide native apps for Android and iOS that will integrate with Microsoft Intune, Microsoft’s cloud-based mobile device management platform.

Internally, Microsoft has created a Cyber Defense Operations Center that brings together security response specialists from all of the company’s different divisions. They work together to resolve security threats, but also to build the security intelligence that’s then used by the company’s products and is shared with partners.

To better serve its enterprise customers, Microsoft has also created a managed security services division called the Microsoft Enterprise Cybersecurity Group that will perform security assessments, monitor for threats and respond to cybersecurity incidents.

The new strategy, focused on operational security, has “been the biggest sea change inside Microsoft to get us to come up with new solutions, new technologies, that in turn help us really secure your environments,” Nadella told the audience.