Getting Down to Brass Tacks about Cloud Security

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Published On: September 29, 2021

Security was not always a critical concern. But that has changed dramatically over the years. Today, security is always top of mind. In fact, a recent survey found that U.S. CEOs ranked cybersecurity as their top external threat.¹

It logically follows that more and more companies now hire security experts whose only job is to ensure that their companies are cyber-secure. That person even has a title that didn’t exist ten years ago, CSO, which stands for Chief Security Officer.

Cloud Security

Digital Transformation (DT), a significant goal for many enterprises, has spurred a race to the cloud. It is entirely possible that moving so many systems to the cloud, with such urgency, has contributed to cyberattacks. However, this is NOT because the cloud is unsafe. It is, instead, because the proper steps were not taken to ensure safety and protect vulnerable endpoints. Simply states, doors that should have been locked were left open.

If you do not lock your doors at night before going to sleep and you are burglarized, is it the fault of the door? Clearly not, and the fault is yours.

Microsoft’s Approach to Security Goes Above & Beyond

Microsoft invests more than $1 billion dollars a year in cybersecurity research and development. They approach cloud security with a “Zero Trust” model that assumes a breach might be attempted and takes preventative measures to verify the security status of identity, endpoint, network, and other areas of vulnerability.

This approach relies on contextual real-time policy enforcement, Automation, and Machine Learning to enable rapid detection, prevention, and remediation.

All Microsoft cloud products, including Dynamics 365, are built, and hosted in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which operates from more than 100 secure Microsoft data centers worldwide. Each of these physical data centers is secured with multi-layered protection, including locked server racks, perimeter fencing, 24×7 video surveillance, and more.

Tighter than Fort Knox!

The Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations center, a facility dedicated to protecting its cloud infrastructure, employs 3,500 cybersecurity experts who work around the clock to protect, detect, and respond to threats in real-time.²

Would you believe that Microsoft also conducts internal exercises where security experts are divided into two teams, the red and blue teams? The red team attempts to compromise Azure’s infrastructure while the blue team defends against the attacks. Then they codify what they have learned for continuous detection and response.

As we said, the Microsoft Azure environment is tighter than Fort Knox!