Microsoft announces intelligent security innovations to help businesses tackle threats

New Delhi: Technology major Microsoft Corp. announced several new intelligent security tools and technologies to help enterprises more easily secure their data and networks against today's biggest threats as well as address emerging threats aimed at IoT and edge devices.

"As last year's devastating cyberattacks demonstrated, security threats are evolving and becoming even more serious. The tech sector's innovations need to accelerate to outpace security threats. Today's steps bring important security advances not just to the cloud, but to the billions of new devices that are working on the edge of the world's computer networks," said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft.

Microsoft is harnessing the power of the intelligent cloud to address emerging threats against a new class of connected devices, those relying on a chip the size of a thumbnail called a microcontroller unit (MCU). MCU-powered devices are already the most populous area of computing with roughly 9 billion new devices every year. They are found in everything from toys and household appliances to industrial equipment - and attackers are starting to target them.

To bring security to this next generation of connected devices, Microsoft introduced Azure Sphere, a holistic platform for creating highly secured, connected MCU devices on the intelligent edge. Featuring an entirely new class of MCUs with more than five times the power of legacy MCUs, an OS custom built for IoT security, and a turnkey cloud security service that guards every Azure Sphere device.

As security threats become more complex, companies are increasingly finding that the intelligence and threat protection tools they need to remain a step ahead of attackers are in the cloud. Therefore, Microsoft introduced several new intelligent security features for its Microsoft 365 commercial cloud offering designed to help IT and security professionals simplify how they manage security across their enterprises

To help teams stay prepared and ahead of threats, Microsoft released Microsoft Secure Score and Attack Simulator. Secure Score makes it easier for organisations to determine which controls to enable to help protect users, data and devices by quickly assessing readiness and providing an overall security benchmark score. It will also let organisations compare their results to those with similar profiles using built-in machine learning.

On the other hand, Attack Simulator, a part of Office 365 Threat Intelligence, lets security teams run simulated attacks - including mock ransomware and phishing campaigns - to event-test their employees' responses and tune configurations accordingly.

Microsoft also announced a preview of a new security API for connecting Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph-enabled products as well as intelligence from solutions built by customers and technology partners to greatly enhance the fidelity of intelligence.

The company will be partnering with customers through their digital transformation by making it easier for them to help keep assets secure from the cloud to the edge.