security

Jun 28, 2024   |   Lukas Velush

Boosting employee device procurement at Microsoft with better forecasting

Device forecasting at Microsoft has allowed the company to plan for new hires, replace out-of-warranty devices for existing employees, and respond to major events, like the release of Windows 11. As a result, we’ve been able to strategically acquire equipment in a more efficient way. It all started with a shift to remote work. “New...

Jun 21, 2024   |   Inside Track staff

Improving security by protecting elevated-privilege accounts at Microsoft

[Editor’s note: This content was written to highlight a particular event or moment in time. Although that moment has passed, we’re republishing it here so you can see what our thinking and experience was like at the time.] An ever-evolving digital landscape is forcing organizations to adapt and expand to stay ahead of innovative and...

Jun 19, 2024   |   Josh Krenz

Building an anti-ransomware program at Microsoft focused on an Optimal Ransomware Resiliency State

Microsoft strives to deliver the productivity tools and services the world depends on. With this comes the responsibility of ensuring protection, continuity, and resilience from cyberattacks of all sorts—including emerging threats. Highlighted in the third edition of the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, ransomware and extortion are considered nation-level threats due to the sophistication and boldness...

Jun 6, 2024   |   Inside Track bot

Creating a manageable Microsoft Azure subscription model

Editor’s note: This story was written by a bot powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI. The bot interviews subject matter experts in Microsoft Digital to generate new stories quickly. We have humans in the loop to ensure the accuracy and completeness of our AI-powered stories. In the rapidly evolving world of cloud services, managing technical subscriptions...

May 30, 2024   |   Justin Couture

Empowering our employees with generative AI while keeping the company secure

Copilot for Microsoft 365 Deployment and Adoption Guide Read our step-by-step guide on deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365 at your company. It’s based on our experience deploying it here at Microsoft: Full version eBook version Version for executives eBook version for executives Generative AI (GenAI) is rapidly changing the way businesses operate, and everyone wants...

May 8, 2024   |   Sean O'Neill

Modernizing our Network Access Control Infrastructure with Azure

“How do I get on the Wi-Fi?” It’s often one of the first questions visitors ask when arriving at a new location, and here at Microsoft, it happens every day. Our guest Wi-Fi network is typically one of the first services used by visitors at Microsoft. We’re continually evaluating and improving guest Wi-Fi services to...

Apr 19, 2024   |   Summer Frederickson

Start reducing your organization’s Shadow IT risk in 3 steps

You’ve heard a lot about Shadow IT risk, but what is it and what should you do about it? Shadow IT is the set of applications, services, and infrastructure that are developed and managed outside of defined engineering standards. Experts predict somewhere between one-third to one-half of successful cyberattacks this year will be on Shadow...

Apr 3, 2024   |   Lukas Velush

Empowering employee self-service with guardrails: How we’re using sensitivity labels to make Microsoft more secure

At Microsoft, empowering our employees to do their best work means trusting them with self-determination. But to do that safely, we need clear data loss prevention systems in place. We describe it as self-service with guardrails. Giving employees that level of freedom relies on a robust governance strategy across our data estate that features employee-facing...

Mar 15, 2024   |   Lukas Velush

Looking back at deployment of Windows 11 at Microsoft

[Editor’s note: This content was written to highlight a particular event or moment in time. Although that moment has passed, we’re republishing it here so you can see what our thinking and experience was like at the time.] Windows 11, built on the same foundation as Windows 10, came to us at a time when...

Mar 12, 2024   |   Justin Couture

Lessons learned at Microsoft: Five steps you can take to reduce your ransomware risk

As a part of our journey to reduce our ransomware risk internally here at Microsoft, we’ve identified five principles that we believe every enterprise should follow to make themselves more secure from these attacks. We call these our Foundational Five of Ransomware. While we use Microsoft products to secure our systems, infrastructure, data, and identities,...

Mar 4, 2024   |   Alex Fleck

Enhancing Microsoft’s security posture with Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager

Imagine an enterprise company with dozens or hundreds of firewalls, each with its own set of policies for keeping corporate networks secure. That was the situation here at Microsoft until our IT teams started using Microsoft Azure Firewall Manager. This platform helped streamline and centralize their control over our large firewall ecosystems. It also cleared...

Feb 1, 2024   |   Lukas Velush

Sharing what we learned deploying our secure federal environment

At Microsoft, we serve a diverse range of customers, from individual users and large businesses to sovereign governments with specific regulatory requirements. Our platform products such as Microsoft Azure and our Microsoft 365 productivity suite perform extremely well for these different customer segments. Underneath those broad strokes, we serve very specific, complex customers. One set...