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Microsoft has been the victim of a number of high-profile hacker attacks on its services in recent months. Today, a new report says that Microsoft is making a much bigger effort to beef up its own security features and services, as it fears it may lose customers due to these recent cyberattacks.
One of them was reported back in July 2023. A China-based hacker group used an acquired MSA key to forge its own tokens and that allowed the group to access Outlook email accounts in the US and Europe.
In January 2024, another hacker group based in Russia managed to access the email accounts of some of Microsoft"s top executives. The company later admitted the hackers used the information in those emails to gain access to some of its source code. Earlier in April, a security group discovered that one of its Azure storage servers was open to anyone who might know how to access it because it was not password-protected.
All of these incidents, and others, have reportedly caused Microsoft to make a big sea change in its projects. The Verge reports, via unnamed sources, that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith addressed these issues in an internal leadership conference earlier in April. The report says that Nadella and Smith told the people at the conference that security improvements are now Microsoft"s biggest priority.
The report says that means teams at Microsoft are now emphasizing security improvements over adding new features or trying to ship out new products ahead of schedule.
Even with this new push for beefing up security, there are some people who also believe Microsoft should not make customers pay more for security features. Long-time Microsoft journalist and analyst Mary Jo Foley wrote an article this week on that subject. She stated the company should include vital security options as part of their basic subscription plans, rather than offering them for extra fees.
With Microsoft now on notice about its security flaws, it remains to be seen if their efforts to boost their activities in this area will bear fruit and keep its customers from leaving.