Posted by: Adrienne Hall, General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
Any conversation I have with a customer that hasn't yet adopted a cloud service includes the topic of security at some point. It isn’t surprising that security frequently tops the list of cloud adoption items; yet I believe it should be on the list of top cloud adoption benefits.
A common area explored by organizations considering the cloud, small to mid-size businesses, or SMBs, often don’t have the built-in security expertise that larger entities do. This makes it difficult for them to spend time and expertise to assess the benefits of cloud computing.
In commissioning an independent study with groups of SMBs that both use and do not use cloud services in the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, India and Hong Kong. We hoped to evaporate, okay – more realistically – lessen, concerns about security for prospective customers. Our goal was to see what, if any, security benefits companies that use the cloud realize, and to better understand the concerns of companies that have not yet adopted cloud services.
Posted by: Richard Saunders, Director, Trustworthy Computing
At this point you have likely seen some of our survey data on the improved security, cost savings and time savings associated with cloud security for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). We’ve shared specific data on SMBs inUnited States, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
While each region had slightly different numbers, there’s a trend of security benefits stemming from the cloud. Looking at aggregate data from Singapore, India, Malaysia and Hong Kong SMBs makes this trend apparent.
Posted by: Tim Rains, Director, Trustworthy Computing
Last week I attended the Security Development Conference 2012 (SDC 2012). As Steve Lipner wrote in his article about the event, the conference enabled people from companies, government agencies and academic institutions to share their own experiences adopting a Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) process thus helping others learn how to accelerate adoption within their own organizations. Speakers and panelists were in attendance from a variety of organizations including Adobe, BlackBerry, Cisco, IBM, Intel, Itron, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NIST, NSA, Salesforce.com, Red Hat and others.
Earlier today Microsoft Trustworthy Computing announced the results of a study showing the security benefits U.S. small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) gain from cloud computing. In this study we found that U.S. SMBs using the cloud had a comparative advantage over U.S. SMBs not using the cloud in the area of security efficiency.
I’m pleased to announce that U.S. SMBs aren’t alone in seeing improved security efficiencies from using the cloud. New data shows SMBs in Singapore have had similar experiences.
Earlier this week we shared news around the security benefits small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) gain from using the cloud in both the United States and Singapore. Additional data focusing on SMBs in India shows that improved security, time savings and cost savings are all benefits Indian SMBs using the cloud experience as well.
Last week we shared data that highlights the security benefits small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) in the United States, Singapore and India gain from using the cloud. The benefits these organizations attest to—cost savings, time savings and improved security—are echoed by the experiences of Malaysian SMBs.
The physical security of the data centers where cloud services are hosted is a very important aspect of security to all of the customers I talk to. After all, if an attacker can gain physical access to the hardware hosting a service and storing sensitive data, that attacker has a range of malicious options available to them including attempting to steal or damage services and data. It is mandatory for cloud providers to provide physical security controls for the services they manage on behalf of their customers.
New data from Microsoft Trustworthy Computing shows that small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) in Hong Kong experience similar cloud security benefits as the SMBs we’ve highlighted from the United States, Singapore, India and Malaysia.
Posted By: Tim Rains, Director, Trustworthy Computing
In the past I’ve said a perfectly operated cloud service that has vulnerabilities in it due to lackluster development processes isn’t going to help protect the data that cloud customers store and process in the cloud. As reported in the latest volume of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report that was released just last week, the number of vulnerability disclosures across the entire software industry, including online services, has continued to trend down. Although this trend is heading in the right direction, it still means that there are thousands of software vulnerability disclosures every six months across the entire software industry.
Posted by: Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft
Yesterday morning I read an article in The New York Times that described “How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet.” The article gives consumers some suggestions for addressing the complicated problem of managing the information left by one’s activities online. This information has many diverse components – website visits, searches, instant messages, e-mails, social-network postings, and so on – indicating personal organizational management, technology solutions, and continued attention at industry and government levels will be important for the foreseeable future.
At Microsoft, we embrace the concept of “privacy by design.” This includes building meaningful choices into our products and services to help consumers protect their privacy and limit their online information. With Internet Explorer 9 Tracking Protection Lists, customers can choose which third-party sites can receive their information and track them online. IE 9 also features In Private Browsing, a function that helps prevent web-browsing activity being retained by the browser. The Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard Beta gives consumers greater visibility and control of their Bing search history, as well as the ability to opt-out of personalized ads. And, Microsoft Hotmail does not scan the contents of customer e-mails to serve ads.