Microsoft will continue to make annual investments of more than $1 billion on cybersecurity research and development over the coming years, showing that the company remains committed to protecting users against the data breaches that have recently been making headlines.
The planned investment amount was revealed by Microsoft's VP of security, Bharat Shah, in an interview with Reuters at the company's BlueHat cybersecurity conference held in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Microsoft Investments In Cybersecurity
According to Shah, the over $1 billion in investments that Microsoft will make for cybersecurity per year does not include acquisitions that the company might make within the sector.
Shah added that, with more users utilizing the cloud, spending on cybersecurity needs to go up. Microsoft, long known for Windows and its software, has been shifting its focus to cloud services, where it is locked in a rivalry with the much larger offerings of Amazon in a market that is still in its fledgling stage. The company is doing well in its new venture, though, with Azure, its flagship cloud product through which businesses can host websites, data, and apps, said to have increased in quarterly sales by 116 percent last October.
Investments in cybersecurity are also heavily required due to the number of cyberattack attempts massively increasing. According to data from Microsoft, around two or three years ago, 20,000 cyberattack attempts were being made per week, but now, that figure has increased to between 600,000 to 700,000 attempts per week.
Microsoft Presence In Israel
Microsoft purchased three cybersecurity companies, all of which are in Israel, over the past two years. The firms, namely Aorato, a startup focused on enterprise security; Adallom, specializing in cloud security; and Secure Islands, whose protection technology for data and files has already been incorporated into the Azure Information Protection program, have all largely contributed to the strides that Microsoft has made in cybersecurity.
In addition to cybersecurity company purchases, Microsoft, through its venture arm, has also made investments in cybersecurity in Israel. The most recent one was just this week, when Microsoft made an investment of an undisclosed sum in Illusive Networks, a company that has developed deception technology that can detect and divert attacks. The technology has already been installed in retailers and banks.
It seems that Microsoft is still on the lookout for possible acquisitions of firms, though, whether or not within Israel, as long as the purchase would help improve the company's cybersecurity technology.
Microsoft Focus On Security
As seen in the promised amount of investments and continued acquisitions in the sector, Microsoft is taking cybersecurity very seriously, which is understandable given the high stakes involved.
This can be seen in the upcoming Creators Update for Windows 10. While Microsoft will be introducing a myriad of features catered for creative professionals, the update will also improve Windows Defender and transform it into Windows Defender Security Center. The new iteration of the tool will not only include malware detection and removal but also other tools for boosting system performance and troubleshooting problems.
