Microsoft has announced a detailed series of actions the company will be taking in response to the recent Biden Administration initiatives for implementing security tools and best practices to bolster national cybersecurity.
In total, Microsoft will be investing $20 billion over the next five years to design and deliver advanced security solutions that will accelerate the nation’s cybersecurity missions.
In a recent Executive Spotlight, four-time Wash100 Award winner Rick Wagner, president of Microsoft Federal, expressed the company’s commitment to advancing the security of the United States.
Wagner noted, “our greatest strength is Microsoft’s 40-year history of supporting the federal government. Microsoft is committed to assisting the federal government and over that 40 years, our support has evolved.”
The Microsoft Corporation reiterated on Thursday that it will immediately provide $150 million of funding through its FastTrack program to help federal, state and local governments modernize their systems, establish Zero Trust controls and upgrade security protection measures.
Additionally, Microsoft will allocate $50 million of the $150 million towards helping federal agencies modernize and transition their vulnerable legacy infrastructures to cloud infrastructures.
Another action Microsoft outlined includes collaborating with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s initiative to advance supply chain industry framework and enhance security. In response to Biden’s May 12th Executive Order, Microsoft developed the Supply Chain Integrity Model (SCIM) to enable automated verification of supply chain security policies, evidence and artifacts for products including software, hardware and machine learning datasets.
“There is a great deal of interest in creating resilient and secure supply chains and we are actively working to do that,” Wagner stated in an interview with ExecutiveBiz.
To reflect Microsoft’s commitment to the open-source community, the corporation has made SCIM information publicly available through NIST and GitHub.
Microsoft also recently became an Alliance Partner in the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) new Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative aimed at promoting resilience and strengthening cyber defense capabilities.
In order to broaden access to government-specific training, workshops, certifications and reference architectures, Microsoft also launched a free repository of educational resources on cybersecurity.
Microsoft emphasized that these actions will foster close collaboration with industry leaders and government entities and will result in accelerated modernization and increased national security.
On October 14, 2021, the Potomac Officers Club will be hosting their seventh annual 2021 Intel Summit featuring notable federal and industry leaders to discuss the future of technology in intelligence agencies. Check out the event to to learn more about how intelligence officials incorporate cutting-edge technology and techniques to gather intelligence and combat adversaries.
