CYBERSECURITY
“ The developers need to know how to build software with security at the centre.
“ Meanwhile, IT professionals need to know how to observe and business leaders need to make sure they are using security-by-default practices.”
Microsoft launched its Secure Future Initiative in 2023 to make security its number one priority. The initiative is built on six foundational pillars: protecting identities and secrets, isolating systems, securing networks, safeguarding engineering systems, detecting threats, and accelerating incident response.
Rather than simply advising the industry, Microsoft is leading by example. Under the system-isolation pillar, Microsoft removed 730,000 unused applications and 5.75 million inactive tenants.
Additionally, the organisation has championed secure-by-default practices by pushing for multifactor authentication( MFA). According to Microsoft’ s research paper, How effective is multifactor authentication at deterring cyberattacks?, the effort is worth it: accounts with MFA enabled saw a 99 % reduction in compromise risk, with over 99 % of protected accounts remaining completely secure during their investigation.
“ Security is now much more of a cultural rather than technology conversation at Microsoft,” Vasu adds.
Security as a necessity Vasu is a big believer of security for all.“ It’ s important because, if you look at the threat landscape, it’ s pretty diverse in nature and cyber attacks can come from anywhere and everywhere,” she explains.“ If we don’ t think about security for all by all, then we are already at a disadvantage.
“ No matter who you are, whether you’ re a consumer, a small or medium business, or a big enterprise, everyone deserves great security because everyone’ s affected by it.”
The International Monetary Fund’ s Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity in the Financial Sector report predicts cyber crime costs to rise to nearly US $ 24tn by 2027, an increase of 175 % from 2022.
While these astronomical figures often spotlight major enterprises, the true burden of this threat landscape heavily impacts everyday users and resource-constrained businesses.
“ It’ s important to include everyone in the security dialogue because if security is complicated as a consumer, you don’ t know where to start,” Vasu adds.“ As a small or medium business, you may not even have the teams to go and implement complex security. So, how do we make sure that we take diverse perspectives like what should the experience of security be and how to look at different types of attacks and make it available for everyone?”
This is where Microsoft’ s SFI plays a vital role. The initiative ensures that advanced security features – such as phishing-resistant MFA and tenant isolation boundaries – are built natively into Microsoft’ s products from day one. By removing the complexity of setup and enforcing strong protections
56 August 2026