As the US Cyber Security Review Board (CSRB) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) punish Microsoft for poor cybersecurity practices, Google is rummaging through its belongings in search of valuable customers it can capture.
Earlier this week, the search engine giant published a new whitepaper titled “A More Secure Alternative,” in which it harshly criticized Microsoft's recent security flaws that resulted, among other things, in information theft. confidentiality of email accounts of government agents.
In June 2023, the US State Department identified suspicious activity in its Microsoft 365 accounts, and the software giant later determined that the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor known as Storm-0558 accessed and exfiltrated unclassified data from Exchange Online Outlook.
The entire incident turned into a fiasco as hackers used a previously acquired MSA key to forge tokens to access OWA and Outlook.com. How they obtained the MSA key remains a mystery. As a result, both CISA and CSRB published reports criticizing how Microsoft handled the incident.
Now, Google has attacked the Redmond giant, essentially saying that its Workspace offering (its productivity suite that includes Gmail, Google Drive, and other tools) is a better, more secure alternative to what Microsoft offers. Not only that, but it also took the opportunity to offer a new promotion in which agencies with at least 500 workers get the Workspace Enterprise Plus plan at a discount, and an extra year free, if they sign up for at least three years.
While all this is going on, Microsoft isn't exactly sitting with its hands folded. It launched the Secure Future Initiative, which aims to address criticism from the US government, restore any shattered trust among its customers, and obviously improve its cybersecurity posture.
“Our Secure Future Initiative (SFI) brings together all parts of Microsoft to advance cybersecurity protection across our platforms and products, benefiting customers around the world, including commercial and government enterprises, small businesses, and individuals,” a Redmond spokesperson said. Register.
“In addition to the SFI milestones we recently announced, Microsoft continues to work closely with stakeholders across the cybersecurity community, including signing CISA's Secure by Design Pledge and sharing threat intelligence with the state security community. sophisticated nationals and cybercrime actors.
TechRadar Pro He contacted Microsoft for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
