this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Microsoft is pivoting its company culture to make security a top priority, President Brad Smith testified to Congress on Thursday, promising that security will be "more important even than the company’s work on artificial intelligence."

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, "has taken on the responsibility personally to serve as the senior executive with overall accountability for Microsoft’s security," Smith told Congress.

His testimony comes after Microsoft admitted that it could have taken steps to prevent two aggressive nation-state cyberattacks from China and Russia.

According to Microsoft whistleblower Andrew Harris, Microsoft spent years ignoring a vulnerability while he proposed fixes to the "security nightmare." Instead, Microsoft feared it might lose its government contract by warning about the bug and allegedly downplayed the problem, choosing profits over security, ProPublica reported.

This apparent negligence led to one of the largest cyberattacks in US history, and officials' sensitive data was compromised due to Microsoft's security failures. The China-linked hackers stole 60,000 US State Department emails, Reuters reported. And several federal agencies were hit, giving attackers access to sensitive government information, including data from the National Nuclear Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health, ProPublica reported. Even Microsoft itself was breached, with a Russian group accessing senior staff emails this year, including their "correspondence with government officials," Reuters reported.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Lol, Microsoft will focus on profits and shareholders, and shareholders want AI cramed into everything.

[–] MarshReaper 10 points 6 months ago

In today's news, Microsoft commits treason against the United States Government.

!remindme 6 months

I wonder what the outcome will be.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Look at this smug assholes face. He knows damn well they won't be doing anything of the sort unless it increases their profit margins. And he also knows damn well the government won't do anything to seriously hinder their margins.

Bread and circuses. This is just another show. You want change? Stop using Microsoft. Period.

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[–] Sanctus 9 points 6 months ago (3 children)

They legally can't prioritize shit but shareholder profits. We are all about to watch a US based company, purposefully fuck over the US government and possibly us by extension, and nothing will happen. Fuck this oligarchy.

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[–] ichbinjasokreativ 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So they lied und tried to cover it up, which led to the largest cyber attack ever. There's going to be serious punishment, right? Right?

[–] Burn_The_Right 4 points 6 months ago

(⁀ᗢ⁀) hahahaha

Oh, shit haha! I thought you were serious for a second. Can you imagine if we ever held a corporation accountable for the damage they've caused? I mean it obviously can't happen, but wow! You had me for a second!

[–] Burn_The_Right 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why in the absolute fuuuuuck would a "secure" computer with sensitive data be running motherfucking Windows?! Linux is easy enough for pretty much any Windows user in an office environment to handle these days. There's just no excuse for sensitive business to ever be done on Windows at this point.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The company I work at "supports" Linux in the sense that you're allowed to use Linux but then you're essentially on your own when it comes to solving problems. I asked why there's no proper Linux support and the short answer was "it's too much trouble". The long answer was "don't ask. I don't want to get into it".

So my guess is that setting up company wide policies and support for Linux is significantly more work than it is for Windows or Mac.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Security over AI my ball-cheeks

[–] dinckelman 7 points 6 months ago

Don't take any of their words for granted. They know exactly what they've been doing, and what they're doing now

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

We prioritize security until our stock price drops a single point.

[–] Treczoks 5 points 6 months ago

Question is: For how long? Security costs money, AI brings profits (in several ways).

At the moment they are making a big production of caring for the user. Which they basically never did, actually. They are only as pro user as they have to to improve their profits. Just wait until the shareholders reign them in because they want the company to extract more money out of the ~~customers~~ victims.

[–] Hobbes_Dent 4 points 6 months ago

Rough month for reflection at M$. Possibly finally took it too far with users via Recall and - quite a feat here - showed Microsoft in a negative light for another big solidified base in government.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Microsoft is pivoting its company culture to make security a top priority

Didn't they already do that a decade or two ago??

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago
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