This week, the Register spoke with AJ Grotto, former White House senior director of cyber policy. He complained that it was difficult to extract even small concessions from Microsoft.
“Going back to the SolarWinds episode from a few years ago… [Microsoft] “Instead of making logging the default, we were essentially upselling logging capabilities to federal agencies,” Grotto said, adding, “As a result, they were at risk of a SolarWinds breach.” It was very difficult to determine the situation,'' Grotto told Microsoft. “drag kicking and screaming” and provide logging capabilities to governments by default. [In the interview he calls it “an epic fight” which lasted 18 months.”] [G]The concessions were minimal at best, considering the fact that the giant company generated about $20 billion in revenue from security services last year.
Grotto said this shows that: [Microsoft] Added to this were the Exchange Online intrusion by Chinese snoops and the Microsoft security breach by Russian cyber operatives, both of which allowed access by spies. In the US government email, Grotto says it is fair to classify his Microsoft and its products as a national security concern.
He estimates that Microsoft makes 85% of the U.S. government's productivity software and has an even larger share of operating systems. “Microsoft is encircling the government in many ways, which allows it to shift many of the costs associated with security breaches to the federal government,” he said in an interview.
And in about five minutes, he said, “It's completely fair to think that Microsoft is a national security threat, given its dominance not just within the federal government, but really in certain border IT markets.” Stated directly. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that system breaches affecting Microsoft and its products have risen to the level of a national security risk. ”
He wants the government to encourage more competition. To the point where social scrutiny drives software customer behavior changes and creates real market incentives for better performance…
