Microsoft has announced plans to enter the next phase of defending against cyber threats, and it will come as no surprise that artificial intelligence will be the driving force behind the new changes.
In a message Addressing the company’s engineers, Microsoft Security EVP Charlie Bell referred to daily headlines about “major industrial disruption, attacks on medical services and other critical aspects of our daily lives.”
Reflecting on how Redmond must “anticipate and adapt” to new and advanced threats, the decision comes jointly from Bell, CEO Satya Nadella, Experiences and Devices EVP Rajesh Jha, and Cloud and AI EVP Scott Guthrie.
Microsoft will respond to more threats with AI
Microsoft will begin revamping its Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) by using CI/CD to “continuously integrate protection against emerging patterns as we code, test, deploy, and operate.”
Redmond has also committed to using more memory-safe languages, such as C#, Python, Java and Rust, which it hopes will create a more secure environment down to the building blocks of its products and services.
For IT administrators, Microsoft will also make things a lot easier by improving the default security settings.
The company said that, thanks to its history with AI, automation and monitoring, it will aim to reduce the time it takes to mitigate cloud vulnerabilities by 50%.
In a separate commentary, Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith praised Ukraine’s cyber defenses, which have been made possible by deep partnerships between governments and technology companies, and made even stronger by AI.
Smith hinted that AI could be the solution to a global shortage of skilled cybersecurity workers.
Microsoft has already made its Security Copilot available to eligible customers, which is powered by a large language model, a secondary security-focused model, and the company’s own insights.