Microsoft is providing free cybersecurity tools to certain government and commercial customers following criticism over its response to a significant alleged Chinese hack that compromised US government email accounts. Starting in September, Microsoft’s cloud computing customers will no longer have to pay additional fees for access to crucial data to help them identify cyberattacks. This policy change comes after cybersecurity officials privately expressed frustration that Microsoft had not done enough to detect the alleged Chinese cyber-espionage campaign, which affected two dozen organizations and became public last week.
The email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and State Department officials were breached in the activity. One of the victims was a human rights organization that could not detect the activity because they were not paying for a premium software license. Logs, or computer files that gather artifacts about a hack, are critical to understanding and thwarting cyberattacks. Until now, Microsoft has charged customers extra for access to these logs.
The free tools announced will enable incident response teams, regardless of license level, to conduct more comprehensive investigations. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said its own investigations into hacks over the years had also been hindered by the lack of “critical data” that costs extra for Microsoft customers to access. CISA Director Jen Easterly applauded Microsoft’s decision and said her agency had been working with Microsoft on the issue for over a year.
Source: CNN
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