From Gasoline in Plastic Bags to Billion-dollar Investments Microsoft's Defense
against Cyberattacks

In recent months, the US government has realized that the security of its agencies and companies, and thus the economy of the entire country, is at risk. They have been broken into. Not through an open window or an unlocked door, but into their networks and infrastructure. What does the US plan to do about this, and how does this affect Germany?

Gasoline in Plastic Bags: Cyberattacks spread Fear and Panic

Joe Biden has been the 46th President of the United States since January 20, 2021. Together with his government, he is currently fighting an ever-growing problem: cyberattacks. The country does not seem to be as well protected against them as was previously assumed.

First, there were supply chain attacks on numerous government agencies and corporations. Then, one of the largest pipelines in the US, the Colonial Pipeline, was crippled with ransomware. Ransomware is software that blocks access to devices, encrypts data, and demands a ransom from the victim for decryption. Colonial Pipeline paid the $4.4 million demanded, but the hackers sent a software application to restore their network that worked very slowly. The result: gasoline supply shortages caused panic among American citizens, leading to panic buying. Those who could bought gasoline in large quantities, some even filling up plastic bags.

The government has been put on high alert. In order to act as quickly as possible, President Biden invited the CEOs of the largest American companies to the White House. Among them were Tim Cook of Apple and Andy Jassy of Amazon. He appealed to them to raise the bar on cybersecurity and discussed ideas and strategies for ensuring it with them.

Microsoft sets an Example: Investments worth Billions

Despite the Crisis: Microsoft exceeds Financial Results

Microsoft wants to invest four times more in cybersecurity than before. And the company can easily afford to do so. Despite COVID-19, revenue from ERP and CRM products and cloud services rose by a full 19%. And Microsoft is going one step further: its financial results in the third quarter of 2021 exceeded expectations even more.

This is because the pandemic has established working from home offices. Many companies had to set up remote work and digitize their processes. Of course, this doesn’t work without the appropriate investment in IT. And that was exactly the jackpot for Microsoft with its modern and innovative Dynamics 365 solutions and cloud services.

Driving the Digital Transformation Microsoft provides
you with modern and
innova­tive Business Solutions

Microsoft’s big advantage is that the company has been pursuing a “cloud first, mobile first” strategy since 2014. The pioneer of this approach is Satya Nadella, who has been CEO of Microsoft since 2014 and received some skeptical looks for this approach, which was considered very radical at the time. But it was precisely this progressive thinking that helped Microsoft achieve rapidly growing revenues, as you have already read in the first two sentences.

The Bottom Line: Greater Security thanks to the Cloud

“That’s all well and good,” you may be thinking, “but what’s in it for me?” The answer should be obvious!

Microsoft is a globally motivated, committed, and, as you have just read, successful company that you can rely on without any problems. The announcement that it wants to invest billions in greater cybersecurity is also of great importance to you as a customer in Germany. This will enable the company to continue to guarantee the development and implementation of secure applications.

The issue of security concerns us all. If you rely on on-premises solutions in your company, you should consider how secure your data really is. You should be aware of the differences between on-premises and cloud solutions and perhaps consider switching. Just because your data is stored on your own premises does not necessarily mean that it is the most secure there. However, you should not be afraid of potential hacker attacks. Instead, see this fear as a wake-up call and learn from the mistakes of the US government, which lulled itself into a false sense of security.

So if you want to seize this opportunity to wake up to reality, you should definitely consider implementing a cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution and play it safe for your company.