Data Privacy Day: Cloud computing the way forward, claims Microsoft

Marking World Data Privacy Day on Sunday, Microsoft noted that cloud computing is transforming the way organisations use, store, and share data, applications, and workloads, and reiterated its commitment to ensured that user data remains private.

Security and personal privacy threats are increasing in volume and sophistication every day, and more and more data and applications are moving to the cloud. This creates unique info-security challenges that need to be constantly addressed through the best security stack that protects data.

In this regard, Microsoft suggested that organisations ensure their cloud providers have the following seven services across all workloads:

-Centralised policy management

-Continuous security assessment and actionable recommendations

-Advanced cloud defences

-Prioritised alerts and incident reporting

-Unified security and privacy management

-Advanced threat protection

-Mechanisms for encryption, secrets administration, and access control that can be leveraged for managing sensitive data

The tech giant said these capabilities have the ability to collectively provide an unparalleled compliant foundation to help ensure control over the integrity, privacy, and security of critical data.

Microsoft's software development teams apply a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect information from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure, throughout the company's development and operational practices which revolve around:

Privacy by Design - to enable informed decision-making

Privacy by Default - to protect by means such as access control lists in combination with identity authentication mechanisms

Privacy in Deployment - to establish appropriate privacy and security policies for users

Communications - by publishing privacy policies, white papers, and other documentation pertaining to privacy

In 2018, Microsoft revealed that cyber security-enabled privacy will be of core importance as they enable the digital transformation of Indian business.