“We are doubling down on this very important work, putting security above all else, before all other features and investments,” Nadella said.
Satya Nadella has made a habit on Microsoft’s earnings calls of touting the revenue growth in the company’s security technology business.
But today the Microsoft CEO took a different approach, talking instead about the Secure Future Initiative that the company launched last fall to improve its cybersecurity safeguards.
“We are doubling down on this very important work, putting security above all else — before all other features and investments,” Nadella said Thursday afternoon, after the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings report.
It was a brief diversion from the bigger topic of the day. Nadella and CFO Amy Hood spent much of the call fielding questions about the AI demand fueling the company’s growth, and the capital expenditures needed to keep up.
But it was a notable change in tone about security, and a sign of the growing pressure on the company amid a series of high-profile hacks and a growing chorus of concern from governmental agencies and big customers.
Nadella’s vow to put security “above all else” follows a report by the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) that described Microsoft’s security culture as “inadequate” and called on the company to make security its top priority.
