Microsoft’s Brad Smith: National, Global Cyber Strategy Needed to Address Nation-State Attacks

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, has urged the U.S. public sector and technology industry to work together on coordinating a multipronged cybersecurity strategy in the wake of a SolarWinds network management software breach that hit several federal departments, private companies and non-governmental organizations.

He wrote in a blog post published Thursday telemetry data from the antivirus Defender tool shows the customer base that installed SolarWinds Orion software upgrades exploited by Russia-linked attackers using a malicious technique that possibly put the supply chain at risk.

Smith said the sophistication of nation-state attacks, the proliferation of cyber mercenaries he describes as "private sector offensive actors" and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have been eye-opening trends in the cybersecurity landscape this year.

“The defense of democracy requires that governments and technology companies work together in new and important ways – to share information, strengthen defenses and respond to attacks.”

Governments should implement a systemic approach to facilitate threat intelligence analysis and exchange, stricter international policies to stop cyberattack ecosystem growth and stronger measures to increase nation-state accountability for security incidents, Smith added.