Microsoft offers improved cloud computing security
Azure also protects against state snooping
Seattle — Microsoft, working with chip maker Intel, is offering a cloud-computing service with more powerful encryption to secure data from hackers and to protect it from secret government data gathering. Called Azure confidential computing, the technology encrypts data while it is in use, which is when most security breaches occur, according to Azure chief technology officer Mark Russinovich. The new product works by placing customer information in a virtual enclave, essentially a black box that keeps anyone outside the customer — including Microsoft itself — from accessing the data. That can keep cyberthieves, malicious insiders and governments from getting in without customer authorisation. The new service also means that Microsoft will not have the capability to turn over data in response to government warrants and subpoenas. That is an issue at the heart of a Microsoft lawsuit against the US government fighting the requirement to turn over client data, sometimes even without th...
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