RSS: Microsoft on the issues

What a difficult year this has been. During the past nine months, COVID-19 has disrupted almost every aspect of our lives, our work and our social interactions to a degree most of us never imagined possible. The economic damage may take years to repair. Here in the United States, the shocking deaths of George Floyd... The post Why privacy is essential to equitable recovery appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Microsoft has released its latest biannual digital trust reports on the Microsoft Reports Hub. These reports consist of the Law Enforcement Requests Report, U.S. National Security Orders Report, Content Removal Request Reports and our new Digital Safety Content Report. We have also now aligned the latest Microsoft Privacy Report with the release of this larger... The post Microsoft releases biannual digital trust reports appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Today we took action to disrupt a botnet called Trickbot, one of the world’s most infamous botnets and prolific distributors of ransomware. As the United States government and independent experts have warned, ransomware is one of the largest threats to the upcoming elections. Adversaries can use ransomware to infect a computer system used to maintain... The post New action to combat ransomware ahead of U.S. elections  appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

For software developers, app stores have become a critical gateway to some of the world’s most popular digital platforms. We and others have raised questions and, at times, expressed concerns about app stores on other digital platforms. However, we recognize that we should practice what we preach. So, today, we are adopting 10 principles –... The post 10 app store principles to promote choice, fairness and innovation appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Growing up in Newton, Kansas our local newspaper, The Kansan, was the lifeblood of our community. At 3:30 p.m. every afternoon it landed on porches and lawns across the town, and we saw our local culture reflected in its pages: updates about important local events, high school sports scores, who won the local debate competition,... The post New steps to preserve and protect journalism and local newsrooms appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

In a spirit of transparency, we want to disclose that Microsoft was contacted last week by the United States Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) regarding some of the commitments we made in June to address issues faced by the Black and African American community. Microsoft, like all federal contractors, is subject to several OFCCP... The post Responding to the OFCCP on our June diversity commitments appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Since 2008, Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program (LFDP) has been a vehicle for the company to partner with our strategic partner law firms to advance diversity in the legal profession. We report annually on the program’s results, spotlight top performances among our law firm participants and provide insight into how we will evolve the program... The post Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program 2020 awards and the next evolution of the program appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Six months ago, we found ourselves facing a global pandemic that threatened to take thousands of lives and majorly disrupt our global economy. And in a short period of time, many of those fears became reality and continue to impact the lives and jobs of millions around the world. We realized quickly that we were... The post Helping 10 million learners and counting appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Today, Microsoft is releasing a new annual report, called the Digital Defense Report, covering cybersecurity trends from the past year. This report makes it clear that threat actors have rapidly increased in sophistication over the past year, using techniques that make them harder to spot and that threaten even the savviest targets. For example, nation-state... The post Microsoft report shows increasing sophistication of cyber threats appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.

Recently, we identified cyberattacks targeting people and organizations involved in the upcoming presidential election. While we are committed to defending our democracy against these attacks through notifications of such activity to impacted customers, security features in our products and services, and legal and technical disruptions, the role of government in addressing these threats has never... The post Critical steps for securing cyberspace appeared first on Microsoft on the Issues.