During its shift towards a cloud-first company, Microsoft has talked a lot about openness. The company says it wants its data to be transparent and for customers to know they are secure. With this in mind, the company opened two facilities in Singapore that will allow governments to check source code.
The two locations will give governments in the Asia-Pacific region will have access to cybersecurity resources. Microsoft opened the Transparency Centre and Cybersecurity Centre as part of its security programme.
With this project, Microsoft is opening its product's source code to authorities to be checked. Both private and public bodies can check the company's machine learning threat intelligence analytics and other security protocols.
The programme has been a success so far. Microsoft says encompasses 40 countries and organizations worldwide. Asia-Pacific is a region that has adopted the program consistently. There are now 10 countries involved for the region. Microsoft has other Transparency locations in Beijing China and now Singapore.
Those locations sit with the company's North American center in the US, and European center in Belgium.
Protecting Customers
Microsoft's openness is part of the company trying to make sure its services are always protected. Giving governments access helps with regulatory hurdles, and allows organizations to check the vendor's services at code level.
Singapore's Minister for Home Affairs, Law K. Shanmugam welcomed the Transparency Centre. He says there is a need to move to the next level when protecting data and battling cyber threats.
“Cybercrime is growing in complexity, in sophistication across borders,” he said. “While the government has the expertise, it does not have all the expertise. Partnerships with private sector has become essential.”
He concluded that locations such as the Microsoft centres would push “innovation, collaboration, and information sharing“.
