Microsoft President Brad Smith has called on the tech industry to work together to secure critical infrastructures against cyber attacks. The recent Solar Winds attacks against Microsoft and numerous other companies are “an indiscriminate, massive attack on the global supply chain that we must protect together,” said Smith in his recorded keynote at the digital CES 2021.

“Too many silos” Smith pointed out that before the attacks of the 11. September 2001 essential information was not disclosed. One should not repeat this mistake. “If we look at SolarWinds and how the malware was distributed, it should be a reminder that cyber threat intelligence and data are in too many different silos,” said Smith. “We have to find new ways to share this data.”

It is naive to assume that governments will stop spying on each other, says Smith. But there must be limits – and these have been exceeded with the wide-ranging attacks. “We have long lived in a world where there are norms and rules that shape expectations about what is acceptable and what is not,” said Smith. “And what happened to SolarWinds wasn’t.” The attackers are also said to have stolen source code from Microsoft.

“Technology has no conscience” The Microsoft President wishes a global agreement that outlaws attacks on certain infrastructure such as healthcare. “Technology doesn’t have a conscience, but we do,” said Smith. Humanity must agree to use technology for good. “We have to think about new guard rails in order to stay in control.”

In December it became known that unknown attackers 2020 malware infiltrated an update of the Solarwinds IT management platform Orion. The software is used by numerous large companies and government agencies. The attacks are said to have been carried out by the same group that had previously attacked the security service provider FireEye. US government officials have accused a Russian secret service of being behind the attacks.

(vbr)