Microsoft Advances Cybersecurity Investments in Asia-Pacific with Transparency Center & Cybersecurity Center Launch

Microsoft Advances Cybersecurity Investments
in Asia-Pacific with Transparency Center & Cybersecurity Center Launch

The joint facility will
be Microsoft’s first worldwide and will help build trust and confidence in technology, while delivering holistic security
solutions to the public and private sector

SINGAPORE – 4 October 2016 – Microsoft today launched its first combined
Transparency Center and Cybersecurity Center in Singapore, serving the
Asia-Pacific region. The joint facility will for the first time bring together
Microsoft capabilities in a single location in Asia-Pacific to deliver a
holistic approach to serving the security needs of both the public and private
sector and building a trusted and secure computing environment, a critical
enabler for digital transformation.

The Microsoft Transparency Center is a cornerstone
of Microsoft’s long-standing Government Security Programme (GSP), which offers participating government agencies
the opportunity to review the source code of Microsoft products, access
information on cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities, and benefit from the
expertise and insight of Microsoft security professionals. Nearly 40 countries
and international organisations currently participate in the programme with 10
participants from Asia-Pacific.

The Singapore Transparency Center is a
convenient location for governments in the Asia region and will be part of a
global network that covers four regions, joining existing facilities in
Redmond, Washington, for North America, and Brussels, Belgium, for Europe. In
addition, more details of other new Microsoft Transparency Centers will be
shared later in 2016, including the recently announced Transparency Center in
Beijing, China.

“Public-private partnerships are key to
strengthening national cybersecurity. The opening of the Microsoft regional
Transparency Center in Singapore to serve the wider Asia-Pacific region, advances
our worldwide commitment to drive transparency, security and trust in digital
technologies in the mobile-first and cloud-first world. It is part of the
Microsoft Government Security Programme, where we support, collaborate and
enable governments to protect citizens, public services and national
infrastructure from cybercrime threats and to meet their rigorous cybersecurity
requirements by building strong capabilities to protect, detect and respond,”
said Toni Townes-Whitley,
Corporate Vice-President, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft Corporation.

The Microsoft Cybersecurity Center in Singapore,
co-located with the Transparency Center, will enable enterprises and
organisations to tap into a pool of resources such as security specialists and
technologies at Microsoft. Amid rising cybercriminal activities and a rapidly
changing cybersecurity landscape, the Cybersecurity Center will bring forth
innovations and advancements by way of security platform, threat
intelligence analytics, advanced threat protection, machine learning
capabilities, security services and cloud security in a comprehensive way.

“With Microsoft’s mission to
empower every person and every organisation to achieve more, we need to ensure
every individual, organisation, and government has the ability to use
technology they can trust. The extensive technology footprint that Microsoft has
around the world has allowed us to understand and counter cyber threats. Beyond
leveraging that knowledge to build trusted applications and products, we also
have the responsibility to share the same intelligence with governments and
organisations so that we can contribute towards a safer and more trusted cyber world for
Singapore, the region, and beyond,” said Jessica Tan, Managing Director,
Microsoft Singapore.

“Cyberspace has opened up many opportunities for
the economy and society. However, it has also become a place
for individuals and groups to launch cyber attacks on governments,
organisations and people. International cooperation is therefore needed against
such threat actors. We are happy that Microsoft has chosen Singapore to be its
global partner in cybersecurity. Robust partnerships between the
government and industry, such as through the Microsoft Transparency Center and
Cybersecurity Center, will enable all of us to build trust and a safer
cyberspace for everyone,” said David Koh, Chief Executive, Cyber Security
Agency of Singapore.

The Transparency Center
and Cybersecurity Center will expand Microsoft’s public-private- partnerships
in the Asia-Pacific region, while enabling and empowering enterprises to manage modern security
threats effectively. This will build on the momentum in the last
few years, where the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) has
fostered various partnerships with public sector and enforcement agencies in
the region. This includes strategic collaboration with Interpol in global
malware botnet disruption operations and a PhotoDNA licensing collaboration to
support Interpol’s efforts in preventing child sexual exploitation online, as
well as cyber threat intelligence sharing partnerships with several Internet
Service Providers in the region and government Computer Emergency Response
Teams (CERTs).

To support a comprehensive,
cross-company and cross-industry approach to cybersecurity, Microsoft invests
more than a billion dollars a year in security research, innovation and
development. This includes a recently
announced global Cyber
Defense Operations Center (C-DOC), a state-of-the-art 24/7 facility that
brings together security response experts from across the company to help protect, detect and
respond to threats in real-time, securing Microsoft’s internal resources, cloud
infrastructure, customer online services, devices and products. Microsoft has
also recently established an Enterprise Cybersecurity Group (ECG) –
a dedicated team of worldwide security experts who will deliver security
solutions, expertise and services that empower organisations to modernise their
IT platforms, securely move to the cloud and keep data safe.