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Microsoft Azure Platform Certified "Secure" By Department of Defense

Posted by timothy on from the until-proven-otherwise dept.

cagraham writes "Microsoft's cloud storage platform Azure received their first government certification yesterday, less than 24 hours before the official shutdown. The certification, which grants Azure 'Provisional Authority to Operate,' should make it easier for Microsoft to compete with rivals like IBM and Amazon Web Services for government contracts. The certification signifies that the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and US General Services Administration have all deemed Azure safe from external hackers. Government cloud contracts are a lucrative market, as seen by Amazon's recent tussle with IBM over a $600M contract for a private CIA cloud."

15 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. "Secure" meaning . . . by StefanJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    . . . the backdoor for the NSA is really well protected.

    1. Re:"Secure" meaning . . . by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 2

      Since this certification is one step towards allowing government agencies to use Azure, your comment isn't relevant. No backdoor needed.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    2. Re:"Secure" meaning . . . by gmuslera · · Score: 2

      Because they are "sure" that they are the only ones that could exploit it. And backdoor could mean only in place access, as they having a machine in that network with privileged acces to everywhere. Also, probably the government uses plenty of Windows in their desktops, with backdoor or not.

    3. Re:"Secure" meaning . . . by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The certification makes it easy for foreign entities to avoid it like the plague.

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
    4. Re:"Secure" meaning . . . by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      so that they don't have to bother with things like permits, court orders etc things that tie up la.. investigators time.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    5. Re:"Secure" meaning . . . by steelfood · · Score: 2

      This is Microsoft. Their data center is in the U.S. The only backdoor any three-letter agency needs to gain entry is the loading dock.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
    6. Re:"Secure" meaning . . . by davester666 · · Score: 2

      This is the 'carrot' side. You get a nice juicy gov't contract if you remain helpful in our fight against evil terrorists and child molesters!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Finally it works to Gov. Specs. by arthurpaliden · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the Microsoft has finally got all their systems working properly with the government requested backdoors and decryption methodologies.

    --
    Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
  3. in all seriousness by zlives · · Score: 2

    muhahaha, i believe, is the correct response

  4. "... SAFE from EXTERNAL hackers..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So it's only the ones already in the box that we have to worry about.

  5. Re:US government assures economy is recovering by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

    Well, it is. The billionaire bankers and HFT guys are doing very well.

  6. Reminds me of a conversation... by ducomputergeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...when I worked in "Academic Computing" on the campus of the college I went to. What that really meant was I was one of five students allowed to touch the AS/400 we had. I remember my boss in a presentation where he boasted that AIX had never been hacked and I snorted. He looked at me puzzled and I said, "Is it available for export?" Answer was yes, "Well it has a backdoor that the NSA can use. Furthermore, how many of their premiere tech support staff, you know the people they send out in the field, work for IBM and draw a nice second paycheck from (insert 3 letter agency here)?" After that's how the CIA spied on the Soviet Embassy. They sent in a Xerox employee who also worked for the CIA to do maintenance on their Xerox machine...

    Of course this was back at a time where very few outside of the military even knew the NSA existed or what they did. I was aware of them because I was following their Security Enhanced Linux developments at the time.

    He didn't believe me. Recently got an email from him stating that it appears the arrogant 20 year old kid 13 years ago turned out to be largely correct about NSA capabilities....

    It also didn't hurt that my father as an executive at one of the major defense contractors (hint they built fighter planes like the F-15 & F-18 & AV-8B). All my neighbors were engineers at the same company. I grew up in that world I remember asking what happened if we sold F-15's to country X and they used them against us: see Iran and the 1970's. The response I got was, "There's contingencies built into the systems", i.e. there was another reason the Israeli air force remained grounded during the first gulf war...

    --
    "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
    1. Re:Reminds me of a conversation... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Fascinating. Mod up. I'm aware of some of that stuff, (a part for which I wrote code is in the F16, or at least was in the late seventies) but I never connected it to warning our allies to keep their US-supplied planes grounded during certain offensives. Makes total sense.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  7. ok, so.. by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...having worked for a company that did this type of stuff for the government, and seeing the process first hand, what I observe is that the certification is not necessary done by someone with a deep knowledge of security. It's done by a bored inspector with some training, checking off line items, sometimes for political reasons, sometimes for business reasons, or sometimes because the inspector wants to make his flight back to Virginia. So, great, it passed. Until it gets pwned. Then starts the long process of plugging an individual hole, getting pwned again, plugging another hole, getting pwned again. You know, the usual Microsoft patch cycle.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  8. Re:US government assures economy is recovering by Jawnn · · Score: 2

    Damn right, you socialist slacker. Privatize the profits and socialize the expense, whenever and wherever possible. Oh, and you forgot the part about cutting taxes for the wealthy... er..., I mean the "job creators". Joe Sixpack will just hear "tax cuts" and think that we meant that for him.