With recently publicised steps to elevate its cyber security measures, including the mandatory enforcement of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Azure, it’s clear that Microsoft intends to continue to strengthen its value proposition for cybersecurity. But is relying solely on Microsoft for protection the wisest strategy?
The allure of Microsoft’s security ecosystem
It’s easy to see why many small businesses gravitate towards an all-Microsoft security approach. The convenience and familiarity of Microsoft tools, coupled with Microsoft’s prominence as a vendor helps to instil confidence in their solutions. Equally many of these products are already included within enterprise Microsoft 365 licence tiers, like E3 and E5. As such, many organisations feel obliged to make Microsoft’s protections a core part of their cyber defence, and it’s an approach that is often advocated as a way to ensure you get the most from your licences.
While leveraging these tools can feel like a logical path forward, it paves the way towards a Microsoft-dominated security monoculture, where an organisation is overly dependent on a single vendor for its cybersecurity needs. This may seem harmless at first, but overtime it can put your business at risk and create unseen vulnerabilities ready for exploit.
The risks of a Microsoft security monoculture
The most glaring issue with a Microsoft-centric security approach is that it establishes Microsoft as a single point of failure. With all your cyber defences tied to one provider, a vulnerability in Microsoft’s systems could potentially compromise your entire security posture, leaving you defenceless.
Microsoft’s widespread popularity also creates a significant risk of zero-day attacks. No single company, even one as large as Microsoft, can anticipate and defend against every possible threat vector. At the same time, cybercriminals are constantly searching for previously unknown (“zero-day”) attack vectors, especially for systems as widely adopted as Microsoft 365 that can present a major payday. This means that blind spots previously overlooked by Microsoft may quickly be unearthed and used to attack Microsoft users – without additional security measures in place, this can be devastating to a business.
It’s also worth noting that while Microsoft offers broad security coverage, they are not a dedicated security vendor. Specialised third-party solutions often provide deeper expertise in specific areas of cybersecurity, and usually represent the best-in-class solutions for particular security needs, as these third-party vendors can focus all their resources on perfecting one cyber defence, as opposed to offering this as an extension to a wider portfolio.
Balancing Microsoft security with third-party solutions
Adopting a multi-vendor approach helps avoid the risks posed by a monoculture, and keep your business protected. Third-party solutions can fill gaps in Microsoft’s offerings or enhance their capabilities helping develop comprehensive cyber defences, that don’t hinge on Microsoft security. Importantly, different vendors will bring their own unique threat intelligence networks to the table, broadening your visibility into potential threats and reducing the risk of being blindsided by a previously unnoticed threat.
By diversifying your cybersecurity strategy, you’re not putting all your eggs in a single vendor’s basket, and you can get a better overall IT experience as a result. For example, Microsoft’s backup options offer limited retention windows, increasing the likelihood of data loss through accidental or even malicious deletion. Third-party backup solutions offer long-term and often more granular retention policies, better enabling a business to store and recover important information. This is also important for many regulatory compliance requirements, especially those in industries where sensitive and confidential data is in large quantities.
Embracing multiple vendors also makes it much easier to introduce air gaps in your cyber defences. For obvious reasons, many of Microsoft’s security offerings are hosted in Azure. This helps for consolidation, but it means that if Azure goes down, these defences suffer or even fail entirely. By contrast, diversified cyber defences can employ a mix of different clouds and on-premises infrastructure, ensuring that your defences stay up, and any backups remain accessible, even if one cloud experiences an outage.
Building a robust, diversified cybersecurity strategy
If you’re worried you may have already slipped into a security monoculture, it’s not too late to build up diversified cyber defences. Start by evaluating your use of existing Microsoft’s security measures to look for potential gaps in your cyber defences, as well as where additional capabilities from third-party vendors might better serve the needs of your business.
Once you’ve identified these gaps, it’s time to find third-party solutions that can help secure them. This doesn’t need to make your overall IT infrastructure more complex – many cybersecurity vendors have ongoing partnerships with Microsoft, and tailor their solutions to integrate into tools like Microsoft 365 or Defender, meaning you don’t need to compromise on ease-of-use in order to ensure security.
It also doesn’t mean that you must completely do away with the Microsoft protections you have in place. Many of these tools offer exceptional functionality that can be elevated with additional support from complementary solutions.
Getting started
Cybersecurity is often a complex subject, but we’re here to support. We’ve helped countless organisations of all shapes and sizes enhance their cybersecurity posture and move away from a Microsoft-dominated monoculture.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your cybersecurity strategy in more detail, and take the first steps towards building a diverse, resilient defence that truly safeguards your business’s digital assets.