Microsoft transferred its chief information security officer out of the company’s security organization, in a move that hints at the growing importance of artificial intelligence at the software giant.
As CISO, Igor Tsyganskiy, is responsible for securing Microsoft’s own business, and setting cybersecurity standards across the company.
He will now report to EVP Scott Guthrie, who runs Microsoft’s Cloud + AI group. This is the organization that runs important business like Microsoft’s Azure cloud and the teams that help OpenAI and other AI companies develop and run giant AI models and chatbots in the cloud.
“As we continue to navigate increasingly complex global threats, the CISO team plays a critical role in safeguarding Microsoft, the Microsoft Cloud, and our customers,” Guthrie wrote in the recent memo. “They are our first line of defense, and drive our services, products, platforms, and operations to be secure by design and secure by default.”
Tsyganskiy previously reported to the head of the Security group, Charlie Bell, who oversees all of Microsoft’s security and compliance, according to a memo viewed by Business Insider.
This is an illustration of how important AI is becoming to Microsoft. Spokesman Frank Shaw said the move gets Tsyganskiy’s organization closer to the systems it helps protect.
“The CISO organization is focused on protecting Microsoft and our customers and being customer zero for our security products,” Shaw said. “Moving the team to Cloud + AI puts them closer to the engineering systems they secure, deepens integration with platform development, and strengthens our ability to see and stop emerging threats.”
Tsyganskiy’s team will continue working closely with Microsoft Security “to ensure our solutions reflect real-world enterprise needs,” Shaw added.
The move is also the latest change in Microsoft’s approach to security after some high-profile challenges in recent years. Microsoft recruited Bell from Amazon to run a new cybersecurity organization in 2022, but the company has still had struggles.
The Department of Homeland Security last year condemned Microsoft for what it called “a cascade of security failures” that allowed Chinese hackers to access emails from thousands of customers.
Microsoft expanded its Secure Future Initiative last year, making security the top priority for every employee, including adding making security a metric on which employees are evaluated during performance reviews.
Tsyganskiy became Microsoft’s CISO in January 2024. Bell praised him in an internal memo viewed by BI at the time, saying he was a “technologist and dynamic leader with a storied career in high-scale/high-security, demanding environments.”
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