Cybersecurity Archives - Inside Track Blog http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/tag/cybersecurity/ How Microsoft does IT Thu, 21 May 2026 16:00:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 137088546 Microsoft CISO advice: Consider the risks of early integration with mergers and acquisitions http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/microsoft-ciso-advice-consider-the-risks-of-early-integration-with-mergers-and-acquisitions/ Thu, 14 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000 http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/?p=23592 When considering mergers and acquisitions (M&A), security needs to be an important part of the financial and operational due diligence process. At Microsoft, the security organization does more than fulfill the traditional role of assessing risk. It seeks also to address questions about the speed and costs of integrating new resources and capabilities. Geoff Belknap, […]

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]]> When considering mergers and acquisitions (M&A), security needs to be an important part of the financial and operational due diligence process. At Microsoft, the security organization does more than fulfill the traditional role of assessing risk. It seeks also to address questions about the speed and costs of integrating new resources and capabilities.

Geoff Belknap, CVP and operating CISO shares the questions he asks when considering when and how to integrate technologies with a merged or acquired company.

Watch this video to see Geoff Belknap share questions about integration with M&A. (For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrE2FSXZ-ss.)

Key takeaways

Think about moving slowly with early integration with M&A. Here are some key questions to consider:

  • What do we risk by combining tools or technical capabilities too quickly?
  • Is the deal still valuable if we do not integrate systems?
  • What operational safeguards and governance are needed?

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]]> 23592 Microsoft CISO advice: Apply engineering fundamentals to securing AI http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/microsoft-ciso-advice-apply-engineering-fundamentals-to-securing-ai/ Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000 http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/?p=23334 Agentic AI, like any software, is just one part of a business solution. It is not the only element that needs to be secured. Engineers need to approach securing agentic AI in the corporate IT ecosystem the same way they would consider any security problem—from end to end. Yonatan Zunger, CVP and deputy CISO for […]

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]]> Agentic AI, like any software, is just one part of a business solution. It is not the only element that needs to be secured. Engineers need to approach securing agentic AI in the corporate IT ecosystem the same way they would consider any security problem—from end to end.

Yonatan Zunger, CVP and deputy CISO for Microsoft, suggests focusing exclusively on hardening a piece of software to security threats may make it difficult to use and introduce a new risk when users get frustrated and try to bypass controls. This is why engineers need to consider not just individual components but how they work together to maintain productivity.

“Think of every system as a socio-technical system containing many parts, and all of them working together in unison have to be secured,” Zunger says.

Learn from our experience 

Read our practical advice about applying security fundamentals to AI.

Watch this video to see Yonatan Zunger explain why engineering fundamentals are critical to building resilient AI systems. (For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU-8lpwPtm0 )

Try it out

Read more from Zunger about applying security fundamentals to AI.

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]]> 23334 Microsoft CISO advice: How to build trustworthy agentic AI http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/microsoft-ciso-advice-how-to-build-trustworthy-agentic-ai/ Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:15:00 +0000 http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/?p=23173 Building production-ready solutions with agentic AI comes with inherent risks. When agents make mistakes or hallucinate, the potential impacts can multiply rapidly. “It turns out that it’s very easy to write AI-powered software, but it’s very hard to write AI-powered software that works right in real-world cases,” says Yonatan Zunger, CVP and deputy CISO for […]

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]]> Building production-ready solutions with agentic AI comes with inherent risks. When agents make mistakes or hallucinate, the potential impacts can multiply rapidly.

“It turns out that it’s very easy to write AI-powered software, but it’s very hard to write AI-powered software that works right in real-world cases,” says Yonatan Zunger, CVP and deputy CISO for Microsoft.

Yunger explains how important it is to test if you want to build trustworthy agentic AI.

Learn from our experience 

Read our practical advice about applying security fundamentals to AI.

Watch this video to see Yonatan Zunger explain how to build trustworthy agentic AI. (For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNU7c48541M)

Key takeaways

Here are best practices to apply while building trustworthy agentic AI:

  • Prototype. Test. Iterate. Think of and try prompts your real users might give your agentic AI. Use real data. From those trials, build a set of test cases and keep testing.
  • Use AI tools to amplify testing. Evaluating agents requires a “try it and repeat it” mindset. Using AI Foundry with such tools as Python Risk Identification Tool amplifies these assessment capabilities.
  • Record your tests. Applying this practice, as you would with unit testing, enables you to repeat evaluations as your data models and agents evolve.
  • Don’t skimp on testing. Test early, test often, test with real data. This is the best way to understand what your agent might do when it encounters the unexpected.

Try it out

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]]> 23173 Microsoft CISO advice: The importance of a written AI safety plan http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/microsoft-ciso-advice-the-importance-of-a-written-ai-safety-plan/ Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000 http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/?p=23016 Yonatan Zunger, CVP and Deputy CISO for Microsoft, has spent his career considering complex questions with security and privacy while building platform infrastructure and solutions. His experience underpins his advice on how to build a safety plan for working with AI. First and foremost, his advice is to have a written plan. “Make it an […]

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]]> Yonatan Zunger, CVP and Deputy CISO for Microsoft, has spent his career considering complex questions with security and privacy while building platform infrastructure and solutions. His experience underpins his advice on how to build a safety plan for working with AI. First and foremost, his advice is to have a written plan.

“Make it an expectation in your organization that people will create safety plans and have them for everything,” Zunger says. “People get so excited about having clarity in front of them that they end up making much more systematic, careful plans, and the rate of errors goes down dramatically.”

Learn from our experience 

Read our practical advice about applying security fundamentals to AI.

Watch this video to see Yonatan Zunger discuss his advice for creating an AI safety plan. (For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5reZ0uw0EA

Key takeaways

Here are questions and ideas to consider as you create a safety plan for your AI systems:

  • Define the problem. What problem are you trying to solve? A simple and clear problem statement is always a great starting point before building anything, including an AI agent.
  • Outline the solution. What is the basis of your solution? Can you explain your solution to an end user? What does a developer or administrative user of your solution need to know about what it is and does?
  • List the things that can go wrong. What can go wrong with your solution? Creating this list is the first step to figuring out how to deal with those issues.
  • Document your plan. What is your plan to address identified concerns? Identify the process you will follow when something goes wrong.
  • Draft your plan early and update it as your solution matures. Your safety plan can be as simple as a list or outline and should evolve as you prepare to build your solution.
  • Get feedback and buy-in. When you review the plan with stakeholders and leaders in your team and organization, you may uncover risks or issues you had not thought of. You also build awareness and agreement on what to do when something goes wrong.
  • Make a template and build its use into your processes. This tip is for anyone who leads a team or influences process development. Encourage using a safety template in all your projects to bring clarity and structure to how you work with AI.

Try it out

Discover how to secure agentic AI.

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]]> 23016 Microsoft CISO advice: The most important thing to know about securing AI http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/microsoft-ciso-advice-the-most-important-thing-to-know-about-securing-ai/ Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0000 http://approjects.co.za/?big=insidetrack/blog/?p=22863 Using AI comes with inherent risks. In a recent video, Yonatan Zunger, CVP and deputy CISO for Microsoft, suggests thinking about AI as a new intern will help you naturally take the right approach to AI security.  Zunger and his team focus on AI safety and security. They consider all the different ways anything involving […]

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]]> Using AI comes with inherent risks. In a recent video, Yonatan Zunger, CVP and deputy CISO for Microsoft, suggests thinking about AI as a new intern will help you naturally take the right approach to AI security. 

Zunger and his team focus on AI safety and security. They consider all the different ways anything involving working with AI can go wrong.

“An important thing to know about AI is that AI’s make mistakes,” Zunger says. “You already know how to work with systems that make mistakes, get tricked.”

Explore Zero Trust for AI

Check out our new Zero Trust for AI tools and guidance.

Watch this video to see Yonatan Zunger discuss his advice for working with AI. (For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/b1x6gDbSWVY. )

Try it out

Explore how to extend Zero Trust principles to AI.

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