Microsoft is now prioritizing security as a fundamental aspect of employee performance reviews. The company, responding to years of security issues and criticisms, has made this shift official as of today. Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, communicated this change in an internal memo obtained by The Verge, stating, “Everyone at Microsoft will have security as a Core Priority.” She emphasized that in any tradeoff, security must come first.
The new policy could affect promotions, merit-based salary increases, and bonuses. According to an internal FAQ, the impact of employees on the Security Core Priority will be a significant factor in managerial assessments and reward recommendations. Alongside diversity and inclusion, security is now a mandatory topic in performance discussions, known internally as a “Connect.”
Microsoft employees must demonstrate their contributions to security improvements. For technical staff, this means integrating security from the beginning of product design, adhering to security practices, and ensuring products are secure by default for customers. All employees, including executives, will use the Connect tool for performance reviews and will have specific security priorities to meet.
This initiative is part of Microsoft’s broader Secure Future Initiative (SFI), aimed at enhancing the security of its networks, production systems, and engineering processes. Some internal security changes have affected products like Outlook. Microsoft will end support for Basic Authentication for Outlook personal accounts in September and remove the light version of the Outlook web application on August 19th. Users of Outlook.com, Hotmail, and Live.com will need to access their email accounts via apps using Modern Authentication starting September 16th, affecting some third-party email apps and older versions of Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird.
Featured Image courtesy of Ars Technica
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