Microsoft Azure is improving security on its platform in the hope of attracting companies which have yet to migrate to the cloud because of security concerns. Cloud platforms allow for what Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, described as Security Features as a Service, like trusted execution environments — or enclaves — and encryption at rest and, now, in use.
Encryption in use has been the “missing piece” in cloud data security thus far, said Russinovich, speaking at D.C. CyberWeek’s CyberTalks event Wednesday. Azure’s “Always Encrypted” technology allowed companies to encrypt data in the cloud in the past, but regular expressions could not be performed on the data. With upcoming deployments of enclave technology on the Azure SQL Database, running regular mathematical expressions on the encrypted data will be possible.
Big Data analytics is the backbone of the cloud, and confidential computing is the next phase of cybersecurity, according to Russinovich. With these advances, Microsoft’s Hadoop analytics system can be placed in an enclave and…
