Microsoft Purges Dormant Azure Tenants, Rotates Keys to Prevent Repeat Nation-State Hack
Microsoft security chief Charlie Bell says the SFI’s 28 objectives are “near completion” and that 11 others have made “significant progress.” Microsoft, touting what it calls “the largest cybersecurity engineering project in history,” says it has moved every Microsoft Account and Entra ID token‑signing key into hardware security modules or Azure confidential VMs with automatic rotation, an overhaul meant to block the key‑theft tactic that fueled an embarrassing nation‑state breach at Redmond. Just 18 months after rolling out a Secure Future Initiative in response to the hack and a scathing US government report that followed, Microsoft security chief Charlie Bell said five of the program’s 28 objectives are “near completion” and that 11 others have made “significant progress.” In addition to the headline fix to put all Microsoft Account and Entra ID token‑signing keys in hardware security modules or Azure confidential virtual machines, Bell said more than 90 percent of Microsoft’s internal productivity accounts have moved to phishing‑resistant multi factor authentication and that 90 percent of first‑party identity tokens are validated through a newly hardened software‑development kit.
