Microsoft calls for Tech industry as a neutral Digital Switzerland

8 years ago - Published in Finance, Technical Analysis

Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith on Tuesday called on governments and technology companies to vow to protect citizens against cybercrime.

"Even in an age of rising nationalism, we as a global technology sector need to become a trusted and neutral digital Switzerland," Smith said at the RSA Conference 2017 in San Francisco.

This week’s security conference is getting more focus than ever before, thanks to the 2016 US presidential election, which generated more news on cyberattacks, email leaks, and cybersecurity blunders than anything else. The United States had formally accused Russia of hacking the Democratic Party to influence election results. While the US and private security firms released reports showing a connection to Russia, not everyone trusted these results since Russia won’t accept the blame and a Democratic President was then leading the US.

"Let's go forward and show the world that it needs us to be what we can be when we're at our best: an industry that can serve the world," Smith said. "An industry that earns everyone's trust every day. An industry that even in an age of nationalism is a neutral digital Switzerland on which everyone can depend and rely."

Microsoft called for tech companies to protect customers, not to help attack them. When it comes to the cyber world, citizens need to able to rely on tech companies like Microsoft to be committed to “100 percent defense and zero percent offense.”

On a blog post on Microsoft's site, Smith wrote that 74% of the world's businesses expect to be hacked each year, and that the cost of cybercrime will reach an estimated $3 trillion by 2020.

Microsoft, which does business in 190 countries, clearly sees itself as an international company responsible to its global customers.

“We need to make clear that there are certain principals for which we stand, that we will assist and protect customers everywhere. We will not aid in attacking customers anywhere, regardless of the government that may ask us to do so,” Smith said.