AJ Grotto, a former senior cyber security director for the White House, confirmed recently that tech juggernaut Microsoft has a commanding amount of control over national cybersecurity. According to Grotto, the company needs to be “dragged kicking and screaming” before it is willing to make even slight concessions to the Federal government. As a result, the company routinely puts its own self-interest before national security.
Grotto referenced the SolarWinds scandal, in which “[Microsoft] was essentially up-selling logging capability to federal agencies” and cited that the company had made more than $20 billion in revenue from security services in 2023. He further explained that he feels that the government needs to focus on fostering competition in its security policy to discourage this kind of monopoly in the future.
