Tag: Microsoft on the Issues

I’m delighted to share the news that Melanie Nakagawa will join Microsoft in January as our new Chief Sustainability Officer. Reporting directly to me as a Corporate Vice President, Melanie will partner with teams across Microsoft and take on the leadership role for our company-wide environmental sustainability work.

Melanie brings to Microsoft almost two decades of environmental sustainability experience at the nexus of policy, business and technology, which will be vital as we continue our sustainability journey. She most recently served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Climate and Energy on the National Security Council at the White House, one of several roles she has held in the U.S. government. At the White House, Melanie played a leadership role on international and domestic climate initiatives, as well as energy issues that included the international energy response to the war in Ukraine.

This built on Melanie’s prior work, including as the director of climate strategy for a climate tech-focused private equity firm working with growth stage companies in North America, Europe and Asia. She also brings experience in the nonprofit and academic sectors on environmental and energy policy and regulatory issues.

Melanie joins Microsoft at a critical time. January will mark the third anniversary of our ambitious climate goals to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove our historical carbon emissions by 2050. While I’m pleased with our progress, we must accelerate our momentum and broaden even further our climate-related work.

This urgency reflects the current state of climate issues around the world. As I found while meeting with global leaders last month at the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt, the world confronts a complex and sobering challenge. As the United Nations Environment Programme reported in October in its annual Emissions Gap report, current national climate plans fall short of what will be needed to meet the world’s climate targets.

And as U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said at COP27, the “deadly impacts of climate change are here and now.” This means the world must not only push harder toward the goal of a Net Zero economy by the middle of the century, but move quickly and aggressively, especially in the Global South, to help vulnerable populations adapt to a world with a changed climate.

Given the enormity of these challenges, the pursuit of progress will require extraordinary innovation in the years and decades ahead.

And while every month seems to bring new foreboding studies, I also found cause for optimism in Egypt. For example, globally almost 4,000 companies have now dedicated themselves to the pursuit of climate pledges. And as the world focuses on the implementation of climate pledges – a major theme at COP27 – businesses have an increasingly important role to play. This was on bold display at COP27 as the United States’ Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, announced that the First Movers Coalition, launched just last year with the World Economic Forum, had grown to 65 companies dedicated to working and moving together faster.

Especially for a company like Microsoft, with our focus on helping the world’s organizations innovate through technology, our climate-related role could not be clearer. Cloud-based digital services, the better use of data, and rapid advances in AI will create new opportunities for us to help every organization achieve more progress in addressing the world’s climate and energy needs.

This connects directly with the three-fold sustainability mission that we launched as a company in September at the U.N. General Assembly meetings and that Melanie will now lead.

First, we will continue to drive toward achieving by 2030 our commitments to become carbon negative, water positive and zero waste as a company while contributing to the biodiversity of the planet. The team that Melanie leads includes environmental scientists of international stature, and they will help keep Microsoft’s work grounded in the best available science. And more than ever, the Environmental Sustainability operations team will partner with Microsoft’s Finance team and business and sustainability experts across the company to achieve the company’s internal and operational goals.

All this will build on recent and important steps across Microsoft. These include the construction of a new Thermal Energy Center for our Redmond campus, the pursuit of a Net Zero water certification for our Silicon Valley campus, and our most recent steps toward Zero Waste operations through the opening of our 4th and 5th Circular Centers in Singapore and Chicago. These complement our global renewable energy investments for our datacenters and investments that have made Microsoft the largest carbon removal purchaser in the world.

Second, we will accelerate innovation and deliver technology to help our customers and partners achieve their sustainability goals. Like Lucas Joppa, our first Chief Environmental Officer, Melanie will work with me to bring together leaders across Microsoft to work together and learn from each other. The good news is that sustainability has become an important team sport across Microsoft, with senior leaders in place for product development, marketing and sales, including Microsoft’s Elisabeth Brinton and Darryl Willis, who work hand in hand with our customers and partners to transform their businesses with our sustainability and energy solutions. Each quarter we’re strengthening the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, adding capabilities and investing in the next-generation, cloud-based sustainability data ecosystem the world needs. All this connects closely with the broader array of innovations in the Microsoft Cloud and our own climate and renewable energy innovations across one of the world’s largest arrays of datacenter operations.

Third, we will partner with governments, nonprofits, and businesses to spur the broader societal enabling factors critical to global sustainability progress. This includes existing and new initiatives that Melanie and her team will lead to help:

• Broaden the use of climate-related data and more powerful AI, including by the United Nations and across the Global South;
• Advance new and innovative climate, energy, and sustainability laws, policies and regulations;
• Support reliable, interoperable, and globally aligned measurement accounting and reporting systems for carbon emissions;
• Build new markets for climate and sustainability solutions, including through our Climate Innovation Fund and carbon removal purchases; and
• Help develop and support the skills and talent needed for both specialized sustainability roles, as well as for existing jobs that will evolve to require sustainability fluency.

These three sustainability missions are grounded in three tenets that will guide our future sustainability work as a company.

First, we believe there is a virtuous cycle connecting these three missions. Progress in each mission helps strengthen our ability to pursue the next. In this sense, all three are interrelated and dependent on each other.

Second, we believe that cross-sector efforts will be indispensable for sustainability progress. As with almost all big problems in the world, we need a three-legged stool: business, nonprofits and governments. We believe that businesses have a unique role to play in innovation, especially when it comes to climate, energy and digital technology and product innovation. Nonprofits are often the best at incubating new societal solutions, often by using innovations that come from the business sector. And governments can bring solutions to scale in a way that no one else can, both through their public budgets and the power to legislate and regulate. Even in a divided world, the planet’s sustainability challenges require that we all come together.

Finally, across Microsoft (and the world, for that matter), environmental sustainability is becoming infused in almost everything we do, and our success requires navigating a matrix rather than managing a system of command and control. Melanie and the Environmental Sustainability team she will lead acts as a fulcrum across Microsoft, helping to bring everyone together and speaking publicly for the company. This is like the role that our corporate teams play in a variety of other areas, including accessibility, digital safety, privacy, human rights and responsible AI. As we’ve learned, the difference between success and failure always turns on our ability to work effectively as a team across a large company and with an even larger digital ecosystem.

It’s typically my role and privilege to help empower, work with and support talented leaders across all these areas and more. None of the issues are easy. And the environmental sustainability challenges may even be harder than most.

I’m excited that Melanie Nakagawa will help lead so many talented people across our company as we address the planet’s sustainability needs. And I look forward to supporting her!

Tags: carbon reduction, Climate Innovation Fund, net zero, sustainability

This fall, I had the opportunity to attend the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s annual Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference, which convenes law firms, in-house counsel and thought leaders to discuss diversity and inclusion topics and issues within the legal profession.  Though I was there to humbly accept MCCA’s Employer of Choice award on behalf of Microsoft, I also had the opportunity to hear first-hand about challenges and successes legal professionals are experiencing as they look to grow and support their diverse legal talent. I was impressed by the commitment and sense of urgency displayed and, while the industry has a long way to go, I left the conference with renewed hope that, by working together, we can make meaningful progress to achieve a truly diverse legal profession.

As we focus on furthering this important work, for the 14th year in a row, today we are publishing the results of Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program (LFDP) for 2022 and recognizing the progress of our law firm partners in advancing diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

The benefits of diversity enable Microsoft to accomplish its mission to empower every organization and every person on the planet to achieve more. With an increasingly diverse workforce, it is imperative that the law firms that work with our business and legal teams reflect that diversity and remain committed to creating inclusive environments where lawyers and legal professionals from all backgrounds can thrive. Diverse teams bring a range of lived experiences and unique insights, and are more creative, more innovative and drive greater customer and client engagement.

The LFDP is an incentive-based program that provides bonuses to participating firms, calculated as a percentage of their annual fees, for achieving and/or exceeding diversity representation goals. Every year, Microsoft reviews and iterates on the LFDP diversity goals to enable and ensure continued progress. Since the program was established in 2008, there have been three significant changes:

• In 2015, we shifted the focus of the program to tracking progress in leadership; namely partner diversity and diversity on law firm executive and management committees.
• In 2020, we expanded the number of firms in the program to include not only those firms in our strategic partner program but also those firms who do a substantial amount of work for us in the U.S. In this same year, we also put a greater focus on the growth of African American, Black, Hispanic and Latinx lawyers in leadership.
• In 2021, we increased partner-level growth targets for all diverse categories within the program to include diverse representation of women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, veteran and disabled lawyers.

Our most recent changes in 2020 and 2021 reflect an urgency to advance diversity in the legal profession overall. For too long, the pace of growth in diverse representation has been too slow and not at pace with the diversity of the clients and communities the profession serves.

2022 Law Firm Diversity Program results

For the 2022 program term, there were 33 participating firms which included 12 strategic partner firms and 21 firms with whom Microsoft does a substantial amount of work within the U.S. Firms participating in the program include international firms, domestic and regional firms, boutique firms and one woman-owned firm. All firms have an opportunity to earn a 2-3% bonus based on meeting goals within the program.

Diversity on the teams that work for Microsoft

The strongest area of performance continues to be diverse representation on teams that work on Microsoft matters. We continue to see gains year over year. All firms in our strategic partner panel met the benchmark goal of 50% diverse representation on our matters or increased growth from last year. For all other firms in the program, 76% met these goals as well.

Diversity in leadership

The program continued to see improvement in diverse representation in partnership ranks though progress slowed overall across categories measured in 2022. The past two years have been challenging for the legal industry in the United States with significant attrition within the associate ranks, a competitive lateral market and an increasing number of lawyers making career changes or leaving the profession entirely. This year’s program results appear to show that our law firm partners were not immune to these market factors.

• Growth in overall diversity in the partnership ranks was flat; however, 73% of firms met or exceeded the benchmark goals of 36%. Collectively, firms report partnerships that are 40.6% diverse.
• Representation of women in the partnership grew 0.8% to 27.4%, resulting in a net percentage change of 3%.
• Representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the partnership grew 0.9% to 14.4%, resulting in a net percentage change of 6%.
• For partners in other diverse categories, including partners that identify as LGBTQ+, disabled, or hold veteran status, growth was flat with representation of these groups collectively at 6% of the partnership.
• For Microsoft’s strategic partner firms, for whom diversity on executive or management committees is tracked, representation grew 4% to 50.6%, resulting in a net percentage change of 8.8%.

Recognizing law firms achieving diversity goals

While overall program numbers show modest increases from the previous year, there are some bright spots among individual firm performance. We would like to recognize those firms that achieved at least 60% of the program metrics. The firms in this group were able to not only maintain benchmark goals for representation but also grew diversity in their partnerships (overall) through increased representation of African American, Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, women and/or LGBTQ, veterans, and disabled lawyers in their partnerships.  All met goals of increasing diversity on the teams that work on Microsoft matters.

“At ArentFox Schiff, diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our DNA. Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program has been a catalyst for change, driving the legal industry to make diversity, equity and inclusion a priority, and we are proud to partner with Microsoft on these initiatives.”

“The LFDP meaningfully moves the DE&I needle forward both by partnering with Microsoft’s outside firms to better understand the firms’ DE&I footprint generally and for Microsoft matters specifically, and by rewarding success based on clear metrics.”

 

“At Fish, we believe that diversity is the fuel of innovation, and diversity of experience and background enhances the quality and ingenuity of the legal services that we provide,” said Fish & Richardson principal Betty Chen. “It is incumbent upon us as a partner law firm to accelerate diversity within our own ranks in order to drive the pace of progress within the legal industry as a whole, and we’re proud to once again partner with Microsoft in that effort.”

“Greenberg Traurig is a proud partner in Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program. Diversity equity, and inclusion undergird everything we do at Greenberg Traurig and we are excited to be recognized. A more just world only happens by design, intention and commitment and our clients are best served by teams that can provide diverse experiences and points of view. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Microsoft as we work together to move the needle now and for the generations to come.”

 

“We are proud to share Microsoft’s steadfast commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Microsoft’s Law Firm Diversity Program is a shining example of how in-house legal departments and outside counsel can partner together to keep DEI top of mind throughout the year and hold ourselves accountable in terms of the diversity of our teams and the impact of our overall DEI efforts.”

“Today, more than ever, our D&I efforts are focused on tailoring our approach to the interests and needs of each diverse Team Member. This of course begins with a flexible talent model, but our progress is accelerated when we have the opportunity to partner with a client like Microsoft that shares our belief that diversity and inclusion must be a core value of our legal profession.”

Industry progress

Our emphasis on diversity in law firm leadership is intentional. While certainly not the only path, for many new lawyers, a law firm is likely the first step in their careers. According to the American Bar Association’s 2022 Profile of the Legal Profession, in 2021 roughly half of law school graduates were employed with law firms at least 10 months after graduation. And industry data indicates that the pipeline to firms and to the partnership is becoming more diverse.

The 2021 NALP Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms reports that the representation of associates of color has continued to increase since 2010 (from 19.53% to 27.60%). The percentage of women associates has also grown to 48.21%, which is the highest the percentage has been in nearly three decades. The NALP survey also highlighted historic gains for women (55.06%) and people of color (41.34%) in summer associate ranks in 2021. LBGTQ representation also continued to grow in the 2021 summer associate class (8.41%). Even with these gains, the NALP report highlighted that “clos[ing] the outcome gaps in the pipeline from summer associate to law firm partner remains the biggest challenge facing the profession.” In fact, closing those gaps has implications not just for law firm partnerships, but for the profession at large.

The path to partnership is a system contingent on mentorship, training, professional development and sponsorship. For lawyers on this path, a firm often makes investments to advance not only their skills but also their access to resources, exposure to clients and participation on firm leadership committees – creating a space at the table to share the pool of influence, available work and, potentially, credit and compensation. Moreover, the path to partnership creates a launching pad to opportunities in the judiciary, government and politics, business, and non-profit and other service agencies. A lack of diverse representation either in the partnership or on the path to partnership undercuts our collective interest in a more diverse profession overall and the ability of the profession to innovate and adapt to an increasingly complex global landscape.

Going forward

We are maintaining Law Firm Diversity Program metrics from last year. We recognize that additional time is needed to track performance against our growth metrics as well as follow that pipeline to partnership. However, we remain committed to measuring results, acknowledging progress and finding ways to partner with our law firms through our other aligned commitments on pro bono and volunteer service.

One change we will make is asking all our participating firms to provide us with a copy of their MCCA Diversity Scorecard. The scorecard results allow both clients and firms to look beyond numbers and understand what additional efforts may be needed to advance more diverse and inclusive organizations. You can learn more about the MCCA Diversity Scorecard at www.mcca.com.

Thank you

We thank all our firms for their commitment to this program and efforts outside of it with agencies and initiatives dedicated to diversity and inclusion such as the American Bar Association, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Diversity Lab and many others – organizations we are also deeply committed to at Microsoft.

Although we are excited about the ongoing impact of this year’s Law Firm Diversity Program, our work is not done. Opportunities remain to make greater progress across all diverse communities. There are no true wins, only progress to acknowledge and a call for greater investment and focus on diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

Tags: diversity, Law, Law Firm Diversity Program, LFDP

On February 23, 2022, the cybersecurity world entered a new age, the age of the hybrid war, as Russia launched both physical and digital attacks against Ukraine. This year’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report provides new detail on these attacks and on increasing cyber aggression coming from authoritarian leaders around the world.

During the past year, cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure jumped from comprising 20% of all nation-state attacks Microsoft detected to 40%. This spike was due, in large part, to Russia’s goal of damaging Ukrainian infrastructure, and aggressive espionage targeting of Ukraine’s allies, including the United States. Russia also accelerated its attempts to compromise IT firms as a way to disrupt or gain intelligence from those firms’ government agency customers in NATO member countries. 90% of Russian attacks we detected over the past year targeted NATO member states, and 48% of these attacks targeted IT firms based in NATO countries.

Russia was not alone in pairing political and physical aggression with cyberattacks.

• Iranian actors escalated bold attacks following a transition of presidential power. They launched destructive attacks targeting Israel, and ransomware and hack-and-leak operations beyond regional adversaries to U.S. and EU victims, including U.S. critical infrastructure targets like port authorities. In at least one case, Microsoft detected an attack disguised as a ransomware attack that was intended to erase Israeli data. In another, an Iranian actor executed an attack that set off emergency rocket sirens in Israel.

• As North Korea embarked on its most aggressive period of missile testing in the first half of 2022, one of its actors launched a series of attacks to steal technology from aerospace companies and researchers around the world. Another North Korean actor worked to gain access to global news organizations that report on the country, and to Christian groups. And yet a third actor continued attempts, often without success, to break into cryptocurrency firms to steal funds in support of the country’s struggling economy.

• China increased its espionage and information stealing cyberattacks as it attempted to exert more regional influence in Southeast Asia and counter growing interest from the U.S. In February and March, one Chinese actor targeted 100 accounts affiliated with a prominent intergovernmental organization in Southeast Asia just as the organization announced a meeting between the U.S. government and regional leaders. Just after China and the Solomon Islands signed a military agreement, Microsoft detected malware from a Chinese actor on the systems of the Solomon Islands government. China also used its cyber capabilities in campaigns targeting nations across the global south, including Namibia, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

Many of the attacks coming from China are powered by its ability to find and compile “zero-day vulnerabilities” – unique unpatched holes in software not previously known to the security community. China’s collection of these vulnerabilities appears to have increased on the heels of a new law requiring entities in China to report vulnerabilities they discover to the government before sharing them with others.

While it’s tempting to focus on nation-state attacks as the most interesting cyberactivity from the past year, it would be a mistake to overlook other threats, particularly cybercrime, which impacts more users in the digital ecosystem than nation-state activity.

Cybercriminals continue to act as sophisticated profit enterprises

Cybercrime continues to rise as the industrialization of the cybercrime economy lowers the skill barrier to entry by providing greater access to tools and infrastructure. In the last year alone, the number of estimated password attacks per second increased by 74%. Many of these attacks fueled ransomware attacks, leading to ransom demands that more than doubled. However, these attacks were not spread evenly across all regions. In North America and Europe, we observed a drop in the overall number of ransomware cases reported to our response teams compared to 2021. At the same time, cases reported in Latin America increased. We also observed a steady year-over-year increase in phishing emails. While Covid-19 themes were less prevalent than in 2020, the war in Ukraine became a new phishing lure starting in early March 2022. Microsoft researchers observed a staggering increase of emails impersonating legitimate organizations soliciting cryptocurrency donations in Bitcoin and Ethereum, allegedly to support Ukrainian citizens.

Foreign actors are using highly effective techniques – often mirroring cyberattacks – to enable propaganda influence to erode trust and impact public opinion – domestically and internationally

Influence operations is a new section to our report this year as a result of our new investments in analysis and data science addressing this threat. We observed how Russia has worked hard to convince its citizens, and the citizens of many other countries, that its invasion of Ukraine was justified – while also sowing propaganda to discredit Covid-19 vaccines in the West while promoting their effectiveness at home. We also observed an increasing overlap between these operations and cyberattacks. In particular, influence operations use a familiar three-step approach:

1. Cyber influence operations pre-position false narratives in the public domain like attackers pre-position malware within an organization’s computer network.
2. A coordinated campaign is launched – often at the time most beneficial to achieve the goals of the actor – to propagate narratives through government-backed and influenced media outlets and social media channels.
3. A nation state-controlled media and proxies amplify narratives inside targeted audiences.

This three-step approach was applied in late 2021, for example, to support the Russian false narrative around purported bioweapons and biolabs in Ukraine. In addition to Russia, we have observed other nations, including China and Iran, deploying propaganda operations to extend their global influence on a range of issues.

Good cyber hygiene practices remain the best defense while the cloud provides the best physical and logical security against cyberattacks

This year’s report includes even more recommendations for how people and organizations can protect themselves from attacks. The biggest thing people can do is pay attention to the basics – enabling multi-factor authentication, applying security patches, being intentional about who has privileged access to systems, and deploying modern security solutions from any leading provider. The average enterprise has 3,500 connected devices that are not protected by basic endpoint protections, and attackers take advantage. It’s also critical to detect attacks early. In many cases, the outcome of a cyberattack is determined long before the attack begins. Attackers use vulnerable environments to gain initial access, conduct surveillance and wreak havoc by lateral movement and encryption or exfiltration. Finally, as this year’s report explores, we can’t ignore the human aspect. We have a shortage of security professionals – a problem that needs to be addressed by the private sector and governments alike – and organizations need to make security a part of their culture.

Tags: COVID-19, cyberattacks, cybersecurity, Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft Digital Defense Report, Ukraine

Today, we are announcing that Microsoft will extend technology support free of charge for Ukraine throughout calendar year 2023. This commits our company to providing additional technology aid valued at roughly $100 million, which will ensure that government agencies, critical infrastructure and other sectors in Ukraine can continue to run their digital infrastructure and serve citizens through the Microsoft Cloud. I’m announcing this commitment in Lisbon, Portugal, at a joint press conference with Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation. 

The continued defense of Ukraine depends in part on a critical digital alliance of countries, companies and nonprofits. Since the war began in February, Microsoft and other tech companies have provided unprecedented technology assistance to the government and people of Ukraine. By disbursing digital infrastructure into the public cloud, Microsoft and others have supported critical Ukrainian services through data centers across Europe. As underscored in Microsoft’s report in June, this has played a critical role in protecting the resilience and security of Ukraine’s data and digital services even in the face of Russian cruise missile and other kinetic attacks on Ukraine’s government data center and other physical assets. 

The digital alliance supporting Ukraine must continue to stand strong. 

Today’s commitment will bring Microsoft’s total support for Ukraine to more than $400 million since the war began in February. In addition to enabling technology services to run in the Microsoft Cloud, the company continues to: 

• Support the country with critical cybersecurity protection 
• Support nonprofits and humanitarian organizations operating in Ukraine, Poland and elsewhere in the European Union 
• Provide data and support to international organizations aiding Ukraine and addressing war crimes against civilians 
• Support and assist employees who are contributing to nonprofits engaged in humanitarian relief efforts 

We recognize that many people, particularly across Europe, will make sacrifices this winter to support the defense of Ukraine. The war has upended energy markets and disrupted access to food. We’re confident that other tech companies will similarly step forward to sustain support that is vital not only for Ukraine, but for international stability and the protection of fundamental rights across Europe and around the world. 

Five Questions for Nanna-Louise Wildfang Linde – Microsoft’s newly appointed Vice President of European Government Affairs

Nanna-Louise, you have recently taken the helm of Microsoft’s government affairs and public policy work in the EU. Can you share with us your professional journey to date?  

My first role was in a major law firm in Denmark, where I was a commercial attorney specializing in antitrust law. I was active in the professional community, giving lectures and publishing articles – and that’s how Microsoft became aware of me.  

I began as the company’s legal director for Denmark and Norway back in 2005. Over the following years, I would be charged with overseeing different territories across Europe. In 2012, I assumed the role of Assistant General Counsel, leading the Western European North and Central team responsible for corporate, external and legal affairs, including government relations. Most recently, I oversaw legal matters and government relations in 32 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. 

Taking on external affairs – responsible for engaging with governments as well as regulators – marked an important shift in my career. I am passionate about the law and I also get so much energy from connecting with people and building partnerships. So, being able to leverage my law background combined with my passion for creating dialogue with people and building trust was, and still is, incredibly fulfilling.  

What impact would you like to have in your new position?  

It’s a very interesting time to take on this role. Europe is facing a confluence of remarkable challenges. We’re emerging from the throes of the pandemic. There are the broad ramifications surrounding the war in Ukraine. We’re in a race to avert a climate tipping point.  

Digital technology has never played a bigger role in our daily lives, and we believe that tech innovation has a crucial role to play in helping society address these issues. For that to happen, there needs to be more collaboration and debate amongst policymakers, businesses and civil society. These issues are far too big and complex to be addressed in silos.  

At the same time, it’s important to note that people will not fully avail themselves of technology they don’t trust. For that, we need regulation that puts guardrails in place to protect peoples’ rights and ensures businesses are operating in a fair, open marketplace where they can thrive and innovate.  

It’s equally important to acknowledge that the pace of innovation continues to grow exponentially. This makes it challenging to craft legislation that is both effective and “future proofed”. For example, over the last several years I’ve worked with governments in Central and Eastern Europe around the issue of responsible AI. We share a deep belief that this technology must be designed and implemented in a way that is inclusive, accountable, reliable and fair. In other words, the technology should benefit all people.  

While that’s simple enough to say, it’s not so simple to do. It requires different points of view and different areas of expertise if you’re going to get it right for the long term. Policy influencers, tech leaders, NGOs and academics all need a voice.  

The issue of strategic autonomy has been receiving greater attention in recent times – what is your perspective as a European working for a major U.S. technology company?  

The discussions in Europe about strategic autonomy have been ongoing for a number of years. There are many reasons for this: The somewhat challenging transatlantic relationship during the previous U.S. administration, the pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine and subsequent energy crisis. These discussions of course encompass the digital sphere. There is increased scrutiny around the extent to which European businesses and governmental bodies are relying on the technology provided by U.S. companies. That’s valid and another reason why it’s so important for us to earn and maintain the trust of our customers.  

European governments and businesses should never compromise on their capacity for self-determination as they look to digitize and become data led. Approaches around how to best protect sovereignty vary, however. Sometime the only way to maintain it is by working with others, including trusted cloud providers who have the ability to disburse and distribute digital operations and data assets across borders. 

For example, during the earlier stages of the war against Ukraine, Russia targeted the governmental data center with cruise missiles and cyberattacks. The Ukraine government was able to successfully maintain its civil and military operations by pre-emptively moving its digital infrastructure out of the country and to the public cloud. Vital government data is now hosted in data centers across Europe, and we’re proud to have supported the government in achieving greater cyber-resiliency and digital sovereignty in this way.  

Your first few weeks in the role took you to New York to participate in discussions on the margins of the UN General Assembly and you also attended the Athens Democracy Forum where many of the issues you just talked about were addressed. What new perspectives have you brought back with you? 

We have a large global community that is deeply vested in protecting democracy. The war in Ukraine shows how high the stakes are. I had many discussions about how technology can help strengthen a nation’s security against cyber threats, protect the integrity of elections and mitigate the threat of misinformation campaigns. There was a real sense that we need to act now as a collective. We owe this to future generations.  

The conversations I’ve been having over the past several weeks – at the UN General Assembly and elsewhere – have been a timely reminder for me that the winning strategy for protecting democratic societies is working in partnership. Closing ourselves off and pulling away from the global stage is not an option. We need each other. The challenges we are facing collectively are too big – and the stakes are too high – for any of us to go it alone.  

One last question: what excites you about this new opportunity?  

At a fundamental level, I’m excited to play a part in ensuring technology actively advances the core values of the EU – freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. Having worked with teams across Europe for many years I have a great appreciation of the EU not just as an economic and political union, but as a community united by democratic principles and values.  

Another important reason to be excited about this role is my team. I must say I couldn’t be working with a more talented, dedicated group of individuals with incredibly varied backgrounds. And it’s clear to me we share a common mission: to be a constructive, helpful voice on tech regulation in the EU, while supporting the success of our customers in the region. The bottom line: If any team is ready to tackle the challenges, I talked about just now, it’s this one. 

Tags: Democracy, EU, eu policy blog, European cloud provider, Ukraine, UN General Assembly

Microsoft is proud to support the Copenhagen Pledge on Tech for Democracy, an initiative led by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aligning efforts of governments and organizations around the world in their commitment to defending human rights and democracy in cyberspace. Digital technology has the incredible potential to improve lives across the globe, economically and socially. More than that, when developed and used responsibly, it can support democratic institutions, increase transparency and accountability in governance as well as protect and promote human rights. But it is increasingly clear that this potential is not guaranteed; instead, it is something we must actively advance together. 

Unfortunately, malicious actors, state and non-state alike, can use this same technology for disruption and destruction, and as a tool for targeting and silencing political opposition, human rights activists or to drive influence operations abroad. The unlawful invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine have put this potential for abuse on full display. Here, technology is being employed to malicious ends as part of the first large-scale hybrid war, with kinetic operations taking place alongside cyberattacks against both government and critical civilian infrastructure, accompanied by influence operations targeting the Ukrainian people and their allies around the world.  

These emerging threats require increased and comprehensive investments in cybersecurity. They also require innovation in diplomacy and the development of new forums and spaces of engagement across stakeholder groups, both domestically and at international levels. 

This is why Microsoft has joined more than 110 other organizations in signing on to the Copenhagen Pledge on Tech for Democracy. Through this ambitious initiative, Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is bringing together stakeholders across civil society, industry and government to drive action that defends human rights and democracy online. This is essential work to protect and translate the values and freedoms we have come to expect in the physical world over to the ever-growing digital domain.  

The Copenhagen Pledge acknowledges that we can only do this together as a community. By signing the pledge, supporters are committed to join in advancing this work via the Tech for Democracy Action Coalitions. Microsoft is excited to be engaging in two of these coalitions: one on information integrity in elections; the other on how we can use technology to better support the participation of civil society at the international level.  

Collaborative frameworks like the Copenhagen Pledge are critical as they allow us to compare notes across the different sectoral siloes, create opportunities to learn from each other and provide a forum for action to help us reconcile the dual-use nature of digital technology. As a sector, the tech industry has a responsibility to design technology with human rights and democracy in mind. But we also need strong international governing systems and structures to ensure technology is used responsibly, which requires innovation in diplomacy.  

Microsoft’s commitment to healthy democracy 

One of the essential components of a healthy democratic society is a trustworthy information environment. For the past several years, Microsoft has been investing in transformational new technologies to secure voting and protect democratic processes through our Democracy Forward program. As part of the Copenhagen Pledge Action Coalition on information integrity in elections, we are launching a global media literacy campaign with the intent to encourage readers to be more critical consumers of information online. We are also partnering with the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) on a project to strengthen global investigative journalism, specifically when it relates to elections. 

Furthermore, we are investing heavily in boosting our online threat intelligence capabilities with the newly formed Digital Threat Analysis Center (DTAC). This highly skilled team investigates and researches cyber influence campaigns specifically, which we as a company are committed to reporting on, if and when that research identifies such operations targeting elections. 

Through the Tech for Democracy Action Coalitions, we are also excited to be exploring new ways to leverage technology to create more inclusive dialogues that support the participation of those in civil society and across the digital divide. These actions build on our previous efforts that allow for meaningful inclusion of industry and civil society in conversations on cybersecurity at the United Nations and beyond. 

International efforts working in concert for stronger democracies 

The partnership and vision set out by the Copenhagen Pledge is both timely and urgent. It fills an especially action-oriented role alongside other international initiatives intended to promote security and defend democracy in this age of digital transformation, including: 

• The Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, established in 2018, has laid a strong foundation for what multistakeholder cooperation can look like as well as shaping the discussion around international cybersecurity and stakeholder responsibilities.

• Last year, the U.S.-led Summit for Democracy has galvanized those who care about protecting democracies in a celebration of democratic values, kickstarting a series of workstreams that will come to fruition in the coming year.  

These initiatives each play a necessary new role in an evolving international system that needs a shared commitment to shared values across the world. Each initiative has the potential to strengthen and reinforce one another: cybersecurity insights and learning emerging from the Paris Call informing the efforts of the Copenhagen Pledge Action Coalitions, and the Summit for Democracy serving as a platform to take stock of progress and evaluate impact related to how technology is impacting democracy around the world. 

Sign the Copenhagen Pledge 

Microsoft is proud to support the Copenhagen Pledge, and we will continue to lend our voice to efforts that promote the responsible use of technology. We encourage others to join us and sign the pledge as we all have a responsibility to develop, use and promote technology that strengthens democracy and human rights online.  

Join us virtually at the United Nations General Assembly Side Event: Tech for Democracy – Problems, Progress and the Copenhagen Pledge on September 22, 12:00-2:30 p.m. EST. 

Tags: copenhagen pledge, cybersecurity, Democracy, Digital Threat Analysis Center, Tech for Democracy, UNGA

The world is now at the halfway point in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and it has never been more important to accelerate the move from pledges to progress. In fact, in the 2022 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report, Secretary-General António Guterres cautioned that, with “cascading and interlinked global crises, the aspirations set out … are in jeopardy.”  The SDG financing gap was estimated at $2.5 trillion before Covid-19, with additional needs of $1 trillion for Covid-19 spending in developing countries.

As heads of state gather in New York for the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) this week, they face several urgent global challenges. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – set forth when the 17 goals were adopted by UN member states in 2015 – remains a cohesive roadmap for action for the world. It establishes a common view of the urgent need to work together to improve the wellbeing of everyone, everywhere, and sustain our planet for the future. It also puts a spotlight on the role technology must play to create a more equitable world.

The 2030 Agenda recognized technology as a “means of implementation” for the SDGs, along with global partnerships that bring together “governments, civil society, the private sector, the United Nations system and other actors.” The Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation stated: “Of the SDG’s 17 goals and 169 targets, not a single one is detached from the implications and potential of digital technology.” Technology can be a positive force in transforming our world and people’s lives when it is developed and used in trusted, responsible and inclusive ways.

Microsoft has been committed to the SDGs from the beginning and remains steadfast in our efforts to making them a reality. This is consistent with our history of supporting and advancing the UN charter in line with our mission: to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We have engaged with UN agencies to help address virtually every SDG goal, including our work on connectivity, digital inclusion and humanitarian crises, and our participation in the UN Global Compact since 2006. Microsoft President Brad Smith reiterated the need for “partnering with governments, industries and civil society on the UN’s 17 SDGs” when he was appointed an SDG Advocate in 2021.

Our report Microsoft and the UN Sustainable Development Goals shares examples of how digital technology, innovation and partnerships are essential to advancing the SDGs. For example, we are partnering with UNICEF to further SDG 4 – “quality education” – via The Learning Passport, a digital platform created to address challenges in accessing quality education experienced by millions of children and youth in times of disruptions, such as war, crises and displacement. It is portable education, accessible online, offline and on mobile devices; the platform is now live in 26 countries. To support SDG 8 – “decent work and economic growth” – Microsoft launched a digital skilling initiative in June 2020 to lessen the impact of Covid-19 on workers worldwide; by the end of 2021, 42 million people have gained critical digital skills through the programs. We have also made bold commitments on SDG 13 – “climate action” – including working on the Carbon Call with ClimateWorks Foundation, UNEP and more than 20 other leading organizations to address the reliability and interoperability of carbon accounting for the planet.

But we must do more. Building on Microsoft’s 20-year history of working with the UN, a team was created in 2020 to deepen and expand the company’s commitment to the UN’s mission and its agencies, multilateral and regional institutions, development banks, governments, local communities and stakeholders. I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this team for Microsoft as Vice President of UN Affairs and International Organizations (UNIO). We aim to help address ongoing global challenges and advance the SDGs through responsible development, deployment and governance of digital technology. This UNIO team will focus on enabling realization of the SDGs and inclusive economic growth; encouraging evidence-based development of policy to facilitate digital transformation; and accelerating adoption of digital technologies in supporting the international systems and their missions.

The scale and complexity of the challenges the world faces today – pandemic recovery, food security and climate change – mandate that the world comes together in a multilateral effort to leverage our respective insights and derive innovative solutions. Throughout my career, I have engaged in multilateral work: from seeing Nelson Mandela, accompanied by Graca Machel, tell G7 finance ministers of the urgent need to act to support development in Africa in 2005, to my time as Dean of the Ambassadors at the OECD. I appreciate the value of multilateral processes – particularly when they are informed by multistakeholder insights that are driven by evidence and practical experience – and when they are centered on inclusive and sustainable economic development as clear outcomes.

Two issues are central in our work to help realize the SDGs: the critical importance of supporting progress in the least developed countries (LDCs), and the need to address issues at the intersection of technology and society.

The LDCs face unprecedented challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic: climate change, global recession, rising energy costs and food insecurity. At the same time, they need to drive inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery and growth. Alongside the important role of official development assistance for LDCs, private sector investment will be essential for these countries. We are stepping up our commitments to work with the UN to help expand its private sector reach and to identify innovative solutions to the most pressing problems with our co-chairing of the 5th UN Conference on LDCs Private Sector Forum in 2023. In the leadup to the meetings in Doha, we have worked with companies across a variety of sectors to outline the main challenges facing LDCs in connectivity, blended finance, skilling, multistakeholder partnerships and good governance, and provide recommendations on what is needed to drive increased private sector investments to further progress in the SDGs. In close partnership with Microsoft Tech for Social Impact colleagues, we’ll continue to deepen our work on the empowerment of UN organizations for a fit-for-purpose use of technology to solve big societal problems and advance the SDGs, while increasing our focus on digital development of LDCs.

Ensuring that digital technology can be a resilient foundation for enabling the SDGs will require that critical issues at the intersection of technology and society are addressed. Industry needs to work with governments, civil society, the technical community and other stakeholders so that together, we can create a trustworthy digital foundation that can lead to inclusive economic opportunity and protect fundamental human rights – and enable a more environmentally sustainable future. This is an important undertaking for our team – offering the UN, international organizations and governments a perspective on the role of digital technology in realizing the SDGs, while helping to enable policy frameworks that will promote responsible development and facilitate adoption of such technologies systemically.

For example, Microsoft participated in the launch of the UN and World Bank’s Joint Call to Action on the need for further data investments in April 2022. We highlighted the work of our data scientists in addressing global challenges, including mitigating the impact of the pandemic, solving environmental challenges and supporting disaster responses and other humanitarian crises. We also shared lessons from our open data collaborations and best practices to help close the “data divide.” We will continue to work with the UN and World Bank on their efforts to strengthen data systems and to improve the capabilities and policies of countries and organizations globally to produce, share and consume high-quality data responsibly, thus helping governments to enable measurement and realization of the SDGs.

We know that there is a real opportunity for organizations and governments to use digital technology responsibly to do more with less, and to make more effective and accountable use of scarce resources while building a more resilient foundation for the future. Microsoft looks forward to contributing to Secretary-General Guterres’ “booster shot for the Sustainable Development Goals” as mentioned in the UN’s Our Common Agenda talks and working with the UN and other international organizations to continue building a resilient foundation for realizing the SDGs and for continuing the realization of pledges into progress.

Tags: COVID-19, SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals, UN Affairs team, UN General Assembly, UNGA, UNIO, United Nations

Game developers around the world are creating innovative and groundbreaking games. We think that we can do more to bring those experiences to the billions of players everywhere. Our announcement in January that we intend to acquire Activision Blizzard was an important milestone in our journey to do so. Since then, regulators, game developers and players have been asking what the acquisition means for the industry and, most importantly, for players.

While we love consoles, we recognize that they are not the only way that people play games. Today, the largest and fastest growing segment of gaming is mobile platforms. To reach the billions of players where they are and no matter what device they play on, we need to embrace choice. Giving players choice in how they play their games makes gaming more accessible and leads to larger, more vibrant communities of players. Choice is equally important to developers. Developers benefit from having a diversity of distribution and business models for their games. Choice unlocks opportunities for innovation and enables the industry to grow.

We are expanding choice in two ways: through the creation of Game Pass, which gives players a subscription option; and by bringing more games to mobile platforms, including through our cloud game streaming technology. Subscription services like Game Pass make gaming more affordable and help players from all over the world find their next favorite game. Game Pass empowers developers to bring more games to more players, not fewer.  We intend to make Activision Blizzard’s much-loved library of games – including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty – available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities. By delivering even more value to players, we hope to continue growing Game Pass, extending its appeal to mobile phones and any connected device.

Bringing more games to mobile platforms, however, requires new capabilities. The expertise that the teams at Activision Blizzard bring in developing games for mobile platforms will help us understand how to create games that engage players around the world. In addition, we hope that players will be eager to play traditional console games from Activision Blizzard on other platforms via our cloud game streaming technology. This promises to open up mobile gaming, creating new distribution opportunities for game developers outside of mobile app stores while delivering compelling and immersive experiences for players by using the power of the cloud. And we can extend the joy of playing to devices that people already own, including Smart TVs and laptops.

In doing so, we will pursue a principled path. We’ve heard that this deal might take franchises like Call of Duty away from the places where people currently play them.  That’s why, as we’ve said before, we are committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere.  We will continue to enable people to play with each other across platforms and across devices. We know players benefit from this approach because we’ve done it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on multiple platforms and has expanded to even more since Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014.  As we extend our gaming storefront across new devices and platforms, we will make sure that we do so in a manner that protects the ability of developers to choose how to distribute their games.

We will continue to engage with regulators with a spirit of transparency and openness as they review this acquisition. We respect and welcome the hard questions that are being asked. The gaming industry today is robust and dynamic. Industry leaders, including Tencent and Sony, continue to expand their deep and extensive libraries of games as well as other entertainment brands and franchises, which are enjoyed by players everywhere. We believe that a thorough review will show that the combination of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will benefit the industry and players.

For all the players and game developers out there, you remain at the center of everything we do, and we will continue to listen to your feedback and do everything we can to nurture this industry we all love.

(Editor’s Note) For more information on the deal:

Tags: Activision Blizzard, gaming

At Microsoft we recognize the importance of a competitive environment in the European cloud provider market, in which smaller competitors can thrive. It is therefore critical for us to remain mindful of our responsibilities as a major technology company. In May of this year, after constructive discussions with representatives of our European cloud provider partners, Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith announced our European Cloud Principles and committed to addressing their valid concerns, starting with changes to our software licensing terms.

Today, we are providing important updates on these changes for these partners and their customers in Europe and around the world, which we will introduce on 1 October 2022. They are intended to help these partners to be more competitive and grow their businesses. They will also provide more flexibility for their customers.

The changes have three primary goals:

• Make it easier for customers to bring their software to the partner’s cloud
• Ensure partners have access to the products necessary to sell cost-effective solutions that customers want
• Empower partners to build hosted solutions with speed and scale

We are committed to competing fairly and in partnership with the diverse group of European cloud providers, and we strongly believe in the importance of an open and competitive cloud economy in Europe.

Tags: cloud, cloud provider, European cloud provider, licensing, principles