With Windows 10 sucking up all the PR oxygen at present its important not to overlook other issues – like enterprise mobility and identity driven security (he writes with a straight face).

Now that the transition to cloud-first, mobile-first has become a tsunami the massive challenges in securing company data have become more pressing.

It is more likely that when an executive loses a mobile device their first concern is to recover the photos and music library – overlooking completely the value of corporate data and access via that device.

In a blog from Microsoft’s Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President, Enterprise Client & Mobility he cites the number one source of so many cyberattacks is via compromised user credentials.

The reason for this problem is twofold:

Many of the workers bringing their devices to work are still learning how to best ensure the security of their credentials

The existing security tools in the market are just too cumbersome – they create way too many false positives, they take years to fine tune, and the reports they generate are nearly impossible to read and understand quickly

The biggest problem of all is the question of how traditional IT security solutions operate once a breach occurs as traditional infrastructure monitoring and security techniques have become less effective. There are also some very sophisticated security products that are ultimately ineffective because getting a massive data set in your inbox or console while trying to identify/isolate an intrusion can take far too long at a time when every second makes or breaks your organization.

This is why a new approach to securing the enterprise is so important. Enterprises need a solution that is, at its core, based on some foundational elements:

It uses identity as a control plane

It has the visibility and insights that only come from machine learning against vast datasets

Protection is offered multiple layers

I don’t intend to offer a free advertisement for Microsoft but it has announced general availability of Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA) and Azure Rights Management support for Office for iPad.

ATA is based on technology from its recent acquisition of Aorato, and it is designed to protect organizations from advanced targeted attacks by doing the following:

It detects advanced security threats fast via behavioural analytics that leverage Machine Learning.

Allows you to adapt to the changing nature of cyber-security threats with a technology that is continuously learning.

It lets you narrow down the most important security factors using a simplified attack timeline.

ATA’s innovative technology reduces false positive fatigue and raises red flags only when needed

ATA also helps to identify known malicious attacks, security issues and risks, and presents all of this information in an easy-to-consume, and simple-to-drill-down, social media-like feed

The Azure Rights Management announcement is significant as it expands encryption technologies to iPhone and iPad. Azure Rights Management provides an easy way to protect data by assigning a policy to the data readily available in Office 2013, Office 2010 and Office for Mac. With this functionality, you are now able to view the rights protected Office documents natively on your iPad and iPhone devices.

Ultimately Azure Rights management will be extended to all platforms.