U.S. cyber official : Microsoft & Twitter look at Apple for better security

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U.S. cyber official praises Apple security and suggests Microsoft, Twitter need to step it up

..Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly held up Apple
as a positive example of accountability and transparency for its security practices during a speech delivered Monday at Carnegie Mellon University.

She pointed to Apple’s disclosure that 95% of iCloud users enable multifactor authentication, or MFA, a highly recommended security measure that requires a user to input a code sent to a different device or account during sign-in to guard against hackers. Easterly said the high adoption rate is a result of Apple making MFA the default.

In doing so, Easterly said, “Apple is taking ownership for the security outcomes of their users.”..

By contrast, Easterly said there are low MFA adoption rates at Microsoft
and Twitter. She said the roughly one-quarter of Microsoft enterprise customers who use MFA, and fewer than 3% of Twitter users who use it, is “disappointing.”..

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This reminds me of the recent, bizarre, news that the Twitter are limiting the use of text message MFA to Twitter Blue subscribers. I say bizarre, but it’s only bizarre relative to how most companies operate, not bizarre relative to how Twitter under Musk operates!

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Alex5723 wrote:

Easterly said the high adoption rate is a result of Apple making MFA the default.

In doing so, Easterly said, “Apple is taking ownership for the security outcomes of their users.”..

By contrast, Easterly said there are low MFA adoption rates at Microsoft
and Twitter. She said the roughly one-quarter of Microsoft enterprise customers who use MFA, and fewer than 3% of Twitter users who use it, is “disappointing.”..

MFA is also the default for Microsoft enterprise customers:

The default MFA setting has already been in effect for new Azure AD customers since October 2019. More than 30 million organizations have been operating with this default setting, which Microsoft said had led to 80% fewer compromises for that group as a whole.
…
The latest move will enable MFA as the default security setting even for older Azure accounts.

Microsoft sets multi-factor authentication as default for all Azure AD customers
[June 1, 2022]

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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