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SECURE FUTURE INITIATIVE

Security above all else

Read the November 2025 progress report as part of this multiyear journey to bolster cybersecurity and explore actionable guidance from the Secure Future Initiative (SFI).

Explore the November 2025 report Read the Executive Summary

Principles

Microsoft Secure Future Initiative

Three principles anchor our approach to the SFI. We’re continuously applying what we’ve learned from incidents to improve our methods and practices, ensuring that security is paramount in everything we create and provide.

Secure by design

Security comes first when designing any product or service.

Secure by default

Security protections are enabled and enforced by default, require no extra effort, and aren’t optional.

Secure operations

Security controls and monitoring will be continuously improved to meet current and future cyberthreats.

Foundations

Foundations of the Secure Future Initiative

Successful business operations and change management are predicated on people, process, and technology working in harmony. These are the foundations of the SFI.

A group of people sitting around a table

Security-first culture

Culture is reinforced through daily behaviors. Regular meetings between engineering executive vice presidents, SFI leaders, and all management levels ensure bottom-up, end-to-end problem-solving that ingrains security thinking into our everyday actions.

Security governance

We're elevating security governance with a new framework led by the chief information security officer. This will introduce a partnership with engineering teams to oversee SFI, manage risks, and report progress to leadership.

Continuous security improvement

The SFI empowers every employee at Microsoft to prioritize security, driven by a growth mindset of continuous improvement. We integrate feedback and learnings from incidents into our standards, enabling secure design and operations at scale.

Paved paths and standards

Paved paths are best practices that optimize productivity, compliance, and security. These become standards when they enhance security or the developer experience. With the SFI, we set and measure standards across all six prioritized security pillars.

PILLARS

Secure Future Initiative pillars

The six SFI pillars include goals and actions that define our approach to security.

Reduce the risk of unauthorized access by implementing and enforcing best-in-class standards across all identity and secrets infrastructure, plus user and application authentication and authorization.

Explore actionable patterns and practices from the SFI like secure access at scale with phishing-resistant MFA.
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Protect all Microsoft tenants and production environments using consistent, best-in-class security practices and strict isolation to minimize breadth of impact.

Explore actionable patterns and practices from the SFI:
Retire outdated systems before they become liabilities
Block identity-based attacks before they spread
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Protect Microsoft production networks and implement network isolation of Microsoft and customer resources.
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Protect software assets and continuously improve code security through governance of the software supply chain and engineering systems infrastructure.

Explore actionable patterns and practices from SFI for building securely at scale with standardized pipelines.
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Provide comprehensive coverage and automatic detection of cyberthreats for Microsoft production infrastructure and services.

Explore actionable patterns and practices from the SFI:
Strengthen compliance with clear log retention practices
⁠Detect and respond to threats in real time
⁠Build security into your complete production infrastructure
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Prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities discovered by external and internal entities through comprehensive and timely remediation.

Explore actionable patterns and practices from the SFI to cut risk exposure time with rapid vulnerability fixes.
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Our progress

See the highlights

View the most recent highlights in our November report.

Read the highlights

35K

Equivalent of full-time Microsoft engineers dedicated to security

17+

Product innovations across Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Windows, Surface, and the Microsoft Security portfolio

NIST CSF

Introduced mapping to the NIST CSF to help customers understand our progress using a recognized industry framework

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

The Microsoft Secure Future Initiative, launched in November of 2023, is a multiyear commitment that advances the way we design, build, test, and operate our Microsoft technology to ensure that our solutions meet the highest possible standards for security.
Microsoft launched the SFI to prepare for the increasing scale and high stakes of cyberattacks. SFI brings together every part of Microsoft to advance cybersecurity protection across our company and products. We carefully considered what we saw across Microsoft and what we heard from customers, governments, and partners to identify our greatest opportunities to impact the future of security.For more information on our initial announcement about SFI, see our blog post.
We plan to keep ourselves accountable and provide the latest SFI news to customers, partners, and the security community through regular updates.

RESOURCES

Explore Secure Future Initiative resources

Keep up with the latest SFI information.

Laptop screen shows “Secure Future Initiative, November 2025 progress report.

Blog

Explore our progress

Read what Charlie Bell has to say about the latest SFI report (November 2025), which discusses our advancements in this multiyear journey to bolster cybersecurity for Microsoft, our customers, and the industry at large.

Read the blog

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November 2025 report

Explore the November 2025 SFI Progress Report

Explore highlights from our November 2025 SFI Progress Report online, with links to each section of the full report so you can get the details you want.

Explore the report

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Patterns and practices

Microsoft Secure Future Initiative patterns and practices

Strengthen your organization's security with guidance that uses proven security architectures and best practices.

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IDC

Learn from IDC highlights on SFI in action

Explore IDC’s view on SFI and the changes needed by organizations preparing for the future of cybersecurity.

Read the commentary

A blue gradient banner with the text 'Secure by Design' and 'Secure Future Initiative'.

Blog

See where we were in April

Read the April 2025 SFI Progress Report which discusses our advancements in this multiyear journey to bolster cybersecurity for Microsoft, our customers, and the industry at large.

Read the blog