Per a blog post on Microsoft.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognized that supporting an open, free and secure internet is not just the responsibility of individual companies, like ourselves, but a responsibility that must be shared across the entire tech sector and with governments.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The result was the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, an agreement that Microsoft and its partners view as a kind of Digital Geneva Convention, that is a long-term goal to update international law to help safeguard people from cyber attacks and data theft. In Microsoft\u2019s eyes, the first step towards a more secure internet needed to be made by the tech industry itself, including its largest and most prominent enterprises.<\/p>\n Today, as the 2018 RSA conference begins, 34 companies have signed on to the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.<\/p>\n At the heart of the Tech Accord are four principles aimed at advancing online security and resiliency across the globe. They are:<\/p>\n A press release issued on the Cyber Tech Accord\u2019s official website offers some greater insight into the principles. Essentially, the participating organizations have agreed to work towards stronger cyber defenses, improving the capacity for individuals and businesses to protect themselves, working together to improve technical collaboration, and fourth: No offense.<\/p>\n The companies will not help governments launch cyberattacks against innocent citizens and enterprises, and will protect against tampering or exploitation of their products and services through every stage of technology development, design and distribution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This last principle, \u201cno offense,\u201d probably explains why Google is not on the list. Google\u2019s employees are currently petitioning its leadership to end participation in work with the Pentagon<\/a>, which is using the tech giant\u2019s AI technology to enhance drone targeting.<\/p>\n While Microsoft expects more companies to sign on to the Cybersecurity Tech Accord in the future, as of today\u2019s announcement there are 34 organizations participating. They are:<\/p>\n Surprisingly, there is very little representation from the SSL or Digital Certificate industry. Symantec is signed on, but that\u2019s not the Symantec CA \u2013 of which DigiCert is now the majority owner \u2013 it\u2019s Symantec proper, which is behind the Norton antivirus products and its other security offerings. DigiCert, Comodo, Let\u2019s Encrypt, Entrust, AWS and the majority of the other trusted CAs are no where to be found.<\/p>\n Hopefully that changes soon.<\/p>\n For now, this is a great first step and it comes at a time when cybersecurity and data privacy are at the forefront of our attention. We are now less than 40 days from the EU\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation<\/a> coming into effect, Facebook just answered to congress for its role in the Cambridge Analytica leak<\/a> and people are over the world are acutely aware of the fact that their personal information has likely been spread across the internet by now.<\/p>\n Hopefully the Cybersecurity Tech Accord can offer tech users all over the world a little peace of mind.<\/p>\n Protecting our online environment is in everyone\u2019s interest. The companies that are part of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord promise to defend and advance technology\u2019s benefits for society. And we commit to act responsibly, to protect and empower our users and customers, and help create a safer and more secure online world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sounds great, now let\u2019s see how it goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The participants view the Tech Accord as a Digital Geneva Convention Today, on April 17, Microsoft officially announced the Cybersecurity Tech Accord. This has been a long time coming. At…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-6273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hashing-out-cyber-security","tag-microsoft","post-with-tags"],"views":15028,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/bigstock-193480588.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"cybersecurity](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Tech-Accord_Companies-List-4.16.18.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Cybersecurity Tech Accord \u2013 Guided by Four Principles<\/h2>\n
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Who is Participating in the Cybersecurity Tech Accord?<\/h2>\n
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