Haunted by repeated breaches, Microsoft is ‘putting security above all else,’ vows CEO Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella has made a habit on Microsoft’s earnings calls of touting the revenue growth in the company’s security technology business.

But today the Microsoft CEO took a different approach, talking instead about the Secure Future Initiative that the company launched last fall to improve its cybersecurity safeguards.

“We are doubling down on this very important work, putting security above all else — before all other features and investments,” Nadella said Thursday afternoon, after the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings report. It was a brief diversion from the bigger topic of the day. Nadella and CFO Amy Hood spent much of the call fielding questions about the AI demand fueling the company’s growth, and the capital expenditures needed to keep up.