Iran COULD launch a cyber attack on Microsoft prior to an attack on Israel

Folks,

I hope this finds you doing well. Today's post will be short, because we strive not to comment on any geopolitical events, but out of an abundance of caution, I felt the need to state that which may/should already be obvious to the entire world.

It is a well-known fact that Israel, like many countries in the western world, is a highly digital nation, wherein thousands of its business and government organizations across all sectors e.g. financial, transport, medical, government, defense etc., have and thus operate a digital IT infrastructure.

For the last two decades, for the most part, most of these organizations have been operating on trustworthy, autonomously (independently) operable "on-premises" Microsoft technologies, primarily, Active Directory, Exchange and Office, which enabled and empowered these organizations to operate securely and autonomously without having to rely on anyone else.

However, over the past few years, under the guise of "modernization", Microsoft has been spending billions of dollars to convince/persuade organizations to transition over to its new subscription-based Cloud offerings, Azure and 365 (Office).

As a result, in all likelihood, today thousands of business and government organizations in Israel are now likely using, i.e. relying on, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure for likely all organizational communications, access, mgmt and security.

To put it in layman terms for the world's populace, today, in all likelihood, communication, productivity and security at thousands of business and government organizations in Israel, today depends on Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.

In light of this elemental fact, it would appear that a successful attack on Microsoft Corporation's various Cloud Services could have a disruptive impact on the digital foundation of thousands of business and government organizations in Israel.

For instance, hypothetically speaking, a cyber attack that could result in a successful denial-of-service (DoS) attack on just Microsoft 365 services to thousands of Israeli organizations, could impact many mission-critical services across Israel.

In light of the above, if as is being widely reported, were Iran to launch a strike on Israel, it seems possible that it could try to also launch a cyber attack on Microsoft prior to doing so, to try and disrupt essential services/comms within Israel.

It must be mentioned that Microsoft is a successful American Corporation and likely has many cyber defenses in place. However, it must be noted that, unlike script-kiddies or lone-wolfs, when a nation state decides to wage a cyber attack, it has the financial and operational resources of an entire nation at its disposal, and you have to ask yourself whether the defenses of what is basically a for-profit business, may be adequate against a proficient, nation-state cyber adversary.

It must also be stated that there are many Israeli cyber security companies today, including several prominent publicly-held American Corporations, and there are many Israelis working in cyber security within Microsoft, and yet, logically speaking, no cyber security company can protect an organization from the impact of a successful denial-of-service attack launched against Microsoft 365 i.e. I mean, if there is no service, there is no service, period. (All email, access etc. comes to a halt.)

That's all I wanted to say today. This is all public knowledge, but I felt the need to state it out of an abundance of caution.

Sincerely,
Sanjay.

PS: Please note that the perspective shared above is not unique to Israel. Today, thousands of organizations worldwide have basically taken on a mission-critical dependency on Microsoft Cloud Services, having relinquished operational autonomy for a semblance of better security, and a formidable cyberattack on Microsoft could impact all of them.