US Cyber Leader Urges Microsoft, Twitter to Up User Security (1) – Bloomberg Law

A senior US cybersecurity official described adoption of some of Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc.’s security protocols as “disappointing” as part of a broadside against large technology companies’ approach to protecting user accounts.

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a speech Monday that bad software and unsafe practices are facilitating ransomware attacks that are crippling the nation’s most essential services, spanning energy supply, food production, hospitals and schools.

Microsoft, Twitter and other technology companies should by default enroll users in basic safeguards such as multifactor authentication, according to Easterly. Multifactor authentication is a …