Microsoft has bumped up security for its Azure cloud platform by adding support for X.509 certificates for device-level authentication, and bagging an ISO integrity ticket.

Adding X.509 means Microsoft thinks its cloud will be better at handling internet-of-things traffic to the Azure IoT Hub, according to Azure partner director Sam George.

“With Azure IoT support for X.509 certificates, an IoT device can now store a private key locally, and an associated device X.509 certificate generated to identify the device to Azure IoT Hub before the information is transmitted,” George says.

“The benefit to customers in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and smart cities is that device identity can be transmitted safely and securely from the edge to the cloud while maintaining integrity.”

Redmond has also released reading material including an IoT security guide.

Azure senior director Alice Rison is singing praises over Microsoft’s scoring of the ISO 27017:2015 cloud security certificate.

She says it is awarded thanks to Redmond’s compliance with 44 cloud risk and threat model controls.

“Both cloud service providers and cloud service customers can leverage this guidance to effectively design and implement cloud computing information security controls,” Rison says.

“Customers can download the ISO/IEC 27017 certificate which demonstrates Microsoft’s continuous commitment to providing a secure and compliant cloud environment for our customers.” ®

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