Microsoft Security Business Head Hayete Gallot Restructures 10,000-Person Department
Microsoft's newly appointed head of security business, Hayete Gallot, is restructuring the security department with over 10,000 employees, replacing at least 8 senior executives under previous leaders, and cutting hundreds of positions in recent layoffs.
Microsoft is shifting resources towards Security Copilot, code vulnerability scanning, and AI Agent management tools, while reducing investment in traditional threat detection products like Sentinel, with a higher priority given to the core endpoint security product Defender.
Microsoft is also drawing on Anthropic's AI security products, with the new tool MDASH capable of calling multiple models to automatically find vulnerabilities, which has been used to check Windows. In July, Microsoft fixed a record 622 vulnerabilities, claiming part of the increase came from MDASH.
This round of adjustments directly targets corporate concerns over AI attacks, as Microsoft hopes to drive growth with AI security tools while avoiding losing this new budget to Anthropic and OpenAI.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
After Hayete Gallot took over Microsoft's security business, she quickly pushed for personnel and resource restructuring. Previously, the security department focused on traditional products, and this shift towards AI-driven tools reflects the company's strategy evolving from passive defense to proactive intelligent security.
On the capital front, Microsoft is increasing investment in AI security tools like Security Copilot and MDASH while reducing resources for traditional products like Sentinel, with a higher priority for Defender, concentrating the budget from legacy businesses to emerging AI security tools.
Similar to other tech giants' security departments undergoing AI transformation, Microsoft is currently in the phase of responding to new threats in the AI era, accelerating the implementation of its own tools by referencing products from Anthropic and others.
This essentially represents a technological replacement: AI automating vulnerability discovery and agent management tools replacing traditional labor-intensive detection, shifting pricing power from traditional security products to integrated AI-capable platform solutions, driving corporate security budgets towards cloud AI giants like Microsoft.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Traditional defenses cannot keep up with AI attacks; intelligent tools are the new moat.
Cutting old investments and investing in new ones, resources are tilted towards high-growth AI security.
Corporate budgets chase the speed of threat evolution; whoever uses AI defense first will take the lead.