In the wake of a widespread cyberattack, enterprise IT providers can play a key role in how businesses learn about and mitigate the security threat. That role has evolved as attacks grow more complex – and it presents a tricky challenge when a provider must keep businesses informed of an attack that has infiltrated its own walls and affected tens of thousands of its customers, as Microsoft experienced during the recent SolarWinds incident.

“A lot of the way it [the role] has changed is in the face of ever-increasing complexity and impact,” says Rob Lefferts, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 Security in Security and Compliance.