Microsoft bans crypto mining: What the advisory to customers says – Times of India

Microsoft has quietly banned cryptomining from its online services. Reason: To better protect its customers and clouds. The company introduced the new changes earlier this month. Microsoft updated its Universal License Terms for Online Services. The company appears to have not publicised this decision beyond the Summary of Changes page
What the new customer terms say
“Updated Acceptable Use Policy to clarify that mining cryptocurrency is prohibited without prior Microsoft approval,” says the note on Microsoft website. The “Acceptable Use Policy” section says that it now requires users to obtain a written pre-approval from the company in order to use any of Microsoft Online Services for crypto mining.
The company has also announced the decision in an advisory issued to partners titled: “Important actions partners need to take to secure the partner ecosystem.” The advisory document reads: “The Acceptable Use Policy has been updated to explicitly prohibit mining for cryptocurrencies across all Microsoft Online Services unless written pre-approval is granted by Microsoft.”

“We suggest seeking written pre-approval from Microsoft before using Microsoft Online Services for mining cryptocurrencies, regardless of the term of a subscription,” it again reiterates in the end.
Microsoft on the ban
Microsoft told The Register, which first noticed the update, that it made the change because “crypto currency mining can cause disruption or even impairment to Online Services and its users and can often be linked to cyber fraud and abuse attacks such as unauthorised access to and use of customer resources. We made this change to further protect our customers and mitigate the risk of disrupting or impairing services in the Microsoft Cloud.”
The company further added that the permission to mine crypto “may be considered for Testing and Research for security detections.”
Microsoft issued ‘Crypto warning’ in 2021
Last year, Microsoft warned customers about a new crypto mining malware that can steal credentials, remove security controls, spread via emails and ultimately drop more tools for human-operated activity.