Thinkstock In what appears to be a self-inflicted wound, Microsoft misconfigured its own Microsoft Azure Blob (cloud) storage buckets, which housed third-party data according to vpnMentor. The company in effect scored an own-goal in favor of those seeking to steal intellectual property. vpnMentor published its timeline and interaction (or lack thereof) with Microsoft as its researchers discovered, then warned, the company of the discovered misconfiguration. A variety of organizations whose information was found within the data bucket were pitching Microsoft Dynamics in hopes of establishing a partnership with Microsoft. The report described how over 100 “pitch decks” and source codes from 10 to 15 companies were exposed. Companies entrusted to Microsoft their ideas and intellectual property as part of their effort to become a part of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM/ERP ecosystem and unknowingly had their ideas and intellectual property placed at risk by the misconfiguration.