With the vast amount of data organizations hold and the complexity of IT infrastructures, it can be challenging to navigate various data streams to make informed and timely decisions. Indeed, organizations need to address security challenges they face in an efficient manner. However, a lack of skilled talent, visibility into security issues and working at human speed puts many a step behind. How does Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI) help lessen the burden on security professionals and security tools? This article examines this question deeply. Specifically, it takes a close look at one of such generative AI tools, Microsoft security Copilot. Let’s dive in!

What is Microsoft Security Copilot?

To point out, Microsoft Security Copilot (Security Copilot) is the first Generative AI security product that empowers security teams to protect IT infrastructures with the speed and capabilities of Artificial Intelligence. Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that uses generative machine learning models to produce new text, images, videos and other forms of data based on the data input it has been trained on. For example, it can learn human languages such as English or Spanish, programming languages such as python and java, art or chemistry, then reuse what it knows to solve problems.

Now, it is important to note that the Security Copilot product differs from Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot integrates generative AI into productivity applications such as the Microsoft Office suite. It enhances users’ ability to efficiently accomplish tasks. For example, in Microsoft Outlook, it can summarize emails, check schedules and locate relevant documents for meetings. Similarly in PowerPoint, it can create  new presentations based on the contents of a document or email.

By all means, Security Copilot is a comprehensive solution for managing an organization’s security posture, respond to threats, assess risk exposure and generate actionable security actions. Particularly, it is designed to respond to questions and instructions in your own words, also known as natural language prompts. This assistive security copilot experience helps security professionals address the growing challenges of sophisticated cybersecurity attacks.

What does it do?

To point out, Microsoft Security Copilot is a unique cloud-based security analysis tool designed to offer unparalleled functionality to mitigate high impact security incidents and attacks. The use of OpenAI’s natural language processing models enhances its capacity to understand and process user requests. As a result, this makes it an effective tool for seasoned professionals and novices. Notably, it can:

1. Investigate and remediate security threats. This creates context for incidents. It can quickly triage complex security alerts into actionable summaries and remediate them quickly with step-by-step response guidance.
2. Build Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries. This can analyze suspicious scripts to eliminate the need to manually write query-language scripts or reverse engineer malware scripts. With natural language translation, this enables every team member to execute technical tasks.
3. Understand risks and manage security posture. It enables security teams to get a broad picture of their environment. It can prioritize risks to uncover opportunities which easily improves their security posture.
4. Troubleshoot IT issues faster by synthesizing relevant information rapidly and receiving actionable insights to identify and resolve IT issues quickly.
5. Define and manage security policies. It creates new policies, cross-reference it with others for conflicts, and summarizes existing policies to easily manage complex organizational context.
6. Configure secure lifecycle workflows. This builds groups and set access parameters with step-by-step guidance. It ensures a seamless configuration to prevent security vulnerabilities.
7. Develop reports for stakeholders. Stakeholders get a clear and concise report that summarizes the context and environment, open issues, and protective measures prepared for the tone and language of the report’s audience.

To emphasize, Copilot for security maintains a high standard of data privacy, security and transparency which allows users to track the source and validity of information provided by the tool.

What benefits does it bring?

With Security Copilot, defenders can expressly respond to security incidents within minutes instead of days or hours. Defenders can quickly discover malicious behavior and threat signals that could gone undetected for extended periods. Moreover, Security Copilot continually learns from user interactions, adapts to an organization’s preferences, and advises security analysts on the best course of action to achieve more secure outcomes. Additionally, it provides the following benefits:

1. Threat Intelligence provided by the over 65 million threat signals Microsoft sees every day to ensure that security teams are operating with the latest knowledge of attackers, their tactics, techniques and procedures.
2. Advanced threat detection provided by AI powered algorithms that detects risks traditional threat detection tools overlook. It adapts in real time to keep your defenses in high precision.
3. Operational efficiency that ensures security analyst do not spend hours manually analyzing data. Copilot automates threat analysis freeing you to be focus on strategic decisions and faster responses.
4. Fewer false positives enabled by Copilot’s accuracy. This significantly minimizes false alarms so organizations can focus on responding to real threats.

How it works

In general, Microsoft Security Copilot can be accessed through it’s dedicated website. This is also known as the standalone experience. Through the standalone experience users access the portal platform which has a user-friendly interface and allows interactions through natural language prompts.

Security Copilot also integrates with security-specific sources using plugins and files. Copilot supports plugins for Microsoft’s own security products such as Azure Firewall, Purview, Entra, Azure AI and Intune. Also, it supports non-Microsoft products such as Service Now and Splunk, open-source intelligence feeds, industry information from the public web, and custom plugins. Additionally, Copilot uses files to create connections to an organization’s knowledge base. Consequently, this creates more context, resulting in responses that are more relevant, and specific to the user. To gain a deeper understanding of Security Copilot, visit the learning portal. Also, to learn more about Security Copilot pricing, visit the pricing portal.

Elevated Security

All things considered, Generative AI improves the efficiency and accuracy of security tools and professionals. Generative AI algorithms explore and analyze complex data in new ways. This particularly allows businesses and researchers to uncover hidden patterns and trends that may not be apparent from the raw data alone. As can be seen in the functionalities of Security Copilot, it automates and accelerates a variety of tasks, and provides guided responses. This ultimately saves time and fills in the human and technical gaps many organizations desperately need.