An Introduction to Microsoft Copilot for Security
In the constantly evolving world of cybersecurity, defense teams need all the resources they can get to keep up. Fortunately, the massive advances in generative AI present SOC teams with a powerful set of tools to optimize security practices and match even fully automated adversaries using natural language input.
Microsoft Security Copilot is among the most advanced examples of these tools. A generative AI-powered assistant for accelerating incident response and streamlining data analysis, Security Copilot is a version of the Microsoft Copilot tool designed specifically to assist with cybersecurity available for enterprises with an Azure subscription.
Leveraging code and machine learning capabilities from OpenAI architecture, Security Copilot serves to make data and system security more efficient both in defense and response by processing incident data at machine speed. The tool can be used on its own or can integrate directly within other Microsoft security products for users who prefer embedded experiences—but either way, it offers a singular, unified means of analyzing and controlling every aspect of your environment’s defenses.
Key Features and Benefits of Security Copilot
The primary use for Copilot for Security is as an onboard assistant that answers questions and implements commands via natural language prompts. However, the applications of that role go far beyond simply serving as a chatbot.
Because Security Copilot is fully integrated with your operating environment, the program has access to the fine details of your system security as reported by other security products such as Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR. This integration enables Security Copilot to offer real-time threat detection, analysis, and response by accessing available data and signals within your environment.
Microsoft Security Copilot also offers a singular input to manage multiple security endpoints and applications, making it a convenient central hub for amassing threat intelligence and managing security posture. With just a prompt, Copilot can analyze and summarize key details about your environment’s security as it assesses the state of your environment with additional processing from Azure OpenAI.
Further, the AI functionality in Security Copilot enables teams to implement automation in their workflows. The tool’s powerful summarization capabilities allow for daily activity readouts to be automatically sent to relevant data analysts, for example, and SOC teams can automate incident triage procedures to bolster defenses and lay the groundwork for effective, targeted responses. Better still, automation in Security Copilot is quite straightforward to learn and implement thanks to its wide catalog of included promptbooks and its compatibility with Logic Apps connector.
How Microsoft Security Copilot Works
Copilot for Security functions as both an embedded part of your system environment and as part of the larger Microsoft Azure OpenAI infrastructure. When you input a query into Security Copilot, the program first conducts pre-processing using your security plugins to gain additional detail, then sends the enhanced prompt to a Large Language Model (LLM) within Azure OpenAI. Next, the LLM’s response is returned to Security Copilot, which again consults security plugins for additional detail, then sends a final answer to the user. If any app commands were entered, these are issued to any relevant applications.
In detail, Copilot follows these steps:
- Microsoft Security Copilot, as either a standalone program or an embedded experience, receives a user prompt.
- Copilot pre-processes the prompt by accessing Microsoft security products such as Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, or Microsoft Sentinel. Third-party security products may be accessed as well depending on your system architecture.
- Leveraging information and key insights from these security plugins, Copilot modifies the prompt to include additional information and sends it to the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Large Language Model using HTTPS encryption.
- LLM returns a response to Copilot over a secured connection.
- Copilot again integrates with security plugins to verify response against the system’s actual state and add detail as necessary.
- Copilot sends the response to the user and sends app commands back to any relevant security products.
As the product utilizes an LLM, the capabilities within Microsoft Copilot for Security are easily accessible through its natural language input method. Users can input commands or questions using conversational language rather than the code associated with PowerShell or similar environments, enabling even less technically knowledgeable team members to quickly investigate and remediate real-time issues. Additionally, since Copilot also leverages machine learning, it will only become more knowledgeable as it experiences more use as part of your environment and continually accesses specific system resources.
Core Use Cases for Security Copilot
In actual use, Copilot Security offers critical support and response in your defense efforts, providing guidance, investigation, analysis, and even remediation at machine speed.
Threat Intelligence & Incident Response
Processing input data and signals from your environment and leveraging Azure OpenAI, Security Copilot offers actionable information over incidents in real time to deliver guidance on an effective response. The program can generate step-by-step incident response instructions to remedy an active strike in full detail through its instantaneous analysis of malware and attack scripts, providing teams with a more effective foundation to address the incident.
Security Operations & Compliance
The AI-driven design of Security Copilot makes it ideal for automating SOC workflows, especially summarizing incident data and performing triage. Using promptbooks, security teams can automate Security Copilot to present summaries of daily activity, alert relevant users of major events, and even automatically address incidents where decision-making data is clear enough to indicate the appropriate response.
Beyond bolstering environment defenses and making SOC operations more efficient, this automation also simplifies the process of monitoring and reporting your environments for compliance reasons and makes far more convenient to remain transparent about security incidents to customers and stakeholders.
Cloud & Endpoint Protection
As a single point of control across all your security endpoints, Microsoft Security Copilot vastly simplifies the process of securing cloud and multi-cloud environments or simply systems with more complex layouts. In addition to giving teams a convenient way to manage any given endpoint, the program can define and manage security policies across your organization from your input as well as cross-reference policies for potential conflicts, enabling you to easily implement a more cohesive and more effective security model.
Identity & Access Management
Microsoft Copilot’s security measures extend to user authentication and IAM efforts, as well. The program can help define user groups and access parameters by referencing your existing environment and user privileges, then assist in implementation with step-by-step instructions and integration with current security products. Additionally, Copilot’s system monitoring capabilities enable it to instantly detect and mitigate improper, suspicious, or unauthorized access attempts and give teams recommendations on how to better prevent future intrusions.
Seamless Integrations with Microsoft Security Suite
As stated above, Microsoft Security Copilot can be used on its own or embedded within another Microsoft security product. Through either one of these user experiences, however, the program boasts complete integration with core Microsoft security elements.
Primary integrations for Security Copilot include:
- Microsoft Defender XDR: Enables threat detection across multiple domains to be accessed by Copilot, enhancing visibility into your network’s security measures through summarization, analysis, and guided responses.
- Microsoft Sentinel: Incorporates advanced SIEM capabilities into Copilot while also allowing the program to automate SOAR operations.
- Microsoft Intune: Allows Security Copilot to assist with device query, troubleshoot devices, and manage network policies and settings.
- Microsoft Entra: Grants Copilot the capability to investigate suspicious access attempts and risky user reports, then summarize incidents and provide guidance on next steps.
- Microsoft Purview: Integrates AI-driven analysis into Purview to increase efficiency in investigating and summarizing data loss, insider risk management, eDiscovery alerts, and potential compliance issues.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Delivers in-depth assessments of cloud security recommendations while enabling users to quickly delegate or remediate proposed changes to multi-cloud environments.
AI-Driven Enhancements for Security Teams
In bringing a more convenient way to assess and address security issues, Microsoft Security Copilot presents a means to majorly accelerate SOC team productivity.
With instantaneous AI summarization, security teams can significantly cut down on time spent reading reports and act upon their recommendations that much more quickly. Copilot’s summary capabilities also largely eliminate the need for manual reporting of incidents, enabling your team to remain compliant with legal requirements and customer interests while spending the majority of their time on system defenses.
Copilot’s automation also simplifies KQL querying, as its natural language input model enables users to instantly generate query statements to match a given threat-hunting scenario. This not only saves time for experienced team members but enables those unfamiliar with KQL input requirements to perform threat hunting as needed.
In fact, with just how straightforward it is to get started using Security Copilot as an integrated security assistant, the program can even serve as a training tool for junior analysts. No coding knowledge is required to operate the program, so even less-experienced SOC team members can use Copilot to perform daily work. As they complete tasks, Copilot can generate training recommendations relevant to their work, advancing their skill sets even as they perform upkeep.
Even for well trained security professionals, Copilot offers crucial support in reducing alert fatigue by condensing the usual slew of various system alerts into actionable summaries. The program even redirects focus to meaningful activity only by comparing various system resources to reduce false positives in its reporting, leaving security teams with only confirmed incidents to investigate and minimizing redundant inquiry.
Customer Success Stories
In practice, Security Copilot presents considerable impact for enterprises’ SOC efficiency in both the immediate and long term, as in addition to accelerating threat response, the tool has consistently proven to help address cybersecurity talent gaps.
Insurance brokerage and enterprise consultation firm WTW saw these increases firsthand as they integrated Microsoft Copilot for Security into their defenses, particularly in protecting their highly sensitive customer data and accelerating efficiency in data storage. Company CISO Paul Haywood explains that much of this efficiency can be traced to how the tool represents a significant investment in a skilled SOC team.
“The threat hunting capabilities in Security Copilot will greatly accelerate the way that our internal threat hunting team develops and understands incidents as they unfold,” Haywood says. “The ability for our teams to ask questions in natural language in Security Copilot, rather than using KQL queries, allows a different type of SOC analyst to mature. That’s a game-changer in an industry where security skills are scarce.”
Specialty materials manufacturer Eastman likewise found Security Copilot significantly added to the efficiency of their security team, which is especially crucial in protecting the company’s massive attack surface and sensitive IP data. “Attackers can move very quickly, so we need to understand how the attack is being deployed and where,” explains Senior Cybersecurity Analyst David Yates. “We’re seeing our junior analysts skill up faster in KQL and perform much closer to par with senior analysts with Copilot for Security.”
Response efficiency in particular increased 60% at lifestyle brand company QNET after their team adopted and integrated Security Copilot. SOC Team Lead James Eduard Andaya reports, “Our workplace is becoming more data-driven and efficient with Copilot for Security. It will play an even more important role in automating routine tasks, accelerating our security operations, and enhancing our security measures in the future, I’m certain.”
Pricing and Deployment
Microsoft Security Copilot is available only as part of Microsoft Azure, and so an Azure subscription must be purchased to use it if your organization is not currently using the service. Many Azure subscriptions and products are available, and most enterprises will want to speak with a Microsoft sales specialist or licensed partner to see which option is most appropriate.
Security Copilot itself operates through consumption-based pricing via your Azure service or the Copilot for Security Portal. Like many Microsoft security products, Copilot for Security uses Security Compute Unites (SCUs), or units of resources used to effectively run the program within your environment. Billing for SCUs is calculated on a per-hour basis according to scheduled hourly blocks, and each SCU is billed at a minimum of one hour regardless of how long it is used. For example, an SCU provisioned at 10:30 am will run only for 30 minutes, lasting until the hour block of 11 am, but will still incur the full cost of a full hour of use. As many or as few SCUs can be purchased depending on your organization’s immediate needs. Specific pricing estimates can be calculated via Microsoft’s Security Copilot purchasing options.
Once you have purchased SCUs, they can be provisioned for specific capacities, or specific Azure resources that use the units. Security Copilot features a usage monitoring dashboard to track and manage provisioning activities within a unified view.
To get started with Security Copilot, you will need to:
1. Provision capacity
As Microsoft Security Copilot first starts up, it will guide you through the capacity provisioning process. You will need to sign into an Azure subscription owner or contributor account for this step. Once signed in, simply follow the steps to choose your Azure subscription, associate capacity to a resource group, name the capacity, select the geographic location from which your prompts will be processed, and input how many SCUs to use for the capacity.
2. Set up default environment
Once Security Copilot has been provisioned, its default environment of operation must be set. This task can be performed only by a system administrator.
To set a default environment, first make sure your capacity is associated to Security Copilot. You will be informed of where your Customer Data will be stored. Then, you may decide if Copilot may capture and store admin actions, user actions, and system responses, as well as choose a data sharing option for the program.
Once these steps are completed, Microsoft Copilot for Security will be ready to run in your environment.
Microsoft’s Responsible AI and Security Measures
Because Microsoft Security Copilot transmits sensitive internal data to an LLM, the program follows a strict adherence to privacy regulations and standards in accordance with Microsoft’s privacy-first approach to AI.
Per Microsoft’s data storage policy, customer data from prompts sent over Security Copilot is not stored anywhere beyond the LLM instance to which it was sent. While the LLM iteratively improves through global AI advances and a continuous feed of generic system logs relevant to input prompts, data from the prompts themselves is never used for foundational training. The Azure OpenAI instance is also kept entirely separate from OpenAI and is maintained entirely by Microsoft. By default, your data is stored in your current geographical location. Files uploaded to Security Copilot may be accessed only by the uploading account. Data sharing with Microsoft is on by default, but it can easily be turned off in the settings menu.
While Microsoft keeps private all details of specific security incidents, Azure OpenAI continuously learns from system logs surrounding incidents and improves with each attack it encounters and addresses, building scenario-specific models on top of the foundational LLM model. Users may also opt in to share data with Microsoft for human review, in which case the data from prompts, responses, and integrations will be assessed to improve the program’s functionality.
Getting Started with Security Copilot
At a minimum, Microsoft Security Copilot requires an Azure subscription and a commercial cloud environment. (Government clouds are not currently supported by the tool.) The program can associate as many or as few SCUs to any given resource groups within your organization depending on your specific needs.
As the tool is onboarded, you will need to determine who will have access to Security Copilot. By default, the program enables basic access to all users within an environment and elevated access to users with extra privileges, but permissions can be set according to your preferences.
Once the tool is fully up and running, it will present users with an introductory video on its key features, including how to use the prompt bar and how to input queries into it effectively. For additional training, users should complete Microsoft’s free 5-module training course on Security Copilot, where they can learn its features, benefits, and use cases in complete detail. At only 5 hours 31 minutes long and beginner-level in difficulty, the course is a must for any IT team member once Security Copilot is implemented.
SOC teams will also benefit from joining the official Microsoft Security Copilot Customer Connection Program to continue training. In addition to free weekly training and product information webinars, the program offers the fastest way to learn about updates and entry to the Security Copilot Teams Community to discuss the program with other users.
