How Cyberattacks are Changing According to the New Microsoft Digital Defense Report
2021 saw an increase in both frequency and, more importantly, sophistication of cyberattacks. Read the blog to stay on top of the changing cybersecurity landscape and learn how Microsoft continues to gain insights from the research they conduct and translate these findings into new features in their security products.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Security Copilot and how does it help my team?
Microsoft Security Copilot is an AI-driven security capability that brings generative AI and security agents directly into your team’s daily workflows. It’s designed to help your security and IT teams detect, investigate, and respond to threats faster and with more accuracy.
Key ways it helps your team:
1. Built into the flow of work
Security Copilot agents are embedded into tools your teams already use, so analysts can ask natural-language questions (for example, about an alert or incident) and get guided, step-by-step responses.
2. Uses massive security intelligence
The solution draws on unified graph analytics and about **100 trillion daily signals** from across Microsoft’s ecosystem. This helps surface threats earlier and provide more context so your team can make informed decisions.
3. Multicloud and multiplatform coverage
Security Copilot works across your AI, apps, data, devices, identities, and clouds. It’s designed to help you anticipate and stop threats across a multicloud, multiplatform environment rather than managing each system in isolation.
4. Productivity and accuracy gains
By automating repetitive investigation steps, summarizing complex incidents, and suggesting next actions, Security Copilot can help:
- Reduce time spent on manual analysis.
- Improve consistency in how incidents are handled.
- Free up senior analysts to focus on higher-value work.
5. Integrated with broader Microsoft Security
Security Copilot complements Microsoft’s extended detection and response (XDR), SIEM, identity, data protection, and endpoint management products. Together, they provide end-to-end protection that can help simplify operations, manage costs, and support security at the speed and scale of AI.
How does Microsoft help secure data, identities, devices, and apps in the cloud?
Microsoft Security is designed as a connected set of products and services that work together to protect your organization across data, identities, devices, apps, and clouds.
Here’s how the main pieces fit together:
1. Threat detection and response (XDR and SIEM)
- **Extended Detection and Response (XDR)** products help you detect and respond to attacks across devices, identities, apps, email, and clouds from a single view.
- An industry-leading **SIEM and AI-ready security platform** powers “agentic defense,” giving you centralized visibility, analytics, and incident management.
- Always-on, **AI-accelerated managed XDR** services can extend your team with expert-led monitoring and response.
2. Identity and access management
- A complete identity solution helps you **verify every identity and access request** across clouds, platforms, and devices.
- This supports Zero Trust principles by continuously validating users, devices, and sessions before granting access to apps and resources.
3. Data security, governance, and compliance
- Unified **information protection, governance, and compliance** products safeguard data wherever it lives—on-premises, in the cloud, or in SaaS apps.
- A solution that **unifies data security and governance** helps you foster AI innovation while keeping sensitive information protected.
- Proactive **risk mitigation and compliance management** tools help you respect customer and employee privacy.
4. Endpoint and device security
- **Endpoint management** products strengthen device security and support seamless hybrid work experiences.
- These tools help ensure that only compliant, trusted devices can access corporate resources.
5. Application and workload protection
- Microsoft Security provides **complete visibility and protection across workloads**, helping you safeguard all your apps and resources in the cloud.
- This includes protection for cloud apps and cloud workloads, with unified SecOps in Defender to gain visibility and disrupt attacks.
6. Expert-led services and guidance
- Microsoft offers **expert-led services** to help you defend against threats, build cyber resilience, and modernize security operations.
- Managed threat hunting provides **around-the-clock, AI-powered** monitoring across endpoints, identities, emails, cloud apps, and workloads.
- Dedicated incident response services are positioned as your **first call before, during, and after** a cybersecurity incident.
Together, these capabilities are designed to simplify your security operations, help manage costs, and support a consistent security posture across your multicloud, multiplatform environment.
How does Microsoft support secure and governed use of AI and AI agents?
Microsoft focuses on helping organizations use AI confidently by combining security, governance, and observability across AI systems and agents.
Key elements of this approach:
1. Security and governance for AI environments
- Microsoft provides **security and governance solutions built for a new era of AI**, helping you protect AI models, data, and workflows.
- These solutions are designed to **strengthen AI environments** across your apps, agents, platforms, and clouds, so AI doesn’t become a separate security silo.
2. Microsoft Agent 365 for AI agents
- **Microsoft Agent 365** is positioned to help you **secure and govern every AI agent**.
- It offers a **unified control plane** so you can extend your existing infrastructure and policies to AI agents, rather than managing them as ad hoc tools.
- This helps you confidently scale AI agents while maintaining consistent security, governance, and observability.
3. Unified data security and governance
- A solution that **unifies data security and governance** helps you foster AI innovation while protecting sensitive information.
- This is especially important as AI agents access and act on data across multiple systems and clouds.
4. AI-powered threat detection and response
- Microsoft uses **industry-leading generative AI** to help you outpace attackers, surfacing threats earlier and guiding precise responses.
- Unified SecOps in Defender gives you visibility and the ability to disrupt attacks across your **multicloud, multiplatform** environment.
5. Insights and best practices
- Microsoft shares insights into how quickly organizations are adopting AI agents and why **observability, governance, and security** are key to responsible adoption.
- Reports such as the **Security Future Initiative (SFI)** and threat landscape updates highlight trends like cybercrime-as-a-service, hybrid ransomware, and phishing, along with actionable guidance to strengthen your security posture.
By combining AI-ready security platforms, unified data governance, and dedicated tools like Microsoft Agent 365, Microsoft aims to help you reimagine how you deploy AI—so you can innovate with agents while keeping security, compliance, and risk management front and center.


