How Microsoft Copilot for Security works

Summary

Microsoft's Security Copilot is a groundbreaking AI assistant designed to enhance organizational security by leveraging generative AI. It integrates seamlessly with various Microsoft services, including Microsoft Defender XDR, Intune, Entra, and Purview, to streamline security tasks. The tool, augmented with cybersecurity expertise, offers a stateful experience for tracking investigations and provides a natural language interface to security data. Security Copilot can analyze scripts, generate informed responses, and even create reports with multi-step sequences using Promptbooks. It uses Low-Rank Adaptive fine-tuning (LoRA) to specialize the AI in cybersecurity, ensuring up-to-date threat intelligence. The tool accelerates incident investigation, automates security processes, and aids in generating executive summaries, making it an invaluable asset for security teams and analysts.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Microsoft's Security Copilot** is a new AI assistant designed to help organizations with security-related tasks using generative AI.
• 🧩 **Integration with Microsoft Services**: Security Copilot is integrated with various Microsoft services like Microsoft Defender XDR, Intune, Entra, and Purview.
• 💡 **Stateful Experience**: Unlike other Copilots, Security Copilot remembers previous sessions to allow for easier return to ongoing investigations.
• 🔍 **Enhanced Language Model**: It uses an augmented GPT model with security skills, improving its ability to work with security signals in the user's environment.
• 📌 **Managed Plugins**: Security Copilot offers a range of managed plugins for identity, device endpoints, incidents, threat intelligence, and data security.
• 📈 **Data Enrichment**: The assistant uses data from its plugins to enrich the investigation process and generate informed responses.
• 🔧 **Automated Security Processes**: It can automate multi-step security processes using Promptbooks, as demonstrated with the analysis of a suspicious PowerShell script.
• 🆚 **Comparison to Unmodified GPT**: Security Copilot outperforms an unmodified GPT model due to its fine-tuning and grounding in security data, as shown in the CVE and domain lookup examples.
• 🛠️ **Fine-Tuning and Specialization**: Security Copilot employs methods like LoRA fine-tuning to specialize the LLM for cybersecurity, making it more effective than general AI models.
• ⚙️ **Orchestration Engine**: The assistant has a built-in engine that retrieves, ranks, and grounds data for the LLM, ensuring responses are informed and within token limits.
• 📝 **Investigation Workflow**: Security Copilot aids in the entire incident investigation process, from initial queries to generating reports, and it maintains a stateful session for continuity.
• 📊 **Reporting and Summaries**: It can generate both technical and non-technical summaries, making complex security incidents understandable for various stakeholders.

Q & A

What is Microsoft's Security Copilot?

Microsoft's Security Copilot is a security AI assistant that leverages generative AI and Microsoft's cybersecurity expertise to help perform common security-related tasks quickly.

How does Security Copilot integrate with other Microsoft services?

Security Copilot integrates with services like Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Intune for endpoint management, Microsoft Entra for identity and access management, and Microsoft Purview for data security.

What is the significance of Security Copilot's stateful experience?

The stateful experience allows users to easily return to investigations from previous sessions, providing continuity and context for ongoing security tasks.

How does Security Copilot enhance the large language model training?

Security Copilot enhances the large language model training by augmenting it with security skills, enabling it to work effectively with security signals in the user's environment.

What is the role of managed plugins in Security Copilot?

Managed plugins in Security Copilot provide access to various Microsoft and third-party services, allowing the AI to gather and analyze a broad range of security data.

How does Security Copilot assist in automating security process steps?

Security Copilot uses Promptbooks to automate multi-step sequences in security processes, providing a step-by-step breakdown of tactics used by exploits for clear and understandable analysis.

What is the advantage of using Security Copilot over an off-the-shelf large language model?

Security Copilot offers a fine-tuned, enterprise-grade natural language interface specific to security data, providing more accurate, relevant, and informed responses compared to a general off-the-shelf model.

How does Security Copilot handle real-time data retrieval and threat intelligence?

Security Copilot uses evergreen Threat Intelligence with real-time retrieval to ensure it's always up-to-date with new and trending threats.

Can Security Copilot help non-experts perform expert-level security analysis?

Yes, Security Copilot is designed to provide expert advice and perform advanced security analysis, even for users who are not security experts themselves.

What is the process for a security analyst using Security Copilot to investigate an incident?

A security analyst can use Security Copilot to query user account statuses, analyze login attempts, assess risk levels, generate and run security queries, and correlate alerts with incidents for a comprehensive investigation.

How does Security Copilot assist in generating reports and summaries?

Security Copilot can generate non-technical executive-level summaries and pin board summaries for SecOp teams, using session context to create thorough and easily understandable reports.

What are the future integration plans for Security Copilot?

Security Copilot is planned to be integrated with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other plugins in the future, expanding its capabilities across various Microsoft admin portals.