Is Copilot for Microsoft 365 Secure? Unveiling the Truth at Black Hat 2024!

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This Week in IT, businesses are cautious about implementing A.I, solutions like Copilot for Microsoft 365, because of concerns they might not be secure. But as Microsoft announces fast adoption of the new technology, can your organization afford to sit back and wait to see how it all unfolds?

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Episode Overview

In this episode of This Week in IT, Russell covers:

Security Concerns with AI Adoption: Businesses are hesitant to adopt AI solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot primarily due to security concerns, despite its potential for improving productivity and efficiency.
Rapid Adoption of Copilot: Microsoft announced a 60% increase in bots created with Copilot Studio in the last quarter, indicating fast adoption of the technology.
Initial Security Vulnerabilities: Researchers demonstrated vulnerabilities in Copilot, such as publicly available bots and potential data breaches, prompting Microsoft to change default settings to make new bots private.
Demonstrated Exploits: Michael Bargary showcased several ways to exploit Copilot, including manipulating bank account numbers and removing sensitivity labels from results, highlighting significant security risks.
Rag Poisoning Attack: Copilot is susceptible to rag poisoning attacks, where malicious files can be indexed and used to provide misleading information, posing a serious security threat.3
Mitigation Strategies: Organizations should ensure robust Microsoft 365 security settings, regularly review and secure existing bots, and consider using tools like Copilot Hunter to detect exposed bots.
Future of AI Tools: Despite current security challenges, AI tools like Copilot have significant potential to improve business efficiency, and companies should start considering their implementation to stay competitive.

Russell Smith

Editorial Director at Petri IT Knowledgebase. Russell has more than 20 years' experience working in IT. From small business to large government IT infrastructure projects. Russell started his writing career for Windows IT Pro magazine in the early 2000s. Since then, Russell has contributed to a variety of publications, including Petri, CDW's list of publications, and various industry blogs including Netwrix, BeyondTrust, and others. In addition to more than 1000 articles Russell has authored, he has also written a book on Windows security and co-authored another for Microsoft's MOAC series. Russell has also authored several courses for Pluralsight.