Microsoft Catches a Raccoon & Copilot Struggles to Show ROI

This Week in IT, a global phishing‑as‑a‑service empire goes down, the EU forces Microsoft to unbundle Teams, and even Microsoft admits Copilot might not pay for itself.

Thanks to Cayosoft for sponsoring this episode of This Week in IT.

Links and resources

• Microsoft Avoids EU Antitrust Fines by Unbundling Teams
• Microsoft, Cloudflare Disrupt RaccoonO365 Phishing Operation
• Return on investment for Copilot? Microsoft has work to do • The Register

Episode overview

This Week in IT, Russell covers recent developments in IT security, Microsoft 365, Teams, and AI integration in workplace tools.

• Phishing service takedown: Law enforcement dismantled a phishing-as-a-service kit called RaccoonO365 sold via Telegram, which targeted Microsoft 365 credentials in 94 countries. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is recommended to prevent such attacks.
• Microsoft Teams unbundling in EU: To comply with EU regulations and avoid fines, Microsoft will unbundle Teams from Office 365 subscriptions in the EU, reduce subscription prices, and allow separate Teams licensing. Teams must remain interoperable with competing apps for 10 years.
• New Teams AI agents: Microsoft introduced facilitator AI agents in Teams meetings that create agendas, take notes, suggest topic timings, and can answer questions. These agents work on mobile and offer more flexibility than existing Teams Premium AI features.
• Copilot adoption challenges: Despite productivity gains, many organizations find the $30 per user monthly cost for Microsoft Copilot hard to justify due to limited real-world ROI data and underutilization of advanced features.