When Innovation Moves Faster Than Your Security Playbook

Cybersecurity Services are being reshaped by Microsoft’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence. Copilot, Azure AI and a growing list of integrated assistants now sit inside email, documents, collaboration tools and cloud workloads. They automate, summarize, suggest and sometimes act on your behalf.

That shift brings real advantages. It also changes the shape of risk. When AI can see what your users see and trigger actions across your environment, misconfiguration and weak monitoring stop being minor gaps and become structural problems.

Microsoft’s AI Momentum And What It Means For Your Environment

Microsoft has made AI the centerpiece of its cloud and productivity strategy. That is not a marketing language. It shows up in concrete adoption and engineering investment.

Zscaler’s ThreatLabz 2025 AI Security Report analyzed traffic from more than 800 AI and machine learning applications and found 536.5 billion AI and ML transactions flowing through its cloud, with AI usage increasing 36 times year over year, and almost 60% of AI transactions blocked as organizations try to contain unmanaged usage.

On the threat side, TechRadar reports that research from Fortinet recorded 36,000 automated scans per second globally, a 16.7% year over year increase in scanning activity as attackers lean on AI and automation to probe for weaknesses earlier in the attack lifecycle. TechRadar

At the same time, Thales’ 2025 Data Threat Report found that nearly 70% of surveyed organizations now view the rapid pace of artificial intelligence development, particularly generative AI, as their top security concern related to AI.

On Microsoft’s side, the company’s Secure Future Initiative progress reports describe a massive internal security push. Microsoft states it has devoted the equivalent of 34,000 full time engineers for nearly a year to harden its products and cloud platform, positioning security as the company’s top priority in response to escalating AI powered threats.

The picture is clear.

  • AI adoption is exploding in volume.
  • Attackers are using AI to increase scanning speed and attack precision.
  • Enterprises are worried about AI related risk, even as they move deeper into Microsoft’s AI ecosystem.

That tension is where configuration, monitoring and governance either protect you or leave you exposed.

How AI Is Changing The Threat Landscape Around Microsoft Environments

AI is not just another feature inside Microsoft 365 and Azure. It also appears on the attacker’s side of the equation.

An Associated Press summary of Microsoft’s 2025 Digital Threats Report notes that from July 2024 to July 2025, Microsoft identified more than 200 instances of foreign adversaries using AI to generate fake content for online influence and cyber operations. That total is more than double the prior year and more than ten times the number seen in 2023.

TechRadar highlights Fortinet research showing that automated scanning is not the only surge. Logs from compromised systems increased by 500%, driving more targeted attacks against businesses, and more than 1.7 billion stolen credentials are circulating on the dark web. 

At the same time, Zscaler reports that nearly 60% of AI and ML transactions observed in its cloud were blocked, indicating that many organizations are trying to contain unsanctioned AI usage while they work out governance and policy.

This tells a simple story.

  • Attackers are using AI to move faster and at greater scale.
  • Enterprise AI traffic is large and still partially uncontrolled.
  • Misuse and misconfiguration can happen long before traditional alerts fire.

In a Microsoft centric environment, this means that Copilot and other AI services sit inside a threat landscape that is already more aggressive and more automated than even two years ago.

Smarter Phishing And Social Engineering Around Microsoft Users

One of the clearest areas where Microsoft’s AI push intersects with risk is phishing and social engineering. As Microsoft improves AI assistance for legitimate users, attackers mirror that progress.

SecurityWeek reports that research on polymorphic phishing campaigns found a 17% increase in phishing emails in February 2025 compared to the previous six months. Even more striking, 82% of analyzed phishing emails contained some form of AI usage, representing a 53%year over year increase.

TechRadar highlights Kaspersky data showing that in the second quarter of 2025, security products detected and blocked more than 142 million clicks on phishing links, a 3.3% increase over the first quarter.

A separate analysis from PC Gamer, based on Microsoft’s 2025 Digital Defense Report, notes that AI automated phishing emails achieved a 54% click through rate, compared to 12% for standard phishing attempts. That makes AI enhanced phishing about 4.5 times more successful at getting users to click. The same report warns that AI driven automation can increase phishing profitability by up to 50 times, by scaling highly targeted attacks at low cost. 

This has direct implications for organizations built on Microsoft 365, Teams and Azure.

  • More of the phishing targeting your users is written or refined with AI.
  • Messages are more fluent, better localized and more personalized.
  • AI assisted campaigns are more likely to bypass casual user suspicion.

If AI is making phishing more convincing and more profitable, then protecting Microsoft identities, endpoints and collaboration tools requires a sharper focus on behavior patterns, identity security and internal controls, not only spam filtering and awareness campaigns.

Why Configuration And Monitoring Now Decide How Safe Microsoft AI Really Is

Microsoft’s AI offerings largely inherit permissions from the users and services they assist. Copilot can see what your users can see. Azure AI and integrated assistants draw on the data and workloads they are connected to. That is powerful, but it also means that old configuration habits can create new exposure.

Microsoft’s own Secure Future Initiative and Digital Defense materials stress that identity and configuration are central to AI safety. Security reports underline that the same tools that help defenders also give attackers capabilities to automate lateral movement, vulnerability discovery and evasion of traditional controls.

From a business standpoint, this translates into several practical realities:

  • Over permissive identities now have amplified reach. If a role can see far more data than it needs, AI tools attached to that identity inherit the same visibility.
  • Poorly classified data becomes easier to surface. Sensitive content stored in the wrong place or missing labels may be summarized or suggested in contexts where it does not belong.
  • Legacy systems may interact unpredictably with modern AI. Older applications and file shares were never designed with AI access in mind, yet they may now be part of the data path for AI tools.
  • Traditional logging may not tell the full story. Many monitoring tools focus on human initiated actions. AI driven queries, content generation and workflow triggers can blend into background noise unless logging and analytics are tuned to see them.

At the same time, Microsoft is tightening its own bar. In its Secure Future Initiative updates, Microsoft emphasizes that it has expanded SFI to cover six engineering pillars with new standards and key results, and that security now sits “above all else” in its internal priorities.

Microsoft is raising the bar on its side. Organizations using its AI tools need to raise their side as well: identity governance, data classification, monitoring, incident readiness and policy.

What Organizations Need To Strengthen Around Microsoft AI

To get the benefit of Microsoft’s AI roadmap without inheriting uncontrolled risk, security and IT leaders can focus on four major areas.

1. Identity And Permission Governance Aligned With AI

Review which users and groups truly need broad access in Microsoft 365, Azure and integrated line of business systems.

  • Reduce standing global access wherever possible.
  • Tighten group memberships that feed into AI powered tools.
  • Enforce strong authentication to keep identities from becoming easy entry points.

2. Data Classification And Segmentation

If AI tools can search, summarize or cross reference your data, then the location and labeling of that data matters.

  • Classify sensitive information systematically.
  • Segment content that should never appear in AI generated responses.
  • Use Microsoft’s governance controls to restrict AI access to specific data sets.

3. AI Aware Logging And Monitoring

Security operations need visibility into AI driven activity inside the Microsoft ecosystem.

  • Capture logs related to AI requests, content retrievals and workflow triggers.
  • Define baselines for normal AI usage by department and role.
  • Investigate unusual spikes, unexpected data access or atypical usage times.

4. Policy, Governance And Training For AI Usage

Technology alone does not solve the problem. Governance and human awareness complete the picture.

  • Establish clear policies for where and how AI tools can be used in the business.
  • Document approval processes for new AI integrations and plugins.
  • Train staff not only to use AI, but to understand the related security implications.

These are not one time projects. They are ongoing disciplines that keep Microsoft’s AI capabilities inside a controlled, observable and intentional security posture.

Turning Microsoft’s AI Power Into Confident Security

OnPar helps businesses treat Microsoft’s AI platform as a strategic asset instead of a moving risk target. The focus is simple: connect configuration, governance and monitoring so that AI driven productivity is matched by AI aware protection.

What OnPar delivers

  • AI centric environment mapping
     We map how Microsoft AI tools touch your environment, from Copilot in Microsoft 365 to Azure based AI workloads. That includes identities, groups, data stores, collaboration spaces and integrations so you can see where AI has reach and where boundaries are weak.
  • Permission and identity review through an AI lens
     We analyze your identity structures and access models, identifying where AI inherits more visibility than you intended. This review highlights over permissive accounts, outdated roles and cross tenant access that AI might expose.
  • Data governance tuned for AI usage
     We help you classify and segment data so that AI assistants work with the right information and do not surface content that should remain contained. This includes practical controls inside Microsoft 365 and Azure as well as guidance for new projects.
  • Monitoring that understands AI behavior
     OnPar works with your security operations team to ensure logging covers AI interactions, not only traditional user events. We help define meaningful alerts for AI related anomalies such as unusual query patterns, unexpected access paths or sudden spikes in AI generated activity.
  • Governance frameworks for responsible AI adoption
     We assist your leadership team in building practical policies around AI: which departments can use which tools, which approvals are required for new integrations and how to review AI related risk on an ongoing basis.
  • A roadmap that evolves with Microsoft’s releases
     As Microsoft expands Copilot, releases new agents or deepens integrations, OnPar updates your configuration and monitoring plan so your security posture evolves along with your AI capabilities.

What you gain

  • A Microsoft environment where AI is visible, not mysterious
  • Reduced exposure from over permissive identities and poorly classified data
  • Security monitoring that understands both human and AI generated activity
  • Governance that turns AI from an experiment into a controlled capability
  • Confidence to expand AI use because the guardrails are clear

With OnPar, Microsoft’s AI ecosystem becomes an advantage you can trust, not a source of hidden uncertainty.

Security Follows The Direction Of Microsoft’s AI Journey

Microsoft’s investment in artificial intelligence is transforming how businesses work. Real world data from technology providers and security researchers shows that AI adoption is climbing quickly, that attackers are embracing AI to make their campaigns faster and more convincing, and that many organizations are still catching up on governance and control.

In that environment, safety is not defined by whether you use Microsoft AI, but by how intentionally you configure and monitor it. The organizations that pair Copilot and Azure AI with strong identity governance, disciplined data protection and AI aware monitoring will be better equipped to handle the next wave of threats. Those relying on yesterday’s playbooks will feel the gap as attacks grow more automated and more adaptive.

If you want AI to strengthen your business rather than complicate your risk, OnPar is ready to help you understand where Microsoft’s AI tools touch your environment, what needs to change and how to move forward with clarity. Reach out to OnPar to start a conversation about turning Microsoft’s AI push into a security advantage for your organization.