Microsoft Copilot for Security: A Digital Guardian Angel For Businesses Everywhere

To celebrate its general release, we took a peek under the hood of Copilot for Security with Westcoast Cloud’s Head of Technical Services, Rio Hindle.

In this interview, Rio gives us his honest, down-to-earth take on Microsoft’s latest Copilot release, including,

what it is and how it works,
how security professionals are using it to work more productively and precisely, and
why 97% of experienced security analysts who’ve used it said they never want to work without it again.

Let’s dive in.

March 28th, 2024

Copilot for Security Q&A with Rio Hindle

The security expert that never sleeps

What is Copilot for Security, and how does it help IT and security teams protect business data and operations?

Here at Westcoast, we like to think of Copilot for Security as a digital guardian angel that works around the clock to proactively defend systems by identifying and neutralising threats.

Essentially, it’s an AI assistant that helps cybersecurity professionals work at greater speed, precision, and scale. It adds several layers of protection, called ‘deeply layered protocols’, into cyber operations, automates many time-consuming yet essential tasks like user access controls.

Plus, it predicts security events before they happen, and automatically responds to threats.

“Copilot for Security works like a medieval castle with several layers protecting business data and operations.”

Wow! With cybercrime growing in complexity and frequency, I’m sure IT professionals will welcome this release. Can you tell us more about those ‘deeply layered protocols’?

Copilot for Security works like a medieval castle with several defensive layers protecting business data and operations. These layers include:

Continuous real-time system monitoring to identify potential threats – like a watchtower
Access controls such as multifactor authentication and password policies that work like castle guards making sure you don’t get any unwanted guests,
Security audits and updates, which Copilot carries out to identify and fortify any weak spots in your defences, and
Data encryption, which acts like a moat stopping people from accessing your data.

What’s more, if a cybercriminal does manage to intercept your data, Copilot encryption makes sure they can’t make head or tail of it.

“Copilot uses its own analysis to automatically adjust its security measures.”

In your view, why are generative AI tools like Copilot for Security becoming more important for businesses and the IT professionals charged with protecting them?

These days, there’s always too much activity in the IT system to manually monitor. The level of traffic creates a sea of data to analyse, and of course, there’s a limit to what the human mind can compute. Inevitably, threats get overlooked and progress to incidents. Additionally, cyber threats evolve so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up, meaning teams aren’t always clear on what to look for, or what the red flags are.

But thankfully, generative AI solves all this. It does all the monitoring for you and keeps its knowledge up to date by learning from the data it ingests. What’s more, it replaces manual analysis with recommended actions and insights that the team can use to improve security or handle threats more efficiently.

Can you tell us more about how generative AI augments the work of IT and cyber professionals to solve modern cyber threats?

Copilot works around the clock, analysing vast amounts of data at lightning speed to identify signs of trouble. It even learns continuously, meaning it’s always well-placed to predict and prevent security breaches before they happen, no matter how fast cybercrime evolves. For your experts, this means they get red flags served up to them and, rather than spending time on investigations, they can jump straight into action.

Perhaps most amazingly, Copilot uses its own analysis to automatically adjust its security measures. This is great news for IT professionals, because it keeps cyber security defences in alignment with the threats that are happening today – not the ones that were happening when the measures were put in place

Rio Hindle
Head of Technical Services, Westcoast Cloud

A full 97% of experienced security analysts said they want to continue using Copilot for Security. What are the features IT teams love most about Copilot, and how are they using them?

It’s no secret that cyber security can be stressful. When you’re dealing with a breach, your cortisol levels always shoot up. But Copilot takes a lot of that away, because it responds to security incidents rapidly, and can automatically isolate compromised systems, patch vulnerabilities, and more. By limiting potential harm efficiently and precisely, it takes a lot of that initial pressure off the team.

People also love the day-to-day impact Copilot has on their work. Because it automates many tedious and time intensive tasks, they can focus more on strategic initiatives, and do more of the work they enjoy. In fact, experienced security analysts completed their tasks 22% faster with Copilot!

How can Westcoast Cloud help MSPs and businesses adopt and succeed with Copilot for Security?

At Westcoast Cloud, we believe in relationships, not transactions. In providing help and advice, not just software. That’s why we developed our Technical Centre of Excellence.

Partners who’d like to learn more about Copilot for Security can tap into the Westcoast Cloud Technical Centre of Excellence. Whether you want:

Technical advice on how to implement and adopt Copilot,
Advice on how to use Copilot to streamline your client security operations, or
Information on how to expand your opportunities and grow your business with Copilot,

one of our technical experts will help, with down-to-earth, jargon-free and honest advice.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

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Westcoast Cloud

Microsoft Copilot for Security: A Digital Guardian Angel For Businesses Everywhere

Copilot for Security Q&A with Rio Hindle

The security expert that never sleeps

Wow! With cybercrime growing in complexity and frequency, I’m sure IT professionals will welcome this release. Can you tell us more about those ‘deeply layered protocols’?

Rio Hindle
Head of Technical Services, Westcoast Cloud

A full 97% of experienced security analysts said they want to continue using Copilot for Security. What are the features IT teams love most about Copilot, and how are they using them?

How can Westcoast Cloud help MSPs and businesses adopt and succeed with Copilot for Security?

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

Want to stay in the know?

SOLUTIONS

Insights

Partners

Company

Westcoast Cloud

Microsoft Copilot for Security: A Digital Guardian Angel For Businesses Everywhere

Copilot for Security Q&A with Rio Hindle

The security expert that never sleeps

Wow! With cybercrime growing in complexity and frequency, I’m sure IT professionals will welcome this release. Can you tell us more about those ‘deeply layered protocols’?

Rio Hindle Head of Technical Services, Westcoast Cloud

A full 97% of experienced security analysts said they want to continue using Copilot for Security. What are the features IT teams love most about Copilot, and how are they using them?

How can Westcoast Cloud help MSPs and businesses adopt and succeed with Copilot for Security?

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

Want to stay in the know?

SOLUTIONS

Insights

Partners

Company

Rio Hindle
Head of Technical Services, Westcoast Cloud