
USA, Oct 15, 2025
According to Microsoft, 57% of organizations report an increase in security incidents from AI usage.
This is just one of the findings of the Secure Employee Access in the Age of AI report. In it, Microsoft surveyed 300 security leaders to learn how they are tackling novel security challenges and enabling secure AI transformation. Common themes revolved around identity and access management, the need for more collaboration, and new risks introduced with AI.
At the same time, organizations also face escalating security threats against remote workers, cloud services, and endpoints. Attacks are increasing in volume and sophistication, with unauthorized data access emerging as a top security concern for one quarter of organizations.
In this security landscape, it should be no surprise that secure-by-design solutions are fast becoming a baseline expectation. Organizations need productivity tools and platforms that secure and support a hybrid workforce, which is why many teams are adopting integrated, secure platforms such as Microsoft 365 E5.
Understanding Modern Cyber Threats
The security paradox emerges because modern systems, such as AI and hybrid work infrastructure, create novel attack surfaces and novel attack methodologies:
- Prompt injection attacks that manipulate AI behavior
- Data leaks through model training
- Deepfake videos, voice, and chat
- Insecure devices, apps, and AI
- Fragmented infrastructure that creates security gaps
Traditional security approaches fail because they weren't designed to counter these types of threats. Fortunately, although Microsoft has alerted us to these concerns, they have also announced strategies to help address these challenges.
Microsoft's Plan to Secure Modern Work, from Office to Cloud
Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative (SFI) tackles these challenges through a comprehensive cybersecurity program designed to improve the security of Microsoft’s products, services, and operations across onsite, cloud, and hybrid work environments.
Three principles anchor Microsoft's approach to the SFI:
- Secure by design. Security comes first when designing any product or service.
- Secure by default. Security protections are enabled and enforced by default, require no extra effort, and aren’t optional.
- Secure operations. Security controls and monitoring will be continuously improved to meet current and future cyberthreats.
The initiative goes further, with a comprehensive set of foundational concepts and pillars that are built on people, process, and technology working in harmony.
The SFI pillars include the goals and actions that define Microsoft's approach to security:
- Protecting identity and secrets
- Protecting tenants and isolate systems
- Protecting networks
- Protecting engineering systems
- Monitoring and detecting cyber threats
- Accelerating response and remediation
These pillars target threats from credential theft, legacy infrastructure, supply chain attacks, lateral movement between tenants, and more. Specialized security “patterns and practices” released under SFI provide actionable guidance for a range of real-world tech scenarios.
Since its inception, the initiative has achieved measurable results including:
- 92% of employee accounts using phishing-resistant MFA
- 6.3 million tenant removals to reduce attack surface
- 99%+ network asset inventory with enhanced security standards
Alongside this advanced security framework, Microsoft also offers several solutions that help organizations fight modern threats with a suite of integrated security tools.
How to Fight Fire with Fire
Organizations are increasingly adopting Microsoft 365 E5 as their comprehensive security and productivity platform. With one unified platform, teams can retire multiple point solutions that addresses both the complexity challenge and the need for modern threat protection.
Microsoft's security portfolio offers a complete set of solutions to help organizations stay protected in the era of AI:
Microsoft Defender XDR serves as the centerpiece of Microsoft 365 E5’s consolidated security approach. It offers unified threat protection across endpoints, email, applications, and identity from a single console, enabling security teams to correlate anomalies with broader attack patterns across the entire environment.
Microsoft Security Copilot represents one of Microsoft's flagship products designed to address AI-related security concerns. To date, it processes trillions of signals per day, defends against thousands of password attacks per second, and detects 30+ billion phishing emails annually.
Microsoft Sentinel SIEM is a modern, comprehensive SIEM solution built on the cloud and enriched by AI to rapidly uncover sophisticated cyberthreats and respond at machine speed. According to a report by Forrester, it delivers 234% ROI over three years, with 93% reduction in deployment time, and 79% reduction in false positives.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection leverages advanced machine learning algorithms and Microsoft's vast threat intelligence network to detect and address identity-based risks in real-time, including anonymous IP usage, password spray attacks, leaked credentials, and unusual user behavior patterns. When integrated with the M365 E5 ecosystem, Entra ID Protection shares threat intelligence and identity signals across all Microsoft security tools which helps to create a more unified defense posture.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud AI Workload Protection provides real-time threat detection for generative AI applications by acting as an intelligent prompt guard between user inputs and AI models. It integrates Azure AI Content Safety Prompt Shields with Microsoft's threat intelligence to detect and block attacks including data leakage, data poisoning, jailbreaking, and credential theft attempts before they reach the underlying AI model.
Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI offers comprehensive AI data governance across Microsoft 365 Copilot and third-party AI applications. Real-time data classification, policy violation monitoring, and actionable security insights can block sensitive content in AI prompts and responses, while maintaining detailed audit trails for compliance with emerging AI regulations.
These solutions, integrate within the Microsoft 365 E5 platform, represent a fundamental shift in security architecture. Rather than managing separate tools from multiple vendors with separate consoles and policies, teams can deploy a unified security fabric built atop shared intelligence .
The Path to a More Secure Modern Workplace
The path to a secure workplace requires more than an extra point solution, it requires a forward-thinking, comprehensive approach to security built atop unified, modern platforms. Solutions such as the Microsoft 365 E5 suite address this need by combining advanced threat protection with simplified management and reduced vendor complexity.
Logicalis, a global Managed Service Provider and Microsoft Partner, helps organizations stay ahead of threats with the Microsoft Security portfolio. From alignment to transformation, scaling, and optimization, we help clients move from "reactive" security to proactive, adaptable solutions that suit their specific circumstances.
To learn more about security solutions for Logicalis, check out our security blogs and the security page on the Logicalis Content Hub.