In today's ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, security professionals face overwhelming odds. They battle adversaries who are not just prolific but also exceptionally sophisticated. Case in point are these alarming facts:

• Globally, there are an estimated 921 password attacks every second, marking a 74% staggering increase in just one year¹.
• Attacks against remote management devices are on the rise, with more than 100 million attacks observed in May 2022 – a five-fold increase in the past year¹.
• It takes only 1 hour 42 minutes median time for an attacker to begin moving laterally within your corporate network once a device is compromised¹.

While human expertise remains invaluable, the speed, volume, and targeted nature of modern cyber threats have reached unsustainable levels for Security Operations Center (SOC) teams to handle alone. CISOs worldwide echo a common sentiment: an overload of integrations, alerts, threats, and a severe shortage of skilled personnel. In Australia, there is a critical scarcity of job-ready cybersecurity workers, and nearly 17,000 more cybersecurity workers will be needed by the year 2026².

The IT industry requires a paradigm shift in cybersecurity, and this is where artificial intelligence (AI) becomes indispensable. AI offers a solution that augments security professionals with the speed and scalability of machines. It has the potential to detect and disrupt threats in near real-time, enhance incident response investigations, and even prevent attacks before they occur.

In a world where cybersecurity experts are scarce and often overwhelmed, businesses can leverage AI to level the playing field against attackers who exploit traditional advantages, continually adapt new techniques, and contribute to the industrialisation of cybercrime.

With recent breakthroughs in Generative AI (Gen AI), SOC teams can now operate faster and more efficiently by automating repetitive processes. Complex tasks that once required hours to decipher can now be handled instantly with AI. This acceleration is especially crucial for new security analysts, equipping them with capabilities comparable to seasoned professionals.

Microsoft Security Copilot: Revolutionising your Cybersecurity Arsenal

In this age of digital warfare, a Gen AI Microsoft’s Security Copilot promises to be the beacon guiding cybersecurity professionals through the complexity. It's more than a defence mechanism; it’s going to be a powerful offence against relentless and innovative cyber threats. How does it achieve this?

Security Copilot harnesses the might of Gen AI, built upon a foundation of 65 trillion signals meticulously analysed by Microsoft daily. These signals, a testament to Microsoft’s expertise, form the bedrock upon which Security Copilot operates, pursuing breakthroughs driven by their quality and sheer volume. And because it would be the copilot of every Microsoft security product, it will soon provide analysts with a high-power, rich set of tools that can help simplify the complexity across Microsoft Defender and Sentinel with a click of a button. It will allow SOC teams to connect the dots across signals from attacks to determine that they are all part of one big incident. That’s the beauty of an AI-powered, all-in-one security solution!

Security Copilot is not here to replace the human touch in cybersecurity; it’s here to enhance it by³:

1. Streamlining investigations.
   Your SOC teams are often entangled in the investigational loop, deciphering complex scripts and incidences. With Security Copilot, it can unravel these intricacies swiftly and clearly, empowering your team to comprehend scripts and incidents rapidly and enhancing efficiency without compromising accuracy.
   
   
2. Accelerating incident resolution.
   Cybersecurity incidents demand a collaborative effort involving multiple specialists and tools, a process that can stretch over days or even weeks. Using simple, natural language prompts within Security Copilot, it delves into active incidents, offering a plain English summary based on trusted sources like Microsoft Defender and log files. With this functionality, every analyst gains the ability to dissect exploits and understand their intricacies, bridging skillset gaps effortlessly.
   
   
3. Neutralising active threats.
   Security Copilot can help neutralise active threats using its container prompt book, providing analysts with steps on how to manage the threat. With this capability, even a junior analyst can perform the most advanced research or investigation in just a fraction of the time that it would traditionally take them.

AI generally enhances the ability of organisations to detect, prevent, respond to, and recover from cyber threats. With Security Copilot now in preview, your team can explore having an indispensable companion to decipher complexities, enhance efficiency, and empower every analyst in your team, no matter their experience level, to always be one step ahead in the battle for digital safety.

Contact us at Professional Advantage to learn more about how your organisation can start preparing for the new age of fighting cyber threats with Security Copilot.

[1] Microsoft, 2022, Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2022.

[2] AustCyber, 2019, SCP - Chapter 3 - The challenge: Australia needs to fill the workforce gap, remove startup barriers and strengthen research and development.

[3] Microsoft, 2023, The Defender’s Watch: Transforming Security with AI, Video, YouTube.