Securing Copilot for M365

In terms of GenAI tools, ChatGPT leads the way with over 200 million weekly active users. Though some consumers may be more familiar with it as Bing Chat, Copilot activity represents a small fraction of users by comparison.

But that gap may be closing soon. An estimated 400 million registered users turn to Microsoft’s M365 suite of applications to get work done. Microsoft sells Copilot for M365 as an add-on to an organization’s M365 license. 

From a user perspective, being able to access the Copilot AI assistant from directly within core Microsoft productivity apps is a solid pitch. But that integration also means Copilot can access large amounts of data tied to users’ emails, calendars and documents that they either create or need to access to get their jobs done. As such, organizations need to prioritize Copilot security since it means data needs to be protected in lots more channels.

Forcepoint’s Approach to Copilot Data Security 

DSPM plays a key role in how Forcepoint secures Copilot for M365. It uses AI Mesh to augment Microsoft’s MPIP tagging.  Check out Kevin’s blog post for more details on how that works. But it’s worth noting that solving for data classification only solves part of the equation.

Forcepoint ONE Data Security is a cloud-native DLP solution designed for the modern enterprise. It extends the capability of our award-winning DLP to SaaS apps, the web, endpoint devices and email. That means administrators can leverage a library of over 1,700 pre-defined classifiers, templates and policies. Out-of-the-box compliance policies for over 150 regions and 90 countries ensure privacy compliance anywhere in the world. And we make it easy to unify all your data security policies so you can enforce them across multiple channels—all administered from a modern, intuitive management console.

Where DSPM effectively prepares files for safe use in Copilot, Forcepoint ONE Data Security provides real-time control of it. See below: 

Stay Tuned for Microsoft’s Wave 2 Copilot Event Next Week

We’ll be tuning in via LinkedIn Live on September 16 to see what Microsoft has planned for the next phase of Copilot for M365. As Microsoft introduces new Copilot for M365 features and functionality, I’ll be sure to blog more about this topic in more detail.  

Interested in hearing more about how Forcepoint ONE Data Security can help secure Copilot data across multiple channels? Talk to an expert to learn more.