Advanced Security Measures: Microsoft Purview Utilizes AI for Data Governance

The rapid evolution of digital and cloud technologies has propelled an exponential surge in data growth in recent years. This transformation has extended beyond conventional business boundaries, manifesting in diverse cloud environments, varied devices, and on-premises solutions where data is now housed. This paradigm shift, driven by a soaring migration to the cloud and the advent of hybrid work models, has dispersed data access across myriad locations, blurring the lines between corporate networks and external realms.

The intricate landscape of modern data storage, spanning numerous cloud infrastructures, platforms, and services adopted by over 90% of organizations, has introduced a labyrinth of complexities in data security. Microsoft Purview emerges as a solution adept at fortifying and regulating your entire data estate amidst this intricate and evolving milieu.

Moreover, as enterprises embark on AI-driven transformations to propel innovation, the symbiotic relationship between data and generative AI applications necessitates meticulous consideration. The implications of implementing AI remain partially veiled, forewarning an imminent era of stringent regulatory measures.

Projections by Gartner hint at the prospect of AI deployments facing prohibition due to nonconformity with data protection and AI governance statutes by 2027, illuminating the impending catalyst for regulatory modifications.

Converging these pivotal trends requires a comprehensive approach to safeguarding and administering data. This entails securing and governing diverse data types—structured, unstructured, and AI-generated—across multiple cloud platforms while adhering to current and forthcoming regulations governing data security, governance, and AI.

Organizations struggle with an average of 59 data security incidents annually, relying on ten disparate solutions to fortify their data estate. This fragmented approach necessitates a cumbersome integration of tools, fostering elevated costs and procurement complexities. The lack of integration among these disparate solutions precipitates redundant data transfers, multiple data copies, isolated investigations, and security blind spots, engendering new data risks and compromised security outcomes.

Streamline Data Security, Governance, and Compliance with Microsoft Purview

Amidst the intricate landscape of modern data management, a pressing need emerges for a streamlined approach to fortify data security, enforce governance, and ensure compliance across the entire data spectrum. Microsoft Purview emerges as an integrated solution designed to offer a comprehensive suite of functionalities, facilitating a unified and efficient experience for our clientele.

Microsoft Purview, enterprises can harness a multitude of advantages:

1. End-to-End Visibility: Gain a holistic view and comprehensive understanding of the complete data estate. This spans on-premises infrastructure, diverse multi-cloud environments, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms. It encompasses managing structured, unstructured, and generated data generated by generative AI applications.
2. Comprehensive Data Protection: Employ robust data protection mechanisms leveraging AI-powered data classification technology. Benefit from data maps, extensive audit logs, and signals seamlessly integrated into a cohesive management experience.
3. Enhanced Risk and Compliance Management: Use tools embedded within Microsoft Purview to elevate your risk and compliance posture. These tools aid in identifying data risks while facilitating the management of regulatory requirements and ensuring adherence to pertinent standards and directives.

Latest Updates in Microsoft Purview

Expanding Data Protection Across the Data Estate

Microsoft Purview continues its evolution in fortifying data protection, extending its reach across the entire data landscape. The recent advancements unveiled at Microsoft Ignite 2023 encompass the following:

1. Unified Platform for Data Discovery and Classification: A singular platform enabling the discovery, labeling, and classification of data sourced from diverse environments such as Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and various other cloud ecosystems.
2. Consistent Protections for Structured and Unstructured Data: Ensuring uniform safeguards for data types spanning Azure SQL, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), and Amazon S3 buckets.
3. Expanded Risk Detections: Amplifying risk identification by incorporating signals from infrastructure clouds and third-party applications like AWS, Box, Dropbox, and GitHub.

These capabilities allow comprehensive visibility, enabling consistent controls and ensuring robust protection and compliance adherence across the extensive digital terrain. For instance, users can seamlessly scan and label data in Azure SQL, Azure Data Lake Storage, and Amazon S3 buckets, implementing policies that restrict sensitive data access based on data labels or user roles—orchestrated from a unified control plane akin to managing Microsoft 365 sources. Refer to the “Expanding Data Protection” blog for further insights.

Securing AI with Microsoft Purview

In its commitment to fortify data governance across all fronts, Microsoft Purview introduces pioneering measures to secure data within generative AI applications. Encompassing a broad spectrum—ranging from Microsoft Copilots to custom organizational AI apps and over 100 commonly utilized consumer AI applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Bing Chat—these capabilities comprise:

1. Comprehensive Visibility into Generative AI App Usage: Insights into sensitive data usage within AI prompts and overall user interaction with AI, facilitated through previewing an AI hub in Microsoft Purview.
2. Extensive Protection and Compliance Controls: Offering preconfigured and customizable policies to avert data loss in AI prompts and safeguard AI responses. These measures encompass sensitivity label citation, inheritance functionalities when engaging with Copilot for Microsoft 365, and preventing users from pasting sensitive data in consumer generative AI apps.
3. Compliance Management for Copilot for Microsoft 365: Equipping enterprises with compliance management capabilities aligned with Copilot for Microsoft 365, grounded in Microsoft’s security, compliance, privacy, and responsible AI framework. These capabilities are readily available to bolster data security and compliance for Copilot. Refer to the “Securing AI with Microsoft Purview” blog for comprehensive details.

Supercharge Security and Compliance with Microsoft Security Copilot in Microsoft Purview

Microsoft Purview now integrates capabilities from Microsoft Security Copilot, empowering Security Operations Center (SOC) teams, data security units, and compliance divisions to address critical hurdles. This integration appears in two key facets:

1. Microsoft Purview Capabilities in Security Copilot: Providing enhanced insights across security data, identifying data assets targeted in incidents and users involved for a comprehensive incident overview. This capability aids in scenarios like ransomware attacks, pinpointing attack origins and affected sensitive files.
2. Security Copilot Embedded in Microsoft Purview Solutions: Embedding Security Copilot into Microsoft Purview solutions for real-time guidance, summarization capabilities, and natural language support, enhancing investigation efficacy. These capabilities augment investigation workflows in various scenarios, from Data Loss Prevention to Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance, and eDiscovery. Each integration offers distinct benefits, such as summarizing alerts, providing contextual summaries of communications/documents, and facilitating natural language queries in eDiscovery.

Additional Enhancements in Microsoft Purview

 Communications Compliance Capabilities

Microsoft Purview introduces advanced capabilities within Communication Compliance, elevating the detection prowess within Copilot for Microsoft 365. This enhancement facilitates identifying and flagging risky communications irrespective of their origin—be it Outlook, Microsoft Teams, or other Microsoft applications. Noteworthy features include:

• Precise Identification of Risks: Unveiling patterns, keywords, and sensitive data types within investigative scenarios to enhance detection precision.
• Policy Management and Privacy Protection: Administrators gain nuanced controls for policy creation and user privacy, fortifying management strategies for secure, compliant, and respectful communications.
• Integration with Security Copilot: A synergy that fortifies data security and regulatory adherence, providing succinct contextual summaries for expedited investigation and remediation.

Information Protection Advancements

Amidst the rise in the adoption of generative AI tools, information protection within Microsoft’s Purview assumes heightened importance. Key updates encompass:

• Advanced Classification and Labeling: Intelligent capabilities for advanced classification and labeling on an enterprise scale, offering contextual support for trainable classifiers and improved visibility.
• Enhanced Collaboration and Support: Better protection for crucial PDF files, secure collaboration on labeled and encrypted documents with user-defined permissions, and extended support for Microsoft Fabric, Azure, and third-party clouds.

Data Loss Prevention (Purview DLP) Advancements

The latest enhancements in Purview DLP are categorized into three pivotal areas:

1. Efficient Investigation: Empowering administrators with enriched DLP alerts, analytics aiding in risk identification, and recommendations for policy refinement.
2. Strengthened Protection: Encompassing varied data types and granular policy controls, including predicate consistency, improvements in endpoint protection, OCR support, and policy enforcement enhancements.
3. Expanded Protection Scope: Extending protection to encompass diverse digital estates, incorporating support for Windows on ARM, macOS endpoints, and performance improvements.

Insider Risk Management and Adaptive Protection

To bolster data security in multifaceted digital landscapes, announcements at Microsoft Ignite focused on Insider Risk Management and Adaptive Protection:

• Enhanced Detection Across Digital Estates: Insider Risk Management extends its detection capabilities to critical data security risks from insiders within AWS, Azure, and various SaaS applications.
• Adaptive Data Security and Response: Providing user context from DLP incident detection to response, facilitating better decision-making for security teams. Additionally, leveraging human resources resignation dates to define risk levels enhances Adaptive Protection.
• Streamlined Admin Experience: Supported admin units, recommended policy fine-tuning actions, and received high-fidelity alerts for improved policy management within Insider Risk Management.

FAQs

1. How does Purview secure AI-generated data and ensure compliance with regulations?
Purview offers comprehensive visibility into AI applications, including insights into sensitive data usage and compliance controls to prevent data loss within AI prompts. It aligns with Microsoft’s security, compliance, privacy, and responsible AI framework.

2. What are the specific features in Purview’s Communication Compliance that enhance risk detection and policy management?
Communication Compliance in Purview aids in identifying patterns, keywords, and sensitive data within communications, offering nuanced policy controls for risk detection, user privacy, and regulatory compliance across various communication platforms like Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

3. How does Purview enable secure collaboration and protection for encrypted documents across cloud environments?
Purview’s Information Protection features ensure advanced data classification and labeling, allowing secure collaboration on labeled and encrypted documents across Microsoft Fabric, Azure, and third-party cloud ecosystems.

4. In what ways does Microsoft Purview contribute to Insider Risk Management and adaptive data protection?
Purview’s Insider Risk Management capabilities extend detection to critical data security risks within AWS, Azure, and various SaaS applications. It enables adaptive protection by leveraging data insights for enhanced response and decision-making by security teams.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]