Vasu Jakkal explains Microsoft’s approach to securing AI and cloud platforms in the agentic era, unveiling integrated security features across Defender, Entra, Purview, Intune, and Sentinel. This news post is essential reading for security and IT professionals navigating rapid advances in AI.

Ambient and Autonomous Security for the Agentic AI Era

By Vasu Jakkal

Overview

As organizations push the boundaries of innovation with AI agents, Microsoft sets out a vision for security that is ambient, autonomous, and deeply integrated from infrastructure to applications and data flows. This article summarizes the major security announcements and technical innovations revealed at Microsoft Ignite 2025, providing actionable insights for security leaders and practitioners.

Key Announcements and Solutions

Microsoft Agent 365

Centralized agent observability and control plane.
Registry: Consolidates the inventory of all agents in use, including identification of shadow agents. Integration with Microsoft Entra Agent ID supports secure agent management.
Access Control: Agent Policy Templates enforce access and security via adaptive Entra policies to mitigate compromised or unauthorized agents.
Visualization: Unified dashboards and advanced analytics map relationships and activities among agents, users, and resources.
Interoperability: Agents act within Microsoft 365 and third-party ecosystems to accelerate business workflows.
Security: Microsoft Defender, Entra, and Purview provide layered threat prevention, vulnerability detection, data loss prevention (DLP), and comprehensive auditing.

Microsoft Foundry Control Plane

Developer experience for managing and securing agent fleets at scale.
Native integrations for unified security controls and compliance across developer and security teams.
Direct publishing of agents to Agent 365 for coordinated IT enablement.

Security Dashboard for AI

Centralized visibility of AI agents, apps, and platforms.
Aggregates signals from Defender, Entra, Purview for CISO-level oversight of compliance and risks.
Real-time correlation of agent posture, flagged incidents, and compliance risks.

Purview Data Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot

Extended DLP, oversharing reports, and automated remediation within Microsoft 365 admin center.
Advanced controls for Teams transcripts and sensitive data in government environments.

Securing Platforms and Cloud

Microsoft Defender + GitHub Advanced Security: End-to-end integration for securing code, infrastructure, and automating fixes with Copilot Autofix.
Baseline Security Mode: Organization-wide secure configuration management to mitigate legacy and AI-driven attack risks.
Intune and Windows Security: Post-quantum cryptography, hardware-accelerated BitLocker, remote management of Windows Recovery, and AI-driven patch compliance.

Agentic Security Platform

Microsoft Sentinel: Evolution into an agentic SIEM/XDR, powering Copilot-driven security automation and predictive defense strategies.
Security Copilot Agents: Integration across Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview for incident response, policy optimization, and threat intelligence.
Defender Predictive Shielding: AI-based forecasts of attacker movement, just-in-time pathway hardening, and business continuity.

Defender Experts Suite and Incident Response

Human-led, AI-powered managed detection, response, and advisory services.
Microsoft is now an approved incident response partner for specialist cyber insurers.

Vision: Security as the Core Primitive

Security is woven into every layer—silicon, operating systems, applications, data, platforms, cloud.
Focus on digital trust, compliance readiness, and proactive, autonomous defense.
Ongoing investments in the Secure Future Initiative as commitment to customers and the ecosystem.

Call to Action

Practitioners are invited to learn more at Microsoft Ignite and through Microsoft’s ongoing security blogs, events, and support channels.

Learn More:

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