AI agents are reshaping the security landscape, introducing new opportunities and risks for organizations worldwide. With predictions of over 1.3 billion AI agents in use by 2028, their rapid and widespread adoption is creating a vast, complex attack surface. Many new AI builders, empowered by pro-code, low-code, and no-code platforms, may lack deep security experience, increasing the potential for vulnerabilities.
Unified Protection for a Changing Threat Landscape
Microsoft is addressing these emerging challenges by introducing advanced AI agent security capabilities in Microsoft Defender, now available in preview within Microsoft Agent 365. This solution provides posture management and threat protection for AI agents, whether built in professional environments like Microsoft Foundry or on accessible platforms such as Copilot Studio. Security is woven throughout the entire AI agent lifecycle, ensuring new and existing assets remain protected.
Centralized Visibility: No More Shadow Agents
Security teams gain a comprehensive, risk-based inventory of all AI agents across platforms. Microsoft Defender aggregates essential metadata, instructions, agent identities, and connected tools in one unified portal. This approach eliminates the risk of "shadow agents"—unmanaged or untracked AI assets by integrating posture, alerts, and responses in a single, streamlined view.
Reducing Risk with Proactive Posture Management
Defender identifies misconfigurations, excessive permissions, and risky instructions that could put AI agents in jeopardy. With posture recommendations and attack path analysis, organizations receive actionable insights into vulnerabilities.
These tools help security teams understand how weaknesses in agents, such as those developed on Microsoft Foundry, could escalate to broader risks. Pre-built advanced hunting queries also allow for swift identification and remediation of vulnerabilities in Copilot Studio agents before bad actors can exploit them.
Targeted Threat Protection for New AI Risks
Unlike traditional security tools, Microsoft Defender is designed to handle threats unique to AI agents such as prompt injection and privilege compromise. It now delivers real-time monitoring and blocking of unsafe tool usage, and can alert teams to jailbreak attempts within Copilot Studio agents.
These threat signals are correlated with Microsoft’s broader threat intelligence, enabling deep incident-level insights and rapid, coordinated responses. Similar protections for Microsoft Foundry agents are on the horizon.
Enhanced Threat Hunting and Seamless Integration
Defender expands threat hunting capabilities by incorporating logs from Copilot Studio, Azure Foundry, and even third-party agent platforms through the A365 SDK. This connectivity gives security teams richer context when investigating AI-specific threats. Integrations with Microsoft Sentinel and GitHub Advanced Security embed AI agent security within broader DevOps and cloud operations, supporting end-to-end protection.
Key Use Cases for Modern Organizations
- Unified asset management: Achieve cross-platform visibility to eliminate shadow agents and centralize oversight.
- Proactive risk reduction: Use posture recommendations and attack-path analysis to prioritize and resolve vulnerabilities.
- Advanced threat protection: Monitor AI agent activity, block prompt injections, and leverage integrated signals for incident management.
Why Microsoft Defender Leads in AI Security
Microsoft Defender stands out by offering comprehensive protection across the entire AI stack, from underlying models and agents to SaaS applications and cloud infrastructure. Its unified platform correlates posture, attack paths, and alerts across endpoints, identities, and applications. This holistic approach reduces complexity, accelerates response, and empowers security teams to manage the evolving threat landscape with confidence.
Secure Your AI Journey
As organizations scale their use of AI agents, Microsoft’s commitment is clear: help customers start secure and stay secure. Continuous innovation and integration across the Defender ecosystem equip organizations to address both current and future AI security challenges. For deeper insights and live demonstrations, Microsoft encourages attendance at upcoming Ignite sessions and active engagement with Defender’s latest features.
Securing the Future: How Microsoft Defender Protects Your AI Agents