A CISO's Guide to Securing AI - Securing AI for Federal, DIB, and DoW Entities
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping federal missions, defense operations, and critical infrastructure. From intelligence analysis to logistics and cyber defense, AI’s transformative power is undeniable. Yet, with great power comes great responsibility and risk.Join Microsoft at IACP 2025: Empower public safety operations with trusted AI
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Annual Conference and Exposition is the premier global event for law enforcement leaders, bringing together more than 16,000 public safety professionals. This year, IACP 2025 takes place October 18–22 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, and Microsoft is proud to be part of the conversation. As your trusted partner in public safety innovation, we invite you to connect with us at booth #362 to discover how Microsoft and our ecosystem of partners are helping agencies modernize operations, improve decision-making, and build safer communities through trusted AI. Microsoft’s presence at IACP 2025 centers around three key pillars that reflect the evolving needs of law enforcement and public safety agencies: Empower the government workforce Streamline workflows with secure AI copilots, enhance collaboration across departments, and boost efficiency with intuitive digital tools. Enable AI-driven decision making Accelerate officer workflows with real-time insights and unify data to support faster, more informed decisions. Transform emergency response Modernize communications, integrate systems for real-time situational awareness, and automate operations to improve coordination and outcomes. Experience Innovation Firsthand At booth #362, attendees can explore hands-on demos of Microsoft solutions including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Researcher and Analyst agents, and Copilot Studio agents tailored for first responders. These tools are designed to help agencies work smarter, respond faster, and serve communities more effectively. You’ll also have the opportunity to connect with our partners, Altia, DisasterTech, Insight, Pimloc, Remark, Revelen.AI, Triangula, and Zencos who are showcasing their solutions that support officer workflows, evidence management, reporting, and analytics. Don’t miss the Emergency Response Platform vehicle demo, supported by Darley, Dejero, and 3AM which highlights how AI and real-time data can transform field operations and emergency response at the tactical edge. Attend Our Thought Leadership Session Join us for a featured education session in the Leadership Track: Is "Technology Sharing" the Key to Law Enforcement Innovation? 📅 Saturday, October 18 🕤 9:30 – 10:30 AM MT 📍 Room 505/506 This session explores how collaborative platforms and shared technology models can reduce costs, accelerate deployment, and improve outcomes across jurisdictions, offering a blueprint for scalable innovation. Let’s Connect We’d love to meet with you one-on-one to discuss your agency’s goals and challenges. Request a meeting with a Microsoft expert to explore how AI and cloud technologies can support your mission. Visit Microsoft at booth #362 to explore AI-powered public safety solutions and skilling opportunities. Together, we can build safer, more resilient communities through innovation.Understanding Compliance Between Commercial, Government, DoD & Secret Offerings - July 2025 Update
Understanding compliance between Commercial, Government, DoD & Secret Offerings: There remains much confusion as to what service supports what standards best. If you have CMMC, DFARS, ITAR, FedRAMP, CJIS, IRS and other regulatory requirements and you are trying to understand what service is the best fit for your organization then you should read this article.AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Study Guide
The AZ-500 certification provides professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to secure Azure infrastructure, services, and data. The exam covers identity and access management, data protection, platform security, and governance in Azure. Learners can prepare for the exam with Microsoft's self-paced curriculum, instructor-led course, and documentation. The certification measures the learner’s knowledge of managing, monitoring, and implementing security for resources in Azure, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Azure Firewall, Key Vault, and Azure Active Directory are some of the topics covered in the exam.Responsible AI and the Evolution of AI Security
Why Responsible AI Matters Responsible AI means designing, developing, and deploying AI systems that are ethical, transparent, and accountable. It's not just about compliance—it's about building trust, protecting users, and ensuring AI benefits everyone. Key Principles of Responsible AI: Fairness: Avoiding biases and discrimination by using diverse datasets and regular audits. Reliability & Safety: Rigorous testing to ensure AI performs as intended, even in unexpected scenarios. Privacy & Security: Protecting user data with robust safeguards. Transparency: Making AI decisions explainable and understandable. Accountability: Establishing governance to address negative impacts. Inclusiveness: Considering diverse user needs and perspectives. Responsible AI reduces bias, increases transparency, and builds user trust—critical as AI systems increasingly impact finance, healthcare, public services, and more. Implementing Responsible AI isn't just about ethical ideals—it's a foundation that demands technical safeguards. For developers, this means translating principles like fairness and transparency into secure code, robust data handling, and model hardening strategies that preempt real-world AI threats. The Evolution of AI Security: From Afterthought to Essential AI security has come a long way—from an afterthought to a central pillar of modern digital defense. In the early days, security was reactive, with threats addressed only after damage occurred. The integration of AI shifted this paradigm, enabling proactive threat detection and behavioral analytics that spot anomalies before they escalate. Key Milestones in AI Security: Pattern Recognition: Early AI focused on detecting unusual patterns, laying the groundwork for threat detection. Expert Systems: Rule-based systems in the 1970s-80s emulated human decision-making for security assessments. Machine Learning: The late 1990s saw the rise of ML algorithms that could analyze vast data and predict threats. Deep Learning: Neural networks now recognize complex threats and adapt to evolving attack methods. Real-Time Defense: Modern AI-driven platforms (like Darktrace) create adaptive, self-learning security environments that anticipate and neutralize threats proactively. Why AI Security Is Now Mandatory With the explosion of AI-powered applications and cloud services, security risks have multiplied. AI attacks are a new frontier in cybersecurity. What Are AI Attacks? AI attacks are malicious activities that target AI systems and models. Data Poisoning: Attackers manipulate training data to corrupt AI outputs. Model Theft: Sensitive models and datasets can be stolen or reverse-engineered. Adversarial Attacks: Malicious inputs can trick AI systems into making wrong decisions. Privacy Breaches: Sensitive user data can leak if not properly protected. Regulatory frameworks and industry standards now require organizations to adopt robust AI security practices to protect users, data, and critical infrastructure. Tools and Techniques for Secure AI Infrastructure and Applications Zero Trust Architecture Adopt a "never trust, always verify" approach. Enforce strict authentication and authorization for every user and device Data Security Protocols Encrypt data at rest, in transit, and during processing. Use tools like Microsoft Purview for data classification, cataloging, and access control Harden AI Models Train models with adversarial examples. Implement input validation, anomaly detection, and regular security assessments Secure API and Endpoint Management Use API gateways, OAuth 2.0, and TLS to secure endpoints. Monitor and rate-limit API access to prevent abuse. Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response Deploy AI-powered Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems for real-time threat detection and response Regularly audit logs and security events across your infrastructure. DevSecOps Integration Embed security into every phase of the AI development lifecycle. Automate security testing in CI/CD pipelines. Employee Training and Governance Train teams on AI-specific risks and responsible data handling. Establish clear governance frameworks for AI ethics and compliance Azure-Specific Security Tools Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Monitors and protects Azure resources. Azure Resource Graph Explorer: Maintains inventory of models, data, and assets. Microsoft Purview: Manages data security, privacy, and compliance across Azure services. Microsoft Purview provides a centralized platform for data governance, security, and compliance across your entire data estate. Why Microsoft Purview Matters for Responsible AI Microsoft Purview offers a unified, cloud-native solution for: Data discovery and classification Access management and policy enforcement Compliance monitoring and risk mitigation Data quality and observability Purview's integrated approach ensures that AI systems are built on trusted, well-governed, and secure data, addressing the core principles of responsible AI: fairness, transparency, privacy, and accountability. Conclusion Responsible AI and strong AI security measures are no longer optional; they are essential pillars of modern application development and integration on Azure. By adhering to ethical principles and utilizing cutting-edge security tools and strategies, organizations can drive innovation with confidence while safeguarding users, data, and the broader society.Seamless and Secure Access to Digital Healthcare Records with Microsoft Entra Suite
Healthcare professionals who dedicate their skills to saving lives must also manage operational and safety challenges inherent to their roles. If you’re in charge of cybersecurity for a healthcare organization, you’re intimately familiar with the need to comply with government healthcare regulations that, for example, require securing access to systems that house patient health information (PHI), are used for overseeing controlled substances, or are necessary to enable the secure consumption of AI. Every year, hundreds of U.S. healthcare institutions fall victim to ransomware attacks, resulting in network closures and critical systems going offline, not to mention delayed medical operations and appointments.[i] Sensitive healthcare systems are very attractive targets for cyberattacks and internal misuse. Many cybercriminals gain initial access by compromising identities. Thus, the first line of defense against bad actors, whether internal or external, is to protect identities and to closely govern access permissions based on Zero Trust principles: Verify explicitly. Confirm that the individual signing into a system used to electronically prescribe controlled substances is actually the care provider they say they are. Use least privilege access. Limit a care giver’s access to systems they need to use for their job Assume breach. Discover unauthorized access and block it before an adversary can deploy ransomware. This blog is the first in a series of how Microsoft Entra Suite and the power of cloud-based security tools can protect access to sensitive healthcare assets while improving the user experience for care teams and staff. On-premises healthcare applications and cloud-based security Some of the most widely adopted healthcare applications, such as electronic health records (EHRs), began decades ago as on-premises solutions that used LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and Active Directory to authenticate users. As enterprises shifted from on-premises networks protected by firewalls at the network perimeter to hybrid environments that enabled “anytime, anywhere access,” these solutions became vulnerable to attackers who gained unauthorized access to hospital networks via the Internet. Cloud-based security tools introduced advantages such as centralized visibility and control, continuous monitoring, automated threat detection and response, and advanced threat intelligence based on trillions of security signals. Many existing healthcare applications, however, didn’t support the new protocols necessary to take advantage of all these benefits. Over the past several years, Microsoft has worked closely with software vendors to integrate their applications with our comprehensive identity security platform, Entra ID—which is built on modern open security standards. As a result, many healthcare applications, including the most widely deployed EHR systems, can now benefit from the advanced security capabilities available through Microsoft Entra Suite, including single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA), Conditional Access, Identity Protection, and Network Protection. Securing access to healthcare applications with Microsoft Entra Suite Healthcare organizations can standardize on Microsoft Entra to enable single sign-on (SSO) to their most commonly used Healthcare applications and resources, including the most widely used EHR vendors, whether they’re on-premises or in clouds from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, or Oracle. Care teams, who may use dozens of different applications during their workday, benefit from seamless and secure access to all their resources with Microsoft’s built-in advanced identity and network security controls. Not only does Microsoft Entra offer a holistic view of all users and their access permissions, but it also employs a centralized access policy engine, called Conditional Access, that combines trillions of signals from multiple sources, including identities and devices, to detect anomalous user behavior, assess risk, and make real-time access and data protection decisions that adhere to regulatory mandates and Zero Trust principles. In simple terms, this enables controls that verify who a user is and what device they are using – including when using kiosks, remote, or many-to-one workstations - to decide if it is safe to enable access. This ability to support modern authentication successfully maps the clinicians to their cloud identity and in turn, unlocks powerful user-based models for data protection with Microsoft Purview. With Microsoft Entra, healthcare organizations can enforce MFA at the application level for more granular control. They can strengthen security by requiring phishing-resistant authentication for staff, contractors, and partners, and by evaluating device health before authorizing access to resources. They can even require additional verification steps for IT admins performing sensitive actions. Moreover, Microsoft Entra ID Protection processes a vast array of signals to identify suspicious behaviors that may indicate an identity compromise. It can raise risk levels to trigger risk-based Conditional Access policies that protect users and resources from unauthorized access. For more details about risk detections in Entra ID Protection, visit our documentation. Seamless and secure access for healthcare professionals Integrating applications with Microsoft Entra ID makes it possible for healthcare professionals to work more securely with fewer disruptions when they access medical records and treat patients, even when they’re working offsite, such as at a patient’s home or as part of a mobile medical unit. Microsoft Entra supports the strict protocols for electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). The EPCS mandate requires that healthcare providers authenticate their identities before they can prescribe controlled substances electronically. This means that each provider must have a unique user identity that can be verified through secure methods such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This helps prevent unauthorized access and ensures that only authorized individuals can issue prescriptions. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) also has specific obligations for access and identity to ensure the security and privacy of protected health information (PHI). Microsoft Entra Suite has a variety of controls to help meet these obligations that we will explore in additional blogs. Phishing-resistant authentication methods, which rely on biometrics and hardware tokens, significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data. These methods, which include passkeys, are practically impossible for cybercriminals to compromise, unlike passwords or SMS-based MFA. By eliminating passwords altogether, healthcare providers can better protect patient data, reduce the risk of violating HIPAA regulations, and prevent cyber and ransomware attacks that could disrupt healthcare operations. You can experience the benefits of Microsoft Entra ID, MFA, Conditional Access, and Entra ID Protection as part of the Microsoft Entra Suite, the industry’s most comprehensive Zero Trust access solution for the workforce. The Microsoft Entra Suite provides everything needed to verify users, prevent overprivileged permissions, improve detections, and enforce granular access controls for all users and resources. Get started with the Microsoft Entra Suite with a free 90-day trial. For additional details, please reach out to your Microsoft Representative. Read more on this topic Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS) - Azure Compliance | Microsoft Learn Conditional Access adaptive session lifetime policies - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn Overview of Microsoft Entra authentication strength - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn Microsoft Entra ID Epic Connector – Edgile Use data connectors to import and archive third-party data in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn Learn more about Microsoft Entra Prevent identity attacks, ensure least privilege access, unify access controls, and improve the experience for users with comprehensive identity and network access solutions across on-premises and clouds. Microsoft Entra News and Insights | Microsoft Security Blog Microsoft Entra blog | Tech Community Microsoft Entra documentation | Microsoft Learn Microsoft Entra discussions | Microsoft Community [i] Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024: The foundations and new frontiers of cybersecurity. p.3. Microsoft, October 2024.
