I built a free, open-source M365 security assessment tool - looking for feedback
I work as an IT consultant, and a good chunk of my time is spent assessing Microsoft 365 environments for small and mid-sized businesses. Every engagement started the same way: connect to five different PowerShell modules, run dozens of commands across Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender, SharePoint, and Teams, manually compare each setting against CIS benchmarks, then spend hours assembling everything into a report the client could actually read. The tools that automate this either cost thousands per year, require standing up Azure infrastructure just to run, or only cover one service area. I wanted something simpler: one command that connects, assesses, and produces a client-ready deliverable. So I built it. What M365 Assess does https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess is a PowerShell-based security assessment tool that runs against a Microsoft 365 tenant and produces a comprehensive set of reports. Here is what you get from a single run: 57 automated security checks aligned to the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark v6.0.1, covering Entra ID, Exchange Online, Defender for Office 365, SharePoint Online, and Teams 12 compliance frameworks mapped simultaneously -- every finding is cross-referenced against NIST 800-53, NIST CSF 2.0, ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS v4.0.1, CMMC 2.0, CISA SCuBA, and DISA STIG (plus CIS profiles for E3 L1/L2 and E5 L1/L2) 20+ CSV exports covering users, mailboxes, MFA status, admin roles, conditional access policies, mail flow rules, device compliance, and more A self-contained HTML report with an executive summary, severity badges, sortable tables, and a compliance overview dashboard -- no external dependencies, fully base64-encoded, just open it in any browser or email it directly The entire assessment is read-only. It never modifies tenant settings. Only Get-* cmdlets are used. A few things I'm proud of Real-time progress in the console. As the assessment runs, you see each check complete with live status indicators and timing. No staring at a blank terminal wondering if it hung. The HTML report is a single file. Logos, backgrounds, fonts -- everything is embedded. You can email the report as an attachment and it renders perfectly. It supports dark mode (auto-detects system preference), and all tables are sortable by clicking column headers. Compliance framework mapping. This was the feature that took the most work. The compliance overview shows coverage percentages across all 12 frameworks, with drill-down to individual controls. Each finding links back to its CIS control ID and maps to every applicable framework control. Pass/Fail detail tables. Each security check shows the CIS control reference, what was checked, what the expected value is, what the actual value is, and a clear Pass/Fail/Warning status. Findings include remediation descriptions to help prioritize fixes. Quick start If you want to try it out, it takes about 5 minutes to get running: # Install prerequisites (if you don't have them already) Install-Module Microsoft.Graph, ExchangeOnlineManagement -Scope CurrentUser Clone and run git clone https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess.git cd M365-Assess .\Invoke-M365Assessment.ps1 The interactive wizard walks you through selecting assessment sections, entering your tenant ID, and choosing an authentication method (interactive browser login, certificate-based, or pre-existing connections). Results land in a timestamped folder with all CSVs and the HTML report. Requires PowerShell 7.x and runs on Windows (macOS and Linux are experimental -- I would love help testing those platforms). Cloud support M365 Assess works with: Commercial (global) tenants GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments If you work in government cloud, the tool handles the different endpoint URIs automatically. What is next This is actively maintained and I have a roadmap of improvements: More automated checks -- 140 CIS v6.0.1 controls are tracked in the registry, with 57 automated today. Expanding coverage is the top priority. Remediation commands -- PowerShell snippets and portal steps for each finding, so you can fix issues directly from the report. XLSX compliance matrix -- A spreadsheet export for audit teams who need to work in Excel. Standalone report regeneration -- Re-run the report from existing CSV data without re-assessing the tenant. I would love your feedback I have been building this for my own consulting work, but I think it could be useful to the broader community. If you try it, I would genuinely appreciate hearing: What checks should I prioritize next? Which security controls matter most in your environment? What compliance frameworks are most requested by your clients or auditors? How does the report land with non-technical stakeholders? Is the executive summary useful, or does it need work? macOS/Linux users -- does it run? What breaks? I have tested it on macOS, but not extensively. Bug reports, feature requests, and contributions are all welcome on GitHub. Repository: https://github.com/Daren9m/M365-Assess License: MIT (free for commercial and personal use) Runtime: PowerShell 7.x Thanks for reading. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.
Optimizing OneDrive Retention Policies with Administrative Units and Adaptive Scopes
A special thank you note to Ashwini_Anand for contributing to the content of this blog. In today's digital landscape, efficient data retention management is a critical priority for organizations of all sizes. Organizations can optimize their OneDrive retention policies, ensuring efficient and compliant data management tailored to their unique user base and licensing arrangements. Scenario: Contoso Org encountered a distinct challenge - managing data retention for their diverse user base of 200,000 employees, which includes 80,000 users with F3 licenses and 120,000 users with E3 and E5 licenses. As per Microsoft licensing, F3 users are allocated only 2 GB of OneDrive storage, whereas E3 and E5 users are provided with a much larger allocation of 5 TB. This difference required creating separate retention policies for these users' groups. The challenge was further complicated by the fact that retention policies utilize the same storage for preserving deleted data. If a unified retention policy were applied to all users such as retaining data for 6 years before deletion - F3 users’ OneDrive storage could potentially fill up within a year or less (depending on usage patterns). This would leave F3 users unable to delete or save new files, severely disrupting productivity and data management. To address this, it is essential to create a separate retention policy for E3 and E5 users, ensuring that the policy applies only to these users and excludes F3 users. This blog will discuss the process of designing and implementing such a policy for the large user base based on separate licenses, ensuring efficient data management and uninterrupted productivity. Challenges with Retention Policy Configuration for large organizations 1. Adaptive Scope Adaptive scopes in Microsoft Purview allow you to dynamically target policies based on specific attributes or properties such as department, location, email address, custom Exchange attributes etc. Refer the link to get the list of supported attributes: Adaptive scopes | Microsoft Learn. Limitation: Although Adaptive scopes can filter by user properties, Contoso, being a large organization, had already utilized all 15 custom attributes for various purposes. Additionally, user attributes also couldn’t be used to segregate users based on licenses. This made it challenging to repurpose any attribute for our filter criteria to apply the retention policy to a specific set of users. Furthermore, refinable strings used in SharePoint do not work for OneDrive sites. 2. Static Scope Static scope refers to manually selected locations (e.g., specific users, mailboxes, or sites) where the policy is applied. The scope remains fixed and does not automatically adjust. Limitation: Static scope allows the inclusion or exclusion of mailboxes and sites but is limited to 100 sites and 1000 mailboxes, making it challenging to utilize for large organizations. Proposed Solution: Administrative Units with Adaptive Scope To address the above challenges, it required utilizing Administrative Units (Admin Units - is a container within an organization that can hold users, groups, or devices. It helps us to manage and organize users within an organization more efficiently, especially in large or complex environments) with Adaptive Scopes for creation of a retention policy targeting E3 and E5 licensed users. This approach allows organizations to selectively apply retention policies based on user licenses, enhancing both efficiency and governance. Prerequisites For Administrative unit - Microsoft Entra ID P1 license For Retention policy - Refer to the link: Microsoft 365 guidance for security & compliance - Service Descriptions | Microsoft Learn Configuration Steps Step 1: Create Administrative Unit: Navigate to Microsoft Entra Admin Center https://entra.microsoft.com/#home Click on ‘Identity’ and then click on ‘Show more’ Expand ‘Roles & admins’ Proceed to ‘Admin units’ -> Add. Figure 1: Create an Administrative unit and enter the name and description Define a name for the Administrative unit. Click on ‘Next: Assign roles’ No role assignment required, click on 'Next: Review + create’) Click on ‘Create’. To get more information about creating administrative unit, refer this link: Create or delete administrative units - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn Step 2: Update Dynamic Membership: Select the Administrative Unit which is created in Step1. Navigate to ‘Properties’ Choose ‘Dynamic User’ for Membership type. Click on ‘Add a dynamic query’ for Dynamic user members. Click on ‘Edit' for Rule syntax In order to include E3 and E5 licensed users who are using OneDrive, you need to include SharePoint Online Service Plan 2 enabled users. Use the query below in the code snippet to define the dynamic membership. user.assignedPlans -any (assignedPlan.servicePlanId -eq "5dbe027f-2339-4123-9542-606e4d348a72" -and assignedPlan.capabilityStatus -eq "Enabled") 7. Click on 'Save' to update the Dynamic membership rules 8. Click on 'Save' to update the Administrative unit changes. 9. Open the Administrative Unit and click on the 'Users' tab to check if users have started to populate. Note: It may take some time to replicate all users, depending on the size of your organization. Please wait for minutes and then check again. Step 3: Create Adaptive Scope under Purview Portal: Access https://purview.microsoft.com Navigate to ‘Settings’ Expand ‘Roles & scopes’ and click on ‘Adaptive scopes’ Create a new adaptive scope, providing ‘Name’ and ‘Description’. Proceed to select the Administrative unit which was created earlier. (It takes time for the Admin/Administrative Unit to become visible. Please wait for some time if it does not appear immediately.) Click on ‘Add’ and ‘Next’ Select ‘Users’ and 'Next' Once the Admin unit is selected, we need to specify the criteria which allows to select users within the Admin unit (this is the second level of filtering available). However, in this case since we needed to select all users of the admin unit, hence the below criteria was used. Click 'Add attribute' and form the below query. Email addresses is not equal to $null Note: You can apply any other filter if you need to select a subset of users within the Admin Unit based on your business use case. Click on ‘Next’ Review and ‘Submit’ the adaptive scope. Step 4: Create Retention Policy using Adaptive Scope: Access to the portal https://purview.microsoft.com/datalifecyclemanagement/overview Navigate to ‘Policies’ and then go to ‘Retention Policies’. Create a ‘New Retention policy’, providing a ‘Name’ and ‘Description’. Click on "Next", there is no need to add Admin units here as its already defined in Adaptive scope. Figure 9: Select the 'Admin Units' as Full directory 6. Choose ‘Adaptive’ and click on ‘Next’. Click on ‘Add scopes’ and Select the previously created Adaptive scope. Under Location, select OneDrive. Figure 11: Select the Adaptive scope and location at this point. 8. Click on ‘Next’ to proceed and select the desired retention settings. 9. Click Next and Finish Outcome By implementing Admin Units with adaptive scopes, organizations can effectively overcome challenges associated with applying OneDrive retention policies for distinguished and large set of users. This approach facilitates the dynamic addition of required users, eliminating the need for custom attributes and manual user management. Users are dynamically added or removed from the policy based on license status, ensuring seamless compliance management. FAQ: Why is it important to differentiate retention policies based on user licensing tiers? It is important to differentiate retention policies based on user licensing tiers to ensure that each user group has policies tailored to their specific needs and constraints, avoiding issues such as storage limitations for users with lower-tier licenses like F3. How many Exchange custom attributes are typically available? There are typically 15 Exchange custom attributes available, which can limit scalability when dealing with a large user base. What challenge does Adaptive Scoping face when including a large number of OneDrive sites? Adaptive Scoping faces the challenge of including a large number of OneDrive sites due to limitations in the number of custom attributes allowed. While these custom attributes help in categorizing and managing OneDrive sites, the finite number of attributes available can restrict scalability and flexibility. Why are refinable strings a limitation for Adaptive Scoping in OneDrive? Refinable strings are a limitation for Adaptive Scoping in OneDrive because their usage is restricted to SharePoint only. What are the limitations of Static Scoping for OneDrive sites? Static Scoping for OneDrive sites is limited by the strict limit of including or excluding only 100 sites, making it usage limited for larger environments. Do we need any licenses to create an administrative unit with dynamic membership? Yes, a Microsoft Entra ID P1 license is required for all members of the group.Select the 'Adaptive' retention policy typeFigure 10: Select the 'Adaptive' retention policy typeDisable incessant nagware popups
I don't know about everyone else, but I am sick and tired of the nagware pop ups in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Every single product harasses me with pop ups trying to tell me "hey, did you know this feature was here?", "you can do this if you click that", "let me hold your hand through using products you've used for decades even though you don't want daddy Microslop to do that". This is a prime example. I keep getting the same ones again and again and again and everything I've read indicates they should only appear once. But they don't. They keep coming back like a psychotic stalker ex who wants alimony even though you were never married. How do I get this nagware to stop?!
Email alerts for sharepoint action "DownloadedFile"
Hi, We are trying setup alerts for files being downloaded on specific executive sharepoint sites. We have created a custom alert policy in security.microsoft.com for that specific site and did few test downloads. We have not received any notifications for these activities. Tried searching the audit logs manually and there are no entries for these activities. Is there any specific setting that needs to be turned on in order to trigger the alert policy? We have activated "Reporting" in Site collection features. Thanks in advance!!How to deploy Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI to secure your AI apps
Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM for AI) is designed to enhance data security for the following AI applications: Microsoft Copilot experiences, including Microsoft 365 Copilot. Enterprise AI apps, including ChatGPT enterprise integration. Other AI apps, including all other AI applications like ChatGPT consumer, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini, accessed through the browser. In this blog, we will dive into the different policies and reporting we have to discover, protect and govern these three types of AI applications. Prerequisites Please refer to the prerequisites for DSPM for AI in the Microsoft Learn Docs. Login to the Purview portal To begin, start by logging into Microsoft 365 Purview portal with your admin credentials: In the Microsoft Purview portal, go to the Home page. Find DSPM for AI under solutions. 1. Securing Microsoft 365 Copilot Be sure to check out our blog on How to use the DSPM for AI data assessment report to help you address oversharing concerns when you deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot. Discover potential data security risks in Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions In the Overview tab of DSPM for AI, start with the tasks in “Get Started” and Activate Purview Audit if you have not yet activated it in your tenant to get insights into user interactions with Microsoft Copilot experiences In the Recommendations tab, review the recommendations that are under “Not Started”. Create the following data discovery policy to discover sensitive information in AI interactions by clicking into it. Detect risky interactions in AI apps - This public preview Purview Insider Risk Management policy helps calculate user risk by detecting risky prompts and responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences. Click here to learn more about Risky AI usage policy. With the policies to discover sensitive information in Microsoft Copilot experiences in place, head back to the Reports tab of DSPM for AI to discover any AI interactions that may be risky, with the option to filter to Microsoft Copilot Experiences, and review the following for Microsoft Copilot experiences: Total interactions over time (Microsoft Copilot) Sensitive interactions per AI app Top unethical AI interactions Top sensitivity labels references in Microsoft 365 Copilot Insider Risk severity Insider risk severity per AI app Potential risky AI usage Protect sensitive data in Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions From the Reports tab, click on “View details” for each of the report graphs to view detailed activities in the Activity Explorer. Using available filters, filter the results to view activities from Microsoft Copilot experiences based on different Activity type, AI app category and App type, Scope, which support administrative units for DSPM for AI, and more. Then drill down to each activity to view details including the capability to view prompts and response with the right permissions. To protect the sensitive data in interactions for Microsoft 365 Copilot, review the Not Started policies in the Recommendations tab and create these policies: Information Protection Policy for Sensitivity Labels - This option creates default sensitivity labels and sensitivity label policies. If you've already configured sensitivity labels and their policies, this configuration is skipped. Protect sensitive data referenced in Microsoft 365 Copilot - This guides you through the process of creating a Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy to restrict the processing of content with specific sensitivity labels in Copilot interactions. Click here to learn more about Data Loss Prevention for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Protect sensitive data referenced in Copilot responses - Sensitivity labels help protect files by controlling user access to data. Microsoft 365 Copilot honors sensitivity labels on files and only shows users files they already have access to in prompts and responses. Use Data assessments to identify potential oversharing risks, including unlabeled files. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on using DSPM for AI data assessments! Use Copilot to improve your data security posture - Data Security Posture Management combines deep insights with Security Copilot capabilities to help you identify and address security risks in your org. Once you have created policies from the Recommendations tab, you can go to the Policies tab to review and manage all the policies you have created across your organization to discover and safeguard AI activity in one centralized place, as well as edit the policies or investigate alerts associated with those policies in solution. Note that additional policies not from the Recommendations tab will also appear in the Policies tab when DSPM for AI identifies them as policies to Secure and govern all AI apps. Govern the prompts and responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions Understand and comply with AI regulations by selecting “Guided assistance to AI regulations” in the Recommendations tab and walking through the “Actions to take”. From the Recommendations tab, create a Control unethical behavior in AI Purview Communications Compliance policy to detect sensitive information in prompts and responses and address potentially unethical behavior in Microsoft Copilot experiences and ChatGPT for Enterprise. This policy covers all users and groups in your organization. To retain and/or delete Microsoft 365 Copilot prompts and responses, setup a Data Lifecycle policy by navigating to Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management and find Retention Policies under the Policies header. You can also preserve, collect, analyze, review, and export Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions by creating an eDiscovery case. 2. Securing Enterprise AI apps Please refer to this amazing blog on Unlocking the Power of Microsoft Purview for ChatGPT Enterprise | Microsoft Community Hub for detailed information on how to integrate with ChatGPT for enterprise, the Purview solutions it currently supports through Purview Communication Compliance, Insider Risk Management, eDiscovery, and Data Lifecycle Management. Learn more about the feature also through our public documentation. 3. Securing other AI Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI currently supports the following list of AI sites. Be sure to also check out our blog on the new Microsoft Purview data security controls for the browser & network to secure other AI apps. Discover potential data security risks in prompts sent to other AI apps In the Overview tab of DSPM for AI, go through these three steps in “Get Started” to discover potential data security risk in other AI interactions: Install Microsoft Purview browser extension For Windows users: The Purview extension is not necessary for the enforcement of data loss prevention on the Edge browser but required for Chrome to detect sensitive info pasted or uploaded to AI sites. The extension is also required to detect browsing to other AI sites through an Insider Risk Management policy for both Edge and Chrome browser. Therefore, Purview browser extension is required for both Edge and Chrome in Windows. For MacOS users: The Purview extension is not necessary for the enforcement of data loss prevention on macOS devices, and currently, browsing to other AI sites through Purview Insider Risk Management is not supported on MacOS, therefore, no Purview browser extension is required for MacOS. Extend your insights for data discovery – this one-click collection policy will setup three separate Purview detection policies for other AI apps: Detect sensitive info shared in AI prompts in Edge – a Purview collection policy that detects prompts sent to ChatGPT consumer, Micrsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini in Microsoft Edge and discovers sensitive information shared in prompt contents. This policy covers all users and groups in your organization in audit mode only. Detect when users visit AI sites – a Purview Insider Risk Management policy that detects when users use a browser to visit AI sites. Detect sensitive info pasted or uploaded to AI sites – a Purview Endpoint Data loss prevention (eDLP) policy that discovers sensitive content pasted or uploaded in Microsoft Edge, Chrome, and Firefox to AI sites. This policy covers all users and groups in your org in audit mode only. With the policies to discover sensitive information in other AI apps in place, head back to the Reports tab of DSPM for AI to discover any AI interactions that may be risky, with the option to filter by Other AI Apps, and review the following for other AI apps: Total interactions over time (other AI apps) Total visits (other AI apps) Sensitive interactions per AI app Insider Risk severity Insider risk severity per AI app Protect sensitive info shared with other AI apps From the Reports tab, click on “View details” for each of the report graphs to view detailed activities in the Activity Explorer. Using available filters, filter the results to view activities based on different Activity type, AI app category and App type, Scope, which support administrative units for DSPM for AI, and more. To protect the sensitive data in interactions for other AI apps, review the Not Started policies in the Recommendations tab and create these policies: Fortify your data security – This will create three policies to manage your data security risks with other AI apps: 1) Block elevated risk users from pasting or uploading sensitive info on AI sites – this will create a Microsoft Purview endpoint data loss prevention (eDLP) policy that uses adaptive protection to give a warn-with-override to elevated risk users attempting to paste or upload sensitive information to other AI apps in Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. This policy covers all users and groups in your org in test mode. Learn more about adaptive protection in Data loss prevention. 2) Block elevated risk users from submitting prompts to AI apps in Microsoft Edge – this will create a Microsoft Purview browser data loss prevention (DLP) policy, and using adaptive protection, this policy will block elevated, moderate, and minor risk users attempting to put information in other AI apps using Microsoft Edge. This integration is built-in to Microsoft Edge. Learn more about adaptive protection in Data loss prevention. 3) Block sensitive info from being sent to AI apps in Microsoft Edge - this will create a Microsoft Purview browser data loss prevention (DLP) policy to detect inline for a selection of common sensitive information types and blocks prompts being sent to AI apps while using Microsoft Edge. This integration is built-in to Microsoft Edge. Once you have created policies from the Recommendations tab, you can go to the Policies tab to review and manage all the policies you have created across your organization to discover and safeguard AI activity in one centralized place, as well as edit the policies or investigate alerts associated with those policies in solution. Note that additional policies not from the Recommendations tab will also appear in the Policies tab when DSPM for AI identifies them as policies to Secure and govern all AI apps. Conclusion Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI can help you discover, protect, and govern the interactions from AI applications in Microsoft Copilot experiences, Enterprise AI apps, and other AI apps. We recommend you review the Reports in DSPM for AI routinely to discover any new interactions that may be of concern, and to create policies to secure and govern those interactions as necessary. We also recommend you utilize the Activity Explorer in DSPM for AI to review different Activity explorer events while users interacting with AI, including the capability to view prompts and response with the right permissions. We will continue to update this blog with new features that become available in DSPM for AI, so be sure to bookmark this page! Follow-up Reading Check out this blog on the details of each recommended policies in DSPM for AI: Microsoft Purview – Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI | Microsoft Community Hub Address oversharing concerns with Microsoft 365 blueprint - aka.ms/Copilot/Oversharing Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and other generative AI apps | Microsoft Learn Considerations for deploying Microsoft Purview AI Hub and data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Learn Commonly used properties in Copilot audit logs - Audit logs for Copilot and AI activities | Microsoft Learn Supported AI sites by Microsoft Purview for data security and compliance protections | Microsoft Learn Where Copilot usage data is stored and how you can audit it - Microsoft 365 Copilot data protection and auditing architecture | Microsoft Learn Downloadable whitepaper: Data Security for AI Adoption | Microsoft Public roadmap for DSPM for AI - Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
Adaptive Scope Sytntax
Hi. I have a requirement to scope only "UserMailbox" data in an Adaptive scope to ensure only user mailbox data is retained and deleted > 7years and shared mailbox is not in scope and retained forever. This scope will then be used in Adaptive Exchange Online Retention policy to Retain and then delete email > 7years old. Could anyone help me define the syntax to use in the query please? I have used the following but am not sure if this is correct even though it never failed when I completed the Adaptive Scope RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'UserMailbox' Thanks in Advance Chris
Always‑on Diagnostics for Purview Endpoint DLP: Effortless, Zero‑Friction troubleshooting for admins
Historically, some security teams have struggled with the challenge of troubleshooting issues with endpoint DLP. Investigations can often slow down because reproducing issues, collecting traces, and aligning on context can be tedious. With always-on diagnostics in Purview endpoint data loss prevention (DLP), our goal has been simple: make troubleshooting seamless, and effortless—without ever disrupting the information worker. Today, we’re excited to share new enhancements to always-on diagnostics for Purview endpoint DLP. This is the next step in our journey to modernize supportability in Microsoft Purview and dramatically reduce admin friction during investigations. Where We Started: Introduction of continuous diagnostic collection Earlier this year, we introduced continuous diagnostic trace collection on Windows endpoints (support for macOS endpoints coming soon). This eliminated the single largest source of friction: the need to reproduce issues. With this capability: Logs are captured persistently for up to 90 days Information workers no longer need admin permissions to retrieve traces Admins can submit complete logs on the first attempt Support teams can diagnose transient or rare issues with high accuracy In just a few months, we saw resolution times drop dramatically. The message was clear: Always-on diagnostics is becoming a new troubleshooting standard. Our Newest Enhancements: Built for Admins. Designed for Zero Friction. The newest enhancements to always-on diagnostics unlock the most requested capability from our IT and security administrators: the ability to retrieve and upload always-on diagnostic traces directly from devices using the Purview portal — with no user interaction required. This means: Admins can now initiate trace uploads on demand No interruption to information workers and their productivity No issue reproduction sessions, minimizing unnecessary disruption and coordination Every investigation starts with complete context Because the traces are already captured on-device, these improvements now help complete the loop by giving admins a seamless, portal-integrated workflow to deliver logs to Microsoft when needed. This experience is now fully available for customers using endpoint DLP on Windows. Why This Matters As a product team, our success is measured not just by usage, but by how effectively we eliminate friction for customers. Always-on diagnostics minimizes the friction and frustration that has historically affected some customers. - No more asking your employee or information worker to "can you reproduce that?" and share logs - No more lost context - No more delays while logs are collected after the fact How it Works Local trace capture Devices continuously capture endpoint DLP diagnostic data in a compressed, proprietary format, and this data stays solely on the respective device based on the retention period and storage limits configured by the admin. Users no longer need to reproduce issues during retrieval—everything the investigation requires is already captured on the endpoint. Admin-triggered upload Admins can now request diagnostic uploads directly from the Purview portal, eliminating the need to disrupt users. Upload requests can be initiated from multiple entry points, including: Alerts (Data Loss Prevention → Alerts → Events) Activity Explorer (Data Loss Prevention → Explorers → Activity explorer) Device Policy Status Page (Settings → Device onboarding → Devices) From any of these locations, admins can simply choose Request device log, select the date range, add a brief description, and submit the request. Once processed, the device’s always-on diagnostic logs are securely uploaded to Microsoft telemetry as per customer-approved settings. Admins can include the upload request number in their ticket with Microsoft Support, and sharing this number removes the need for the support engineer to ask for logs again during the investigation. This workflow ensures investigations start with complete diagnostic context. Privacy & compliance considerations Data is only uploaded during admin-initiated investigations Data adheres to our published diagnostic data retention policies Logs are only accessible to the Microsoft support team, not any other parties We Want to Hear From You Are you using always-on diagnostics? We'd love to hear about your experience. Share your feedback, questions, or success stories in the Microsoft Tech Community, or reach out to our engineering team directly. Making troubleshooting effortless—so you can focus on what matters, not on chasing logs.Secure and govern AI apps and agents with Microsoft Purview
The Microsoft Purview family is here to help you secure and govern data across third party IaaS and Saas, multi-platform data environment, while helping you meet compliance requirements you may be subject to. Purview brings simplicity with a comprehensive set of solutions built on a platform of shared capabilities, that helps keep your most important asset, data, safe. With the introduction of AI technology, Purview also expanded its data coverage to include discovering, protecting, and governing the interactions of AI apps and agents, such as Microsoft Copilots like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Security Copilot, Enterprise built AI apps like Chat GPT enterprise, and other consumer AI apps like DeepSeek, accessed through the browser. To help you view, investigate interactions with all those AI apps, and to create and manage policies to secure and govern them in one centralized place, we have launched Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI. You can learn more about DSPM for AI here with short video walkthroughs: Learn how Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI provides data security and compliance protections for Copilots and other generative AI apps | Microsoft Learn Purview capabilities for AI apps and agents To understand our current set of capabilities within Purview to discover, protect, and govern various AI apps and agents, please refer to our Learn doc here: Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and other generative AI apps | Microsoft Learn Here is a quick reference guide for the capabilities available today: Note that currently, DLP for Copilot and adhering to sensitivity label are currently designed to protect content in Microsoft 365. Thus, Security Copilot and Copilot in Fabric, along with Copilot studio custom agents that do not use Microsoft 365 as a content source, do not have these features available. Please see list of AI sites supported by Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI here Conclusion Microsoft Purview can help you discover, protect, and govern the prompts and responses from AI applications in Microsoft Copilot experiences, Enterprise AI apps, and other AI apps through its data security and data compliance solutions, while allowing you to view, investigate, and manage interactions in one centralized place in DSPM for AI. Follow up reading Check out the deployment guides for DSPM for AI How to deploy DSPM for AI - https://aka.ms/DSPMforAI/deploy How to use DSPM for AI data risk assessment to address oversharing - https://aka.ms/dspmforai/oversharing Address oversharing concerns with Microsoft 365 blueprint - aka.ms/Copilot/Oversharing Explore the Purview SDK Microsoft Purview SDK Public Preview | Microsoft Community Hub (blog) Microsoft Purview documentation - purview-sdk | Microsoft Learn Build secure and compliant AI applications with Microsoft Purview (video) References for DSPM for AI Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and other generative AI apps | Microsoft Learn Considerations for deploying Microsoft Purview AI Hub and data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Learn Block Users From Sharing Sensitive Information to Unmanaged AI Apps Via Edge on Managed Devices (preview) | Microsoft Learn as part of Scenario 7 of Create and deploy a data loss prevention policy | Microsoft Learn Commonly used properties in Copilot audit logs - Audit logs for Copilot and AI activities | Microsoft Learn Supported AI sites by Microsoft Purview for data security and compliance protections | Microsoft Learn Where Copilot usage data is stored and how you can audit it - Microsoft 365 Copilot data protection and auditing architecture | Microsoft Learn Downloadable whitepaper: Data Security for AI Adoption | Microsoft Explore the roadmap for DSPM for AI Public roadmap for DSPM for AI - Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365PMPurMicrosoft Ignite 2025: Top Security Innovations You Need to Know
🤖 Security & AI -The Big Story This Year 2025 marks a turning point for cybersecurity. Rapid adoption of AI across enterprises has unlocked innovation but introduced new risks. AI agents are now part of everyday workflows-automating tasks and interacting with sensitive data—creating new attack surfaces that traditional security models cannot fully address. Threat actors are leveraging AI to accelerate attacks, making speed and automation critical for defense. Organizations need solutions that deliver visibility, governance, and proactive risk management for both human and machine identities. Microsoft Ignite 2025 reflects this shift with announcements focused on securing AI at scale, extending Zero Trust principles to AI agents, and embedding intelligent automation into security operations. As a Senior Cybersecurity Solution Architect, I’ve curated the top security announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2025 to help you stay ahead of evolving threats and understand the latest innovations in enterprise security. Agent 365: Control Plane for AI Agents Agent 365 is a centralized platform that gives organizations full visibility, governance, and risk management over AI agents across Microsoft and third-party ecosystems. Why it matters: Unmanaged AI agents can introduce compliance gaps and security risks. Agent 365 ensures full lifecycle control. Key Features: Complete agent registry and discovery Access control and conditional policies Visualization of agent interactions and risk posture Built-in integration with Defender, Entra, and Purview Available via the Frontier Program Microsoft Agent 365: The control plane for AI agents Deep dive blog on Agent 365 Entra Agent ID: Zero Trust for AI Identities Microsoft Entra is the identity and access management suite (covering Azure AD, permissions, and secure access). Entra Agent ID extends Zero Trust identity principles to AI agents, ensuring they are governed like human identities. Why it matters: Unmanaged or over-privileged AI agents can create major security gaps. Agent ID enforces identity governance on AI agents and reduces automation risks. Key Features: Provides unique identities for AI agents Lifecycle governance and sponsorship for agents Conditional access policies applied to agent activity Integrated with open SDKs/APIs for third‑party platforms Microsoft Entra Agent ID Overview Entra Ignite 2025 announcements Public Preview details Security Copilot Expansion Security Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant for security teams, now expanded to automate threat hunting, phishing triage, identity risk remediation, and compliance tasks. Why it matters: Security teams face alert fatigue and resource constraints. Copilot accelerates response and reduces manual effort. Key Features: 12 new Microsoft-built agents across Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview. 30+ partner-built agents available in the Microsoft Security Store. Automates threat hunting, phishing triage, identity risk remediation, and compliance tasks. Included for Microsoft 365 E5 customers at no extra cost. Security Copilot inclusion in Microsoft 365 E5 Security Copilot Ignite blog Security Dashboard for AI A unified dashboard for CISOs and risk leaders to monitor AI risks, aggregate signals from Microsoft security services, and assign tasks via Security Copilot - included at no extra cost. Why it matters: Provides a single pane of glass for AI risk management, improving visibility and decision-making. Key Features: Aggregates signals from Entra, Defender, and Purview Supports natural language queries for risk insights Enables task assignment via Security Copilot Ignite Session: Securing AI at Scale Microsoft Security Blog Microsoft Defender Innovations Microsoft Defender serves as Microsoft’s CNAPP solution, offering comprehensive, AI-driven threat protection that spans endpoints, email, cloud workloads, and SIEM/SOAR integrations. Why It Matters Modern attacks target multi-cloud environments and software supply chains. These innovations provide proactive defense, reduce breach risks before exploitation, and extend protection beyond Microsoft ecosystems-helping organizations secure endpoints, identities, and workloads at scale. Key Features: Predictive Shielding: Proactively hardens attack paths before adversaries pivot. Automatic Attack Disruption: Extended to AWS, Okta, and Proofpoint via Sentinel. Supply Chain Security: Defender for Cloud now integrates with GitHub Advanced Security. What’s new in Microsoft Defender at Ignite Defender for Cloud innovations Global Secure Access & AI Gateway Part of Microsoft Entra’s secure access portfolio, providing secure connectivity and inspection for web and AI traffic. Why it matters: Protects against lateral movement and AI-specific threats while maintaining secure connectivity. Key Features: TLS inspection, URL/file filtering AI Prompt Injection protection Private access for domain controllers to prevent lateral movement attacks. Learn about Secure Web and AI Gateway for agents Microsoft Entra: What’s new in secure access on the AI frontier Purview Enhancements Microsoft Purview is the data governance and compliance platform, ensuring sensitive data is classified, protected, and monitored. Why it matters: Ensures sensitive data remains protected and compliant in AI-driven environments. Key Features: AI Observability: Monitor agent activities and prevent sensitive data leakage. Compliance Guardrails: Communication compliance for AI interactions. Expanded DSPM: Data Security Posture Management for AI workloads. Announcing new Microsoft Purview capabilities to protect GenAI agents Intune Updates Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based endpoint device management solution that secures apps, devices, and data across platforms. It simplifies endpoint security management and accelerates response to device risks using AI. Why it matters: Endpoint security is critical as organizations manage diverse devices in hybrid environments. These updates reduce complexity, speed up remediation, and leverage AI-driven automation-helping security teams stay ahead of evolving threats. Key Features: Security Copilot agents automate policy reviews, device offboarding, and risk-based remediation. Enhanced remote management for Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). Policy Configuration Agent in Intune lets IT admins create and validate policies with natural language What’s new in Microsoft Intune at Ignite Your guide to Intune at Ignite Closing Thoughts Microsoft Ignite 2025 signals the start of an AI-driven security era. From visibility and governance for AI agents to Zero Trust for machine identities, automation in security operations, and stronger compliance for AI workloads-these innovations empower organizations to anticipate threats, simplify governance, and accelerate secure AI adoption without compromising compliance or control. 📘 Full Coverage: Microsoft Ignite 2025 Book of News
Survey: Microsoft Purview Retention Labels in Outlook Mobile (iOS/Andriod)
We need your input! Today, in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for the Web, and (currently rolling out) Outlook for Mac, end-users can manually apply Microsoft Purview retention labels and MRM personal tags to individual emails and non-default (user-created) folders. The Outlook and Data Lifecycle Management product groups are interested in learning from our customers how important that same functionality would be in Outlook for Mobile (iOS/Android). Please consider filling out and sharing the following survey to let us know how this feature would or would not be useful to you and your organization: https://aka.ms/RetentionLabels-OutlookMobile Please note that your responses will remain anonymous unless you choose to provide contact information at the end of the survey.
