Beyond the Hype: The Reality of Securing AI with Microsoft DSPM

Fast-Track AI Security with Microsoft Purview DSPM: Pros, Cons, and a Path to Governance

With the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought immense benefits, but also new complexities and risks to enterprise data security. As AI models like Microsoft 365 Copilot interact with vast amounts of sensitive organizational data, traditional security tools can fall short. Microsoft Purview's Data Security Posture Management for AI (DSPM for AI) is a specialized solution designed to address this challenge.

This blog post provides an overview of DSPM for AI from the perspective of security and IT professionals, examining its strengths and weaknesses to help you decide if it is the right fit for your organization.

Pros: How DSPM for AI secures and streamlines AI adoption

Comprehensive visibility into AI interactions. DSPM for AI provides a centralized control hub to monitor how users interact with AI applications, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, custom-built AI agents, and third-party tools. It reports on critical activities, such as:

• User activity: Auditing which users are engaging with AI apps.

• Sensitive data in prompts: Detecting when sensitive information is shared with AI models.

• Risky behavior: Flagging suspicious actions like attempts to "jailbreak" an AI to circumvent its safety filters.

Proactive risk assessment and mitigation. Instead of reactively responding to incidents, DSPM for AI helps you get ahead of potential risks. Its data assessments proactively identify areas of data exposure and oversharing before they can be exploited. This is particularly useful for discovering and managing older SharePoint sites with sensitive data that are now accessible through AI search, which negates their "security by obscurity". The tool provides actionable recommendations for remediation.

Leverages and enhances existing Purview policies. DSPM for AI is not a stand-alone tool; it extends and integrates with your existing Microsoft Purview framework, including:

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Monitors and blocks the exfiltration of sensitive data that users might paste into AI tools.

• Information Protection (MIP): Honors and enforces existing sensitivity labels, ensuring protected data remains secure when processed by AI. New content generated by AI also inherits the appropriate sensitivity labels.

• Insider Risk Management (IRM): Integrates AI interaction data to identify risky user behavior that could be malicious or accidental, such as downgrading a document's sensitivity label before exfiltrating it.

Streamlines policy enforcement. The platform offers pre-built policy templates and "one-click policies" to help you quickly secure common AI use cases. This includes policies to:

• Capture Copilot interactions for auditing.

• Detect sensitive information being shared with third-party AI sites.

• Monitor for unethical or policy-violating behavior.

Unified security and compliance platform. As a core part of the Microsoft Purview ecosystem, DSPM for AI helps unify data security, governance, and compliance. This eliminates the complexity and security gaps that come from managing disparate tools. It provides a single pane of glass for monitoring and managing your entire data landscape, including AI interactions.

Cons: Potential challenges and limitations

Dependence on the Microsoft ecosystem. The deep integration of DSPM for AI is a double-edged sword. While it works seamlessly with other Microsoft Purview solutions and Microsoft 365 Copilot, organizations with diverse, non-Microsoft AI deployments may find the features less robust. Monitoring third-party AI sites, for example, often requires the deployment of a separate browser extension.

Operational complexities during initial rollout. For organizations new to Microsoft Purview, the initial setup can be complex. To enable DSPM for AI's full capabilities, you must correctly configure prerequisites like Insider Risk Management and DLP analytics, onboard endpoints, and enable auditing.

Licensing costs. While DSPM features may be available during preview periods, they will eventually require specific licenses, such as a Microsoft 365 E5 or E5 Compliance license. The cost and licensing model for the full suite of Microsoft Purview features needed to maximize DSPM for AI's potential must be considered.

Some current limitations and known issues. As a continually evolving technology, DSPM for AI has some reported limitations that AI professionals should be aware of. For example, in some instances, events may not display the full prompt and response text, and the user risk level may not be visible in all reports. These issues are likely to be addressed as the platform matures.

The verdict for AI professionals

Microsoft DSPM for AI offers a powerful, integrated, and proactive approach to securing the AI lifecycle. For organizations heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, it is an essential tool for gaining the visibility and control needed to safely scale AI innovation. It moves beyond traditional DLP by focusing on the unique risks of AI, such as data oversharing and risky interactions with AI models.

However, organizations should be aware of the dependencies on the Microsoft platform and the potential for operational complexity during implementation. By understanding both the pros and cons, AI professionals can make an informed decision and leverage DSPM for AI to build a strong, secure, and compliant AI posture.