Here’s a summary of the news: KnowBe4 and Microsoft have announced a strategic integration aimed at boosting email security for organizations using Microsoft 365. This collaboration involves KnowBe4 Defend integrating with Microsoft Defender for Office 365, particularly its quarantine functionality, and is the first partnership under Microsoft’s Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES) initiative.
Source: SecurityBrief Australia KnowBe4, Microsoft partner to enhance email security with AI
Key Points of the Integration:
- Complementary AI-Powered Security Layers:
- KnowBe4 Defend uses agentic AI for advanced threat detection, adding a new layer on top of Microsoft’s built-in protections.
- This allows organizations to leverage their existing investment in Microsoft security while benefitting from additional, purpose-built threat identification and response tools.
- Concurrent Threat Analysis:
- The integration creates multiple analysis layers, combining Microsoft’s quarantine with KnowBe4’s AI detection.
- This increases the chances of detecting and blocking threats before reaching end users.
- Unified SOC Tools:
- The combined platforms deliver unified Security Operations Centre (SOC) tools that help speed up incident investigation, support root cause analysis, and enable fast tactical responses.
- This leads to better visibility and control over email-based threats.
- Human Risk Management Focus:
- KnowBe4 emphasizes human risk management, offering training, real-time coaching, crowdsourced anti-phishing, and AI-driven security awareness tools to build a strong security culture among users.
- Wider ICES Ecosystem:
- KnowBe4 is the first vendor to join Microsoft’s ICES program, which aims to promote partnerships between Microsoft and select security vendors for enhanced email defense.
- The approach allows customers to use both Microsoft and specialist vendor security tools together, without duplicating resources or disrupting workflows.
Industry Impact
- This collaboration is a model for future integrations between Microsoft and security vendors within the ICES framework, striving for collective defenses against increasingly sophisticated email threats.
Source: SecurityBrief Australia KnowBe4, Microsoft partner to enhance email security with AI
