Hornetsecurity launches AI cyber assistant for Microsoft 365
The new solution includes the Email Security Analyst, which automates the handling of reported suspicious emails, and Teams Protection, which is intended to detect and block malicious messages and impersonation attacks within the Microsoft Teams platform. Hornetsecurity has also confirmed updates to its AI Recipient Validation, aimed at preventing email misdirection and data leaks, now integrated into the 365 Total Protection Plan 4 suite.
The AI Cyber Assistant is designed to ease workloads for security personnel while equipping end users with information to make informed decisions about potential threats. According to Hornetsecurity, the assistant continually evolves by deploying machine learning technology to support both end users and IT teams within their daily operations.
Daniel Hofmann, Chief Executive Officer of Hornetsecurity, said: "To continue enhancing the next-gen security we provide, our new AI-powered Email Security Analyst automates responses to user queries about potential threats, alleviating the workload on SOC and service desk teams, while educating end users on the nature of attacks. IT security personnel benefit by gaining more time to focus on other pressing issues, while end users receive instant feedback, which also encourages them to continue reporting suspicious emails and contribute to the organisation's overall security."
Email response automation
The Email Security Analyst leverages a large language model to provide automated analysis and response to user-reported emails, reducing the manual review burden on Security Operations Centre (SOC) and IT Admin teams. This automation is intended to improve efficiency in handling suspicious emails flagged by users.
As Hofmann explained: "Thanks to growing media attention, end users are becoming more suspicious about incoming emails. While this a welcome and positive development, each email they flag increases the burden on SOC and Service Desk teams to analyse and verify them on a case-by-case basis. Email Security Analyst replaces this traditional manual analysis and significantly reduces the time SOC teams spend on false-positive and negative reports."
Providing AI-driven insights for each reported email, the tool assists in training employees to better discern malicious activity, while guiding them on necessary precautions to help strengthen organisational cybersecurity.
Hofmann stated further: "Organisations have to strengthen their 'human firewall' by empowering employees to become active participants in their organisation's cybersecurity strategy. Cyber-attacks are constantly increasing, so CISOs and security teams need to strategically allocate resources that strengthen organisational security while upskilling end users to cover any blind spots."
Microsoft Teams threat detection
The Teams Protection feature aims to provide continuous monitoring and analysis of messages within Microsoft Teams, identifying and alerting users to potential threats using AI-driven detection methods. The technology analyses URLs and pictures within messages, employing supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms as well as computer vision models. These models scan for indicators of phishing such as brand logos, QR codes, and suspect text embedded in images.
Administrators can remove conversations found to contain malicious messages and block compromised users from accessing Teams, helping to manage threats across Microsoft 365 tenants. Hofmann said: "Instant messaging platforms like Microsoft Teams are increasingly used as a main channel of business communications, and yet they tend to be overlooked as a potential attack vector. However, attackers are sending malicious links and malware both through Teams that are open externally and also via compromised internal Teams accounts. We have therefore developed Teams Protection to address this growing cybersecurity threat."
User experience updates
The release also brings a redesigned, multitenant control panel for 365 Total Protection, offering a streamlined interface intended to facilitate easier access to security, backup, and compliance features for Microsoft 365 users. The aim is to make administration more efficient while bringing multiple security functions together in a single platform.
Hornetsecurity reports that it delivers its products and services through a global partner network, with organisations using the platform for a range of needs including email protection, backup, governance, risk and compliance, and security awareness training.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- NZ Herald
James Doolan: You can't be a tourist on Google; why Auckland must reinvest in its visitor economy
The post-Covid shift to remote working has permanently altered the role of central business districts. Globally, CBDs are transforming into CEDs (central entertainment districts) where activation is driven by visitors, events, and experiences. You can't be a tourist on Microsoft Teams or Google. Civic leaders must respond to this paradigm shift. This isn't just Auckland's challenge. Wellington faces similar issues, with its CBD struggling to regain foot traffic. Christchurch, meanwhile, is preparing to open its new stadium. This is a major opportunity to attract events and visitors, but only if supported by co-ordinated destination marketing and event attraction. Auckland's investment in tourism and events remains well below pre-Covid levels. Before the pandemic, the city invested over $30 million annually in these areas. Today, we are limping along at a fraction of that. This is not a clever cost-saving strategy – it's a missed opportunity. The return on investment for destination marketing is well established. Tourism New Zealand's 'Everyone Must Go' campaign has already delivered measurable results. If publicly funded tourism marketing works, why aren't we doubling down? Some argue that the private sector should pick up the slack. But voluntary contributions from hotels and tourism operators are not a sustainable substitute for co-ordinated public investment. International-standard hotels already spend 5-7% of revenue on promotion and an additional 10-12% on commissions, so it's not like they're sitting idle! Others call for new tourism taxes. Overseas, marketing levies are typically industry-led and industry-controlled. These include models such as Los Angeles' Tourism Improvement District (TID), funded by a levy on all accommodation types. It's time to stop treating tourism as a sector that can be taxed without consultation. Former Mayor Phil Goff's failed Accommodation Provider Targeted Rate (APTR) is a case in point. It damaged trust and triggered costly litigation. Any new tourism funding model must be co-designed with industry and aligned with national strategy. With local council elections approaching, voters have a chance to shape the future of our cities. Tourism is not just a sector – it's a solution. Let's ask candidates what they would do to revitalise our CBD. We need councillors who understand tourism's value and promise to support it fully. That means restoring public investment in event attraction and destination marketing to at least pre-Covid levels, and doing it fast! James Doolan is Strategic Director at Hotel Council Aotearoa and principal of Fantail Advisory.
Techday NZ
07-08-2025
- Techday NZ
Gurucul launches AI-SOC Analyst to transform cybersecurity centres
Gurucul has announced the release of its new AI-SOC Analyst, an artificial intelligence-powered system designed to enhance the functioning of security operations centres (SOC) through a blend of automated and human-led processes. The AI-SOC Analyst has been developed to handle the automatic triage of alerts, extract and classify key artefacts, assign risk scores and respond dynamically by either escalating alerts or remediating incidents. According to the company, this mechanism is set to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) by 83%. The system is designed to emulate experienced human analysts by investigating each alert, obtaining relevant context, and establishing the priority of incidents that truly require attention. This approach allows SOC teams to benefit from autonomous incident handling, supplemented by insights and evidence-based recommendations that facilitate faster and more informed decision-making by human analysts. An additional feature is the integration of the Sme AI copilot, which employs generative AI for interpreting complex data, summarising threat intelligence and incident reports, translating log patterns into plain language, and suggesting queries and appropriate next steps during investigations. Management perspectives Saryu Nayyar, Chief Executive Officer of Gurucul, said: "As threats proliferate, alert fatigue, understaffed SOCs, analyst burnout, and increasing threat complexity remain pervasive problems. Gurucul's AI-SOC Analyst frees them from the vast majority of repetitive, high-volume and mundane tasks to instead focus on higher-value work. Humans remain a critical piece of security operations, and we're giving them the tools needed to be successful in today's fast-paced threat landscape to deliver faster responses. This innovation marks a huge step in Gurucul's journey to transform SOC operations and continues to underscore our commitment to securely harnessing the power of AI to empower the SOC." The AI-SOC Analyst offers uninterrupted 24/7 monitoring for alert handling, removing concerns over weekends, holidays, and analyst burnout. Gurucul states that the system can investigate alerts within seconds, thus decreasing both the mean time to detection (MTTD) and MTTR. It is designed to complement human analysts by providing consistent, unbiased decisions and minimising human error or subjective judgement during alert handling. Operational impact By leveraging behaviour analysis and correlation, the AI-SOC Analyst can filter out false positives, ensuring that only credible and actionable threats are escalated to human analysts. The platform is capable of triaging thousands of alerts simultaneously, aimed at reducing the need for large SOC teams focused on the early stages of triage and investigation, thereby enhancing cost efficiency and scalability of security operations. Gurucul's offering is described as the industry's first AI Analyst that is natively integrated with the Gurucul Unified Data and Security Analytics Platform. The company highlights transparency and explainability as central features, allowing every decision made by the AI-SOC Analyst to be reviewable and open to validation, ultimately supporting ongoing feedback and improvements. The automation encompasses Level 1 SOC analyst responses, while equipping Level 2 and Level 3 analysts with deeper insights, risk prioritisation, evidence-based recommendations, and automation for responses to incidents. Investment in artificial intelligence Nilesh Dherange, Chief Technology Officer of Gurucul, said: "At Gurucul, we are on a mission to empower SOC teams with the power and promise of AI, unlocking human potential with fewer distractions, controlled costs and complete context. We are making huge investments in AI research and have added purpose-built use cases powered by the most suitable LLMs with this AI-SOC Analyst to automate alert triage and response with flexible workflows." Emphasising integration into the existing platform, Gurucul asserts that trust is strengthened by making every AI decision transparent and explainable. The system is intended as a support mechanism, not a replacement, for human analysts, allowing more focus on complex threats and strategic tasks. Neda Pitt, Chief Information Security Officer, said: "Gurucul's AI-SOC Analyst is a game changer for the SOC. The AI-driven insights with automated triage and response provide a level of visibility and speed we simply have never had. It helps prioritize what matters, cuts through the noise, and stays ahead of an ever-changing threat landscape. It's like having an intelligent co-pilot in the SOC, augmenting human analysts without adding headcount!" Gurucul has announced demonstrations of the AI-SOC Analyst for industry professionals and plans to continue adapting AI to support SOC operations through ongoing research and use-case development.
Techday NZ
04-08-2025
- Techday NZ
DXC, 7AI launch global AI security service to boost efficiency
DXC Technology and 7AI have launched a global strategic partnership that will see the deployment of an AI-powered security operations service across DXC's worldwide customer base. The new initiative, called DXC Agentic Security Operations Centre (SOC), aims to automate core security operations through the integration of 7AI's agentic platform. The two firms stated the platform will reduce manual processing bottlenecks, offering potential time savings of 30 minutes to 2.5 hours per investigation, while significantly lowering false positive rates that typically demand substantial analyst resources. Operational efficiency gains According to data from 7AI, the platform processed more than 568,000 alerts and saved security teams 224,000 analyst hours in 2025 alone, which is equivalent to 112 years of analyst work and an estimated USD $11.2 million in productivity gains for users. DXC Technology will integrate 7AI's technology into its own managed security services globally, providing autonomous AI agents throughout processes including alert ingestion, risk investigation, and incident remediation. The platform's capabilities are intended to extend beyond simple automation, offering what DXC and 7AI describe as a fundamental change to how managed security is delivered. The use of autonomous agents is designed to scale coverage, offer faster response times, and reduce operational costs for organisations facing an increasing volume of cyber threats. "The use of AI enhances security efforts by boosting efficiency, augmenting human skills, and enabling SOCs to scale and deliver greater value in the face of growing cyber threats. The future of security operations isn't about more tools or more automation, it's about intelligent AI agents that deliver measurably better outcomes. By partnering with 7AI, we're pioneering the next phase of managed security services, delivering better insights, faster response times and, ultimately, superior protections for our customers," said Chris Drumgoole, President, Global Infrastructure Services at DXC. Internal use and results DXC has also implemented 7AI's platform within its own internal security operations centre. According to Mike Baker, DXC's Global Chief Information Security Officer, after deploying 7AI's technology the company observed an 80% reduction in tier 1 SOC analyst time, a 95% drop in the number of tickets needing human analysis, and a 67% cut in mean time to respond for tier 1 and tier 2 operations. How it works The 7AI platform leverages what the company calls Dynamic Reasoning technology, enabling the AI to autonomously decide on investigative actions for novel and previously unseen threats in real time. This approach is designed to avoid reliance on static, pre-written playbooks or rules, and it is intended to further reduce the incidence of false positives and improve incident investigation times. Customers deploying the new DXC Agentic SOC will receive security expert support for implementation and ongoing operations, as well as access to incident response and breach management services. The managed service also includes the provision of anonymised threat patterns, contributing to the continual improvement of threat detection while maintaining strict client data protection standards. Additional services tailored to each customer include governance, risk, and compliance support. Broader industry context The launch of the DXC Agentic SOC comes amid continued expectations that artificial intelligence will play a greater role in cybersecurity operations globally. Both DXC and 7AI stated that partnerships leveraging AI in security operations are set to deliver improvements in speed, scale, and operational cost, compared to traditional, manual approaches. "DXC's global cybersecurity scale - serving hundreds of customers, across 25 delivery centers that process 4.5 million daily security threats – provide the real-world data environment essential for advancing our AI. This combination of proven security leadership and operational breadth makes DXC the ideal partner for delivering truly agentic security solutions to the enterprise market. This partnership validates our vision for a new era where security teams can focus exclusively on security outcomes. DXC customers will experience what it means to have AI agents that continuously improve their understanding of each organization's unique security context," said Lior Div, CEO and Co-Founder of 7AI. 7AI projects that with ongoing adoption, its platform will save customers upwards of USD $100 million in 2025 through further reductions in manual security operations workload and analyst resource needs.
