Hornetsecurity Enhances AI Security for Microsoft 365

Leading global cybersecurity company, Hornetsecurity by Proofpoint, has announced new capabilities across its next-gen security portfolio for Microsoft 365 (M365) designed to help organisations and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) strengthen the foundations for secure AI adoption. Rolling out in Q4 2026, the updates address permission and sharing risks, make AI-powered security assessments easier to understand, extend adaptive security awareness training to Microsoft Teams and support more centralised security management.

AI readiness starts with understanding and controlling the data, permissions and communication channels that AI tools can access.

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Daniel Hofmann, CEO of Hornetsecurity by Proofpoint, explains: “Many organisations are currently considering which AI solutions to deploy. Just as important, however, is which data and communication channels these technologies will interact with. Overly broad permissions, unclear sharing settings or a lack of confidence among employees do not arise because of AI, but its use can amplify their impact. Organisations therefore need to build AI readiness on strong security foundations.

“Our new security capabilities for organisations using M365 help address this need by improving visibility and control, making security decisions easier to understand and supporting more effective security awareness. This gives organisations a stronger basis for adopting AI while managing the risks of an increasingly connected digital workplace.”

Identifying permission risks and controlling access

In established M365 environments, access structures become progressively complex with every new team, project and external partner, while sharing links, guest accounts and inherited permissions often remain active beyond their original purpose. As it is notoriously difficult to discover existing permissions across sites, Hornetsecurity’s 365 Permission Manager makes these access and sharing structures across SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Teams visible and enables organisations to control and adjust them as needed.

The new Tenant Risk Exposure functionality will complement 365 Permission Manager. The new feature provides MSPs and administrators with a visual overview of permission and sharing risks across their M365 tenants. New dashboard widgets highlight risks in the relevant areas, including anonymous access, external users, organisation-wide permissions, public groups, inactive guests and orphaned accounts.

The updated user interface helps organisations maintain better control over their M365 data by showing where these risks exist. It provides shortcuts to remediate them manually or automatically and a report showing current tenant status at a glance, reducing the risk of unintended or excessive access. 

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Protecting communications and empowering employees

A working environment prepared for AI adoption requires technical safeguards for its communication channels. Hornetsecurity’s Teams Protection and AI Email Security Analyst protect communications across email and Microsoft Teams.

Email continues to play a particularly important role as a central digital communication channel for many organisations. With the new Explainability in Email Live Tracking feature, Hornetsecurity is placing greater emphasis on making email assessments easier to understand. The feature helps security teams understand why an email may be considered suspicious or legitimate. This enables them to investigate the rare false positives or potentially incorrect decisions and consider appropriate remediation measures more efficiently.

At the same time, employees need to be able to identify suspicious content, interpret warnings correctly and act securely in their day-to-day work. Hornetsecurity’s AI-powered Security Awareness Service provides continuous, tailored training to support this.

Through integration with AI.MY, the platform’s AI Cyber Assistant, the Security Awareness Service is now extending fully automated and adaptive training to Microsoft Teams. As an Awareness Coach, AI.MY contacts employees after an e-learning session, asks three questions tailored to their individual awareness level and provides immediate feedback. The results update their knowledge profile and enable organisations to measure learning progress and identify further training needs in a targeted way.

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Managing security centrally and supporting administrators

365 Total Protection brings together multiple security layers in an integrated cybersecurity portfolio for M365. The new AI Cyber Assistant Agent in the Control Panel strengthens the panel as a smart point of contact and adds conversational, AI-powered product assistance. Partners and administrators receive support with onboarding, configuration, product usage and security operations, helping to reduce research and support effort.

For MSPs and partners, the agent also provides AI-powered support in identifying the solutions that best match individual customer needs. By helping partners navigate the portfolio, translate customer pain points into relevant recommendations and identify opportunities to extend protection, it can reduce the effort involved in customer consultation and help MSPs scale their security services more efficiently.

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