How Microsoft + Illumio Integrations Deliver Your AI-Powered Breach Containment Strategy

Russia-backed hackers Midnight Blizzard only needed a forgotten test system to breach a global tech powerhouse with one of the most sophisticated security operations in the world.  

They used a tactic as old as the internet: password spraying. One lucky guess on a legacy account turned into easy privilege escalation. Like finding an old employee badge that still unlocked every door, the attackers quickly and quietly moved through the network.

The organization they breached was Microsoft, and it became the catalyst for a radical rethink of how the company protects itself from the inside out. They chose Illumio to help build a modern, resilient breach containment strategy that’s prepared for the next inevitable breach.

In our recent webinar, Maximizing Cyber Resilience with Microsoft, I joined Illumio Senior Product Manager John Esterline and Illumio VP of Partner Enablement Rob Lubinsky to share Microsoft’s journey to deploying breach containment with Illumio and how our partnership is helping organizations build breach-ready resilience in their own networks.

A new era of breach containment at Microsoft

Following the Midnight Blizzard attack, Microsoft took swift action. An important step was deploying Illumio across their global infrastructure, which is one of the most complex hybrid multi-cloud environments on the planet.

This was the first time Microsoft publicly acknowledged using an external security platform. And it’s the first time they’ve ever named a third-party cybersecurity provider as a key part of their internal security architecture.

Why did they choose Illumio? They needed a way to see and stop lateral movement across their complex global infrastructure. This included:

• Real-time visibility at massive scale
• AI-powered insights to detect early-stage risk
• Microsegmentation to stop attackers in their tracks
• Seamless enforcement to contain breaches in seconds

With both Illumio Segmentation and Illumio Insights now embedded across tens of millions of workloads, Microsoft can do something many organizations still can’t: detect and contain threats in real time before they become headlines.

Illumio + Microsoft: end-to-end defense that’s ready for the AI era

Together, we’ve created an end-to-end solution that combines Microsoft’s AI-first Sentinel platform with powerful breach containment capabilities from Illumio.

The result is a unified defense that close the gaps traditional tools can’t reach.  

For SOC analysts, the integrations mean less alert noise and more focused action against threats. For CISOs, it also means finally seeing measurable return on investment (ROI) from growing security investments.

Illumio for Microsoft Sentinel

Illumio Insights streams telemetry directly into Microsoft’s unified data platform in the Illumio for Microsoft Sentinel integration. This provides rich, real-time context on workload relationships, risky flows, and potential blast radius. It’s observability made actionable, right where your security operations center (SOC) already works.

Illumio Segmentation feeds east-west traffic data and segmentation events into Sentinel’s analytics engine. The result is deeper visibility into lateral movement, policy enforcement, and workload health — all normalized in the advanced security information model (ASIM) and visualized with out-of-the-box workbooks.

Watch a quick demo of Illumio for Microsoft Sentinel from Illumio CEO Andrew Rubin:

Illumio Security Copilot Agent

The Illumio Security Copilot agent integrates directly with Microsoft’s natural language interface.  

This lets SOC analysts ask Microsoft Copilot a question like, “What’s the latest Illumio investigation?,” and instantly get a full threat summary with policy recommendations, attack paths, and correlated signals. No console switching required.

AI-first threat detection meets human-centric breach containment

The heart of this collaboration is Microsoft’s new Sentinel platform reimagined for the AI era.

Built with a single data model and AI security graph, Sentinel now unifies disparate signals from Defender, Entra, Intune, and more. And with Copilot built in, it empowers SOC teams to act at machine speed without losing human judgment.

But threat detection isn’t enough in today’s ever-changing threat landscape. That’s where Illumio comes in.

We add the missing layer: intelligent, automated, and explainable containment.

When Copilot flags a suspicious workload, Illumio can instantly isolate it. When Illumio Insights sees an anomaly in traffic flow, it suggests a segmentation policy. When teams investigate an incident, they get the context to act confidently.

The integration delivers:

• Instant containment: Stop lateral movement faster than extended detection and response (XDR) or security information management (SIM) tools alone. ‍
• Reduced dwell time: Real-time telemetry and segmentation eliminate attacker hideouts. ‍
• Simplified workflows: Native integration into Sentinel reduces tool sprawl and analyst fatigue. ‍
• Stronger cyber resilience: Gain the confidence that if attackers get in, they won’t get far.

All of the Illumio + Microsoft integrations are available in the Microsoft Marketplace and the new Microsoft Security Store. This makes them easy to deploy, manage, and scale across your hybrid multi-cloud environments.

And because Illumio integrations align directly with Microsoft’s Sentinel roadmap, you’re investing in the future of your security stack.

Modern cyber resilience requires breach containment

Cyberattacks aren’t slowing down. AI is supercharging adversaries. Network complexity is growing.  

The Midnight Blizzard cyberattack against Microsoft is just another example of what can happen to any organization.

Together, Illumio and Microsoft give security teams what they’ve always needed but rarely had: real-time detection, intelligent response, and fast, precise containment — all in a unified experience.

Learn more about the Illumio + Microsoft integrations, and try Illumio Insights free today.