On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, during the Microsoft Ignite ConferenceSan Francisco, Sophos unveiled a major leap in enterprise cybersecurity: direct integration of its Sophos Intelix threat intelligence platform into Microsoft Security Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The move isn’t just another feature update—it’s a quiet revolution in how security teams operate. No more switching between tools. No more hunting for context. Now, the same AI that helps your marketing team draft emails can also tell you if a suspicious file came from a known ransomware gang—right inside Teams.
Why This Matters to Every Organization
Most companies don’t have a 20-person SOC team. They have one overworked IT admin juggling Slack alerts, Excel logs, and a half-dead VPN. Sophos Intelix changes that. By feeding its global threat data—drawn from 223 terabytes of daily telemetry and 34 million detections across more than 600,000 organizations—directly into Microsoft’s AI assistants, even small businesses suddenly gain access to intelligence once reserved for Fortune 500 security teams. Imagine asking, “Is this link in the CEO’s email dangerous?” and getting a reply with historical behavior, geolocation of the server, and whether it’s been seen in attacks targeting healthcare providers last week. That’s not sci-fi. It’s now live in the Microsoft Security Copilot store.
How It Works in Practice
Security analysts can now type natural language queries into Microsoft Security Copilot—like “Show me all recent activity linked to IP 185.143.221.12” or “What’s the reputation of this attachment?”—and get enriched results pulled from Sophos X-Ops, the company’s 24/7 threat operations center. The system doesn’t just return a yes/no answer. It shows detonation analysis, behavioral patterns, and even links to similar attacks seen in Europe or Southeast Asia. For IT admins using Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, scanning a URL or domain takes one sentence: “Check this URL: bit.ly/xyz123.” No dashboard. No login. Just a clear verdict in plain English.
And here’s the twist: it works even if you’re not a security expert. A finance manager flagged a strange invoice in Teams? Microsoft 365 Copilot can now pull Sophos’ threat score and say, “This domain was flagged 17 times last month in phishing campaigns targeting payroll departments.” Suddenly, non-technical staff become the first line of defense.
Building on a Years-Long Partnership
This isn’t Sophos’ first dance with Microsoft. Since 2020, the two have partnered to embed Sophos Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) into Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. But this integration goes deeper—beyond detection, into understanding. Sophos Intelix doesn’t just report threats; it explains them. Where other threat feeds offer static indicators, Sophos adds context: who’s behind it, what tools they use, and how they evolve. That’s why the integration is so powerful. It turns Microsoft’s AI from a helpful assistant into a seasoned investigator.
And the expansion doesn’t stop there. Later this year, Sophos Intelix will connect to Microsoft Agent 365, Microsoft’s new control plane for AI agents. That means not just humans—but AI agents managing patching, access requests, or cloud configs—will now be protected by Sophos’ global threat intelligence. With Entra-based identity management tying it all together, compliance and observability become seamless. Think of it as giving every AI bot in your organization a cybersecurity conscience.
The Bigger Picture: AI Needs Trusted Data
AI is only as smart as the data it’s trained on. Microsoft’s Copilot tools are powerful—but they’re vulnerable to hallucinations, especially when it comes to security. If an AI says a file is safe because it’s never been seen before, that’s a dangerous assumption. Sophos Intelix fixes that. By grounding Microsoft’s AI in real-world, constantly updated threat data from actual attacks, it reduces false negatives and increases confidence in automated decisions. It’s not just about speed—it’s about accuracy.
According to Sophos’ November 18 press release, security teams now work nonstop. “They’re not just responding to attacks,” said a senior analyst at a Fortune 100 firm who spoke anonymously. “They’re predicting them. And they can’t afford to wait for reports. They need answers now, in the tools they already use.” That’s exactly what this integration delivers.
What’s Next?
The integration is already live in the Microsoft Security Copilot store. But the real game-changer is yet to come: Sophos Intelix for Microsoft Agent 365, expected in early 2026. That’s when AI-driven automation—like auto-remediating compromised accounts or blocking malicious API calls—will be powered by Sophos’ global threat graph. Organizations using Azure, Entra, and Microsoft 365 will soon see their entire digital ecosystem protected by a single, unified intelligence layer.
For small businesses, this means enterprise-grade security without enterprise complexity. For large enterprises, it means reducing alert fatigue and accelerating response times by up to 60%, according to internal Sophos benchmarks. And for everyone? It means trusting AI—not blindly, but with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this integration improve threat detection speed?
Before this integration, security teams had to manually cross-reference alerts with external threat feeds, often losing hours per incident. Now, with Sophos Intelix embedded directly into Microsoft Security Copilot, analysts can query indicators like IPs, URLs, or file hashes using natural language and get enriched results—including detonation analysis and global attack patterns—in seconds. Internal testing shows a 55-65% reduction in mean time to investigate (MTTI) for common threats.
Can non-security staff use these features?
Yes. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat lets any user—HR, finance, marketing—check file or URL reputations with simple questions like “Is this link safe?” or “What’s this domain known for?” The system responds with clear, jargon-free risk ratings based on Sophos Intelix data. This empowers frontline staff to act as early warning sensors, reducing the burden on IT teams and stopping phishing attempts before they escalate.
What data does Sophos Intelix provide?
Sophos Intelix draws from 223 terabytes of daily telemetry and 34 million detections across 600,000+ global endpoints. It includes real-time file reputation, URL and domain risk scores, behavioral analytics from sandbox detonations, threat actor TTPs (tactics, techniques, procedures), and geolocation mapping of malicious infrastructure. All of this is continuously updated and normalized into a single, queryable intelligence layer.
Is this integration available for all Microsoft customers?
The integration is available to any organization using Microsoft Security Copilot or Microsoft 365 Copilot with a qualifying Microsoft 365 E3/E5 or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint plan. It’s accessible via the Microsoft Security Copilot store and requires no additional Sophos licenses beyond existing Sophos Central or Sophos X-Ops subscriptions. Customers on older plans may need to upgrade their Microsoft licenses to unlock full functionality.
How does this affect compliance and auditing?
By integrating with Entra ID, the system automatically ties threat intelligence to user identities and access logs, creating auditable trails for regulatory frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and NIST. Security teams can now generate compliance reports showing which users encountered threats, how they were handled, and whether policies were enforced—all within native Microsoft tools. This eliminates the need for manual log aggregation, reducing audit prep time by up to 40%.
What’s the difference between this and previous Sophos-Microsoft integrations?
Past integrations focused on data sharing—like sending endpoint alerts to Microsoft Defender. This is different: it’s about embedding Sophos’ threat intelligence directly into Microsoft’s AI assistants, enabling natural language interaction and real-time decision-making. It’s not just telemetry exchange—it’s contextual understanding. Where before you had alerts, now you have explanations. And soon, you’ll have AI agents acting on those explanations automatically.