M365 Roundup, August 2024: Copilot Gets Guardrails
TL;DR
- Microsoft Copilot adds enterprise data protection for Entra-signed-in users between mid-September and mid-October 2024, along with a simplified ad-free interface.
- Entra ID Protection's Attacker in the Middle detection reached general availability in August 2024, elevating compromised users to high risk and triggering Conditional Access, with an Entra ID P2 license required.
- Windows Autopatch and Windows Update for Business deployment service merge into a single update management service in Intune starting mid-September 2024.
- New Entra ID FIDO2 provisioning APIs in public preview let organizations pre-provision security keys for users instead of relying on self-service registration.
- Teams adds CAPTCHA verification for anonymous meeting participants in early October 2024 to block bot and third-party app joins.
August 2024's wave has a clear center of gravity: control. Copilot picks up enterprise data protection and usage reporting APIs, Entra ships a high-precision token-theft detection and FIDO2 pre-provisioning, Intune folds two update services into one, and even Teams meetings get a bot bouncer. Everything that matters, grouped by what it does for you rather than which product team shipped it.
First, some news of our own. As of August 2024 we have soft-launched CloudCapsule, an automated tool, more than a year in the making, that runs Microsoft 365 security assessments against the CIS Controls. We built it to streamline tenant assessments to a trusted standard, raise the tide of security in the space, and help MSPs understand the why behind every policy configuration being put in place.
The tool performs automated evidence collection for the CIS Controls and detects tenant misconfigurations against security best practices. You can run a free assessment against a tenant to see it in action. (Note: it does not work against M365 dev tenants.)
The security ships: identity, meetings, and mail
AiTM detection in Entra ID Protection hits GA
A high-precision detection now triggers on user accounts compromised by an adversary who intercepted the user's credentials, including tokens issued to the user. The risk is identified through Microsoft 365 Defender and elevates the user to high risk, triggering your configured Conditional Access policy. Rolling out mid-August 2024 through late August 2024.
Requires an Entra ID P2 license: What are risks in Microsoft Entra ID Protection (opens in new tab).
FIDO2 provisioning APIs enter public preview
Passkeys are popular as a phishing-resistant method, but registration has been limited to users enrolling their own security keys. The new Microsoft Entra ID FIDO2 provisioning APIs let organizations pre-provision keys for users, so the first-use experience is smoother and day-one authentication is phishing resistant. Self-service registration and default-configuration deployments still work as before.
Full announcement: Public preview: Microsoft Entra ID FIDO2 provisioning APIs (opens in new tab).
CAPTCHA for anonymous Teams meeting joins
Tenants will be able to require CAPTCHA verification for anonymous meeting participants, protection against malicious bot and third-party app joins, across Teams desktop, mobile, and web. Rolling out early October 2024 through mid-October 2024.
Bulk Senders Insight for Exchange Online Protection
Powered by Defender for Office 365, Bulk Senders Insight gives admins a simulation tool for tuning bulk email policy: real-time simulations that identify the optimal bulk complaint level (BCL) and the false positives and false negatives a given threshold would produce across the tenant. Rolling out mid-August 2024 through mid-September 2024.
The management ships: updates, migrations, and Copilot governance
Autopatch and WUfB-DS become one service
Microsoft is making Windows Autopatch the single home for Windows enterprise update management by unifying Windows Autopatch and the Windows Update for Business deployment service (WUfB-DS). Instead of multiple tabs and menus in the Intune admin center, update management organizes into three categories:
- Windows Updates: create and assign policies controlling how and when quality updates, feature updates, and driver updates install
- Tenant Management: use Autopatch groups to organize devices into update rings such as pilot, production, or test, and file support requests with Windows Autopatch
- Windows Autopatch reports: analyze update performance and reliability, and troubleshoot issues
Each category carries its own licensing notes, so check the licensing section of the announcement. Rolling out mid-September 2024, reaching all tenants by mid-October 2024.
Admin policy to migrate users to new Outlook
A new Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook policy lets IT migrate users from classic Outlook for Windows to new Outlook for Windows on the admin's schedule instead of the user's.
More info: Enable or disable access to new Outlook (opens in new tab). Rolled out early August 2024 through mid-August 2024.
Copilot gets enterprise data protection
For users signed in with an Entra account, Microsoft Copilot will offer enterprise data protection (EDP) and redirect users to a new simplified, ad-free interface designed for work and education. Rolling out mid-September 2024 through mid-October 2024. Details: Updates to Microsoft Copilot to bring enterprise data protection to more organizations (opens in new tab).
Copilot usage metrics land in the Graph API
Copilot for Microsoft 365 usage data is being added to the Microsoft Graph API, opening the door to custom reporting and analytics on adoption. Sample request for one of the three APIs: getMicrosoft365CopilotUserCountSummary (opens in new tab). Rolling out early September 2024 through mid-September 2024.
The quality-of-life ships
Microsoft Teams
Copy/paste without the metadata. Copying messages in Teams will no longer drag along the author name and timestamp, answering a long-running user complaint. Most users simply want the message text, and now that is what they get. Generally available.
Expanded search for 1:1 chats. Users can widen a keyword search of a 1:1 chat to all results related to a person, with suggestions to search with or without a keyword, on Windows, Mac, and the web. Rolled out mid-August 2024 through late August 2024.
Voting and archiving in Q&A. Organizers and co-organizers of meetings, webinars, and town halls can let attendees upvote significant questions and archive questions to declutter the main Q&A feed. Rolling out early September 2024 through late September 2024.
Microsoft Outlook
Attachments open in desktop apps. In new Outlook for Windows, double-clicking an attachment opens it in the user's preferred desktop app instead of an in-Outlook preview, no more saving locally first. For security, users see a confirmation dialog per file type (.pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .jpeg, and so on) until they uncheck "Always ask before opening this type of file." Rolling out late August 2024 through late September 2024.
See who is in the office. If users have set work hours and location (opens in new tab), colleagues can quickly see who plans to be in the office via a new calendar feature. Rolling out early October 2024 through late October 2024.
Work hours and location in My Day. The My Day pane gains work hours and location information, where users can update their own status and see who is coming into the office. Rolling out early October 2024.
Copy attendee responses. Users can copy a list of meeting attendees and their response status (attending, declined, or no response) to the clipboard. Rolling out mid-October 2024 through mid-November 2024.
Get diagnostics for support tickets. After opening a ticket with Microsoft Support, users can select Get diagnostics in the Help tab, upload logs, copy the generated Support ID, and share it with the support agent. Rolling out late August 2024 through late September 2024.
Microsoft OneDrive
Colored folders reach File Explorer. The folder colors introduced for OneDrive on the web in mid-2023 come to the OneDrive folder in Windows File Explorer. Rolling out mid-September 2024 through early October 2024.
Microsoft Copilot
Schedule with Copilot from an email. A new Schedule with Copilot button in the Outlook toolbar turns an email thread into a meeting invitation: participants pulled from the conversation, a drafted title, agenda, and summary of the thread so far, with the original email attached. Rolled out mid-August 2024 through late August 2024.
Automatic document summaries in Word. Copilot for Microsoft 365 will generate a document summary automatically when a file is opened in Word. Rolling out late August 2024 through late September 2024.
Frequently asked questions
What does enterprise data protection mean for Copilot users?
For users signed in with an Entra account, Microsoft Copilot prompts and responses get enterprise-grade protection, and users are redirected to a simplified, ad-free interface designed for work and education. The rollout runs from mid-September to mid-October 2024.
What changes in Intune when Autopatch and WUfB-DS unify?
Update management consolidates into three areas in the Intune admin center: Windows Updates for quality, feature, and driver update policies; Tenant Management for Autopatch groups and support requests; and Windows Autopatch reports for update performance and troubleshooting.
What license does the new AiTM detection require?
Entra ID P2. The detection is identified through Microsoft 365 Defender, elevates the affected user to high risk, and triggers whatever risk-based Conditional Access policy you have configured.
A month of Microsoft changes, verified in 60 seconds
Every update wave moves settings and defaults across your tenants. CloudCapsule runs a CIS-mapped assessment of 250+ controls per tenant in about a minute, so August's changes never become next quarter's findings. Note: it does not run against M365 dev tenants.
Run a free assessment
Written by
Nick Ross
CEO · Microsoft MVP · Founder, T-Minus 365
Nick is not just a CEO, he's a respected thought leader and influencer in the MSP space. Tens of thousands of MSPs learn through his YouTube channel, T-Minus365. Nick has been honored as a three-time Microsoft MVP for his educational content; his expertise and influence are the backbone of our mission, ensuring that you are in the best hands when it comes to security.
Nick joined Pax8 in 2017, where he would ultimately oversee product management for PSA and Microsoft integrations. Following his tenure at Pax8, Nick has continued to demonstrate his leadership prowess as an executive at various MSPs, culminating in his most recent role at Sourcepass.
Nick holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from Florida State University, as well as a Minor Degree in Entrepreneurship. In his free time, Nick is an avid hiker, reader, and fitness-junkie.
