Icertis reshaped its SOC by standardizing on the Microsoft security stack, with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Security Copilot at the center. Key outcomes:

• 50% drop in SOC incident volume
• Mean time to resolution reduced from 40 to 25 minutes
• Alert triage time cut by up to 80% (from about 60 minutes to 15 minutes for high-priority alerts)

How they achieved it:

• Used Defender for Cloud as a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) to monitor Azure OpenAI deployments, detect malicious prompts, and enforce security policies.
• Adopted Security Copilot agents to summarize and correlate alerts across Microsoft security and compliance tools, presenting a unified incident timeline and recommended actions.
• Automated common response steps (for example, in a phishing case: identifying malicious domains, revoking sessions, enforcing MFA, and resetting passwords within minutes).
• Enabled developers to generate KQL queries from natural language, which sped up onboarding and helped engineers investigate threats independently.

The net effect is a SOC that can handle more alerts and more AI workloads without adding headcount, while giving engineers more time to focus on long-term security improvements instead of manual alert review.

Icertis treats security as a core product feature and has reimagined its security architecture around Microsoft’s unified stack to protect both contract data and generative AI workloads. Core technologies in use

• Microsoft Defender for Cloud to:
  • Monitor Azure OpenAI deployments and detect malicious prompts (e.g., prompt injection, jailbreak attempts).
  • Provide AI posture visibility, attack path analysis, and risk reduction recommendations.
  • Apply built-in regulatory frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and NIST 800-53 across more than 300 Azure subscriptions.
  • Enforce Azure policies that block public endpoints and correct policy drift.
• Microsoft Purview to:
  • Automatically classify and encrypt files containing sensitive contract data.
  • Govern data consistently across regions and environments.
  • Enforce conditional access and block unauthorized activity from unmanaged devices.
• Microsoft Sentinel to:
  • Correlate insights from Defender for Cloud Apps and other sources.
  • Provide a unified view of SaaS and generative AI threats with high-fidelity alerts.
• Microsoft Entra to:
  • Implement a practical Zero Trust model where no user has default access.
  • Require explicit role requests, justification, and approval before production access is granted.
  • Use risk-based identity monitoring to flag anomalies like impossible travel or token misuse and trigger automated remediation.
• Defender for Cloud Apps to:
  • Discover, classify, and control web and GenAI apps, including shadow IT.
  • Assign security scores and block low-scoring apps.

Secure-by-design practices

• Embedding Secure by Design principles into the product lifecycle with early threat modeling, risk assessments, and architectural reviews.
• Running internal training and AI literacy programs so employees use generative AI tools securely.
• Applying an Icertis AI Policy grounded in company values (FORTE) to guide how AI is designed and deployed.
• Integrating Microsoft Defender for Containers into CI/CD workflows to scan Python-based container images for vulnerabilities before deployment.

Together, these tools and practices help Icertis protect sensitive contract intelligence, maintain compliance in regulated industries, and support secure growth of its generative AI portfolio, including its Vera AI suite and Copilot agents.

Icertis needed to maintain continuous compliance across 300+ Azure subscriptions while supporting rapid AI experimentation and deployments. To do this, it combined Microsoft cloud security and governance tools into a unified operating model. Compliance and governance approach

• Defender for Cloud as the central CNAPP layer:
  • Applies built-in regulatory frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and NIST 800-53 across all subscriptions.
  • Uses Azure policies to block public endpoints and correct policy drift automatically.
  • Provides multicloud visibility via connectors into environments like AWS.
• Defender for Cloud Apps for SaaS and GenAI governance:
  • Discovers and classifies web and generative AI applications, including shadow IT.
  • Assigns security scores and blocks low-scoring or noncompliant apps.
  • Works with Microsoft Sentinel and Defender Threat Intelligence to strengthen detection and response.
• Microsoft Purview for data governance:
  • Automatically classifies and encrypts sensitive contract data across regions and environments.
  • Enforces conditional access and blocks risky activity from unmanaged devices.
• Microsoft Entra for identity and access control:
  • Implements a Zero Trust model where access is never assumed and must be explicitly requested, justified, and approved.
  • Uses risk-based identity monitoring to detect anomalies and trigger automated remediation.

Operational impact

• Security teams gain a unified, high-fidelity view of threats across SaaS, cloud, and AI environments via Microsoft Sentinel.
• Automation and AI-driven insights reduce manual effort, enabling Icertis to pass frequent audits without expanding headcount.
• By embedding security and compliance into the development lifecycle and AI strategy, Icertis can scale its contract intelligence platform while maintaining a consistent standard of digital trust.