Microsoft Copilot promises a huge leap in productivity, surfacing insights and automating tasks across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. But beneath the surface, Copilot’s deep integration also blurs the boundaries between user permissions and enterprise data, heightening the risk of sensitive information exposure.
When organizations enable Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant instantly inherits access rights from each user across Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint. If a user has permission to access confidential documents, Copilot can also access, and potentially surface, the information contained in them in whatever it is asked to generate.
How serious is the problem? Research shows that Microsoft Copilot interacts with about 3M confidential records per organization. These include financial numbers and statistics, HR records, IP data, and more. Because the majority of organizations allow Copilot to access these records if the employee has access to them and does not have a mechanism for Copilot to recognize which of the documents are confidential, the likelihood of the sensitive data contained in these documents to permeate into files shared externally is extremely high.
What does over-permissioning look like in practice? Imagine a Copilot prompt asking for “last quarter’s financial performance” and the response pulls confidential payroll data because that spreadsheet is accessible by the user but was never intended for broad consumption. Or consider a scenario where Copilot, acting on behalf of an executive assistant, surfaces HR files in a draft email due to overlapping access rights in SharePoint.
Then add in the amplifying power of AI. Unlike manual searches, Copilot can aggregate, summarize, and republish sensitive content from every tool it touches. This means internal oversharing is instantly more discoverable, and external leaks are one misconfigured permission or compromised account away.
Traditional data governance often relies on security “by obscurity,” counting on users not knowing where sensitive files live, or lacking the tools to search widely. Copilot upends this model. The AI assistant ties together every data source a user can touch, surfacing forgotten corners of OneDrive and orphaned spreadsheets in Teams channels. It can even pull outdated, misclassified, or duplicate files into new outputs, compounding oversharing risks.
Alert admins may notice Copilot surfacing information outside approved channels or intended audiences, especially in environments lacking strong data classification and least-privilege rules. But without proactive controls, the window for detection may be very slim and the consequences for compliance and trust are severe.
Shadow IT and shadow AI are already huge risks, with employees routinely bypassing official channels for convenience. Copilot accelerates this challenge. For instance, a prompt for “all recent customer feedback” can pull from a mix of internal notes, external reviews, and even sensitive support tickets because all are accessible with a broad enough permission set.
Recent analysis reveals that nearly 67% of enterprise security teams now express concern over Copilot and similar AI tools potentially exposing business-critical information, and the US Congress itself banned staff from using Copilot due to unresolved data security concerns.
Bonfy.AI advocates an aggressive, adaptive stance. Organizations can’t afford to wait for an incident to audit permissions. They need:
In the world of generative AI, robust access management isn’t optional, it’s the difference between empowerment and exposure. We partner with B2B SaaS and cybersecurity teams to secure the future of work, ensuring Copilot is a force for progress, not a catalyst for risk.
For more on how Bonfy helps organizations govern AI-powered content (and specifically Copilot) and reduce the risk of data leaks, or to request a risk assessment tailored to your Microsoft 365 environment, check out this page on our website. The era of permission-aware AI is here, make sure your controls are ready for it.