A bug in Microsoft Office led to a situation in which Copilot AI summarised customers' confidential emails without authorisation, TechCrunch reported on Feb. 18.
The bug persisted from January, and the AI could read and summarise emails even when data loss prevention (DLP) policies were set.
Copilot AI is an AI-based chat function that paying Microsoft 365 customers can use in the Office suite, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. But the bug, tracked as CW1226324, meant emails labelled "confidential" were also used in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Microsoft said it began rolling out a patch to fix the problem in early February.
The European Parliament's IT department blocked the Microsoft AI function on devices used by lawmakers over concerns it could upload confidential emails to the cloud. Microsoft did not disclose how many customers were affected by the bug, TechCrunch reported.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr