The Midnight Sentinel: Inside Microsoft's Shift to Autonomous Cyber Defense

At 3:14 AM on a rainy Tuesday, Marcus leaned closer to his triple-monitor setup, his face illuminated by a harsh blue glow. A fresh cascade of red notification banners trickled down his screen, warning of a potential database intrusion. For Marcus, a senior security analyst at a mid-sized fintech startup, this was the fifteenth false alarm of the night. He took a slow sip of lukewarm dark roast, wondering if he was chasing digital ghosts or a genuine catastrophe.

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