Microsoft 365 Security
Microsoft Defender provides capable and ubiquitous malware protection for every Windows PC. But for enterprise customers, Microsoft Security provides an even wider range of customisable solutions to defend your team against any threat, from drive-by downloads to ransomware, weaponized URLs in emails to user identity spoofing.
With Microsoft 365, you get the tools you need to manage a full fleet of devices, protect desktops and servers, locate and wipe lost phones or laptops, and remotely monitor and remediate threats on vulnerable and compromised systems.
Defender for Endpoint
For everything from home offices, though SME, to full-scale enterprise-grade endpoint protection, results from rigorous anti-malware tests1 have demonstrated Defender’s development into an award-winning, best-in-class anti-malware solution.
As well as realtime threat detection and scheduled scans, Defender provides ransomware protection. It uses controlled folder access to prevent key files and directories from being altered by unauthorised programs changed without permission, as well as version-controlled file synchronisation to OneDrive or SharePoint.
You’d expect endpoint protection from Microsoft to cover your Windows desktop systems, but its comprehensive reach extends even further. Endpoint security features are available for macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
And your Windows servers can be protected, too, with a Defender for Endpoint standalone or Azure Defender for Servers license, with support for Windows Server 2008 SP1 through to Server 2019 and beyond. Whether the systems you need to protect are based in the cloud, in the office, or at your staff’s homes, Defender has you covered.
Mobile Device Management with Intune
If you’re going to deploy Defender for Endpoint to mobile devices, you’ll do that through Intune, Microsoft’s one-stop Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) solution.
Here, you can manage laptops, as well as smartphones and tablets, remotely. Fully integrated with Azure AD to handle identity management and sign-in, Intune covers everything from app deployment and usage tracking to locating and selectively wiping sensitive data from lost or stolen devices.
This flexibility means that InTune is as effective for managing employees’ own BYOD (bring your own device) hardware as it is for keeping on top of company-issued phones and laptops.
But Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) goes further, with features including threat analytics, cloud-based app auditing and analysis with Microsoft Cloud App Security, and highly granular data encryption and data access control using Azure Information Protection to ensure that sensitive information stays in the hands of trusted staff.
Microsoft Defender for Identity
Built into Microsoft 365 Defender, and available to even on-premises customers by integrating Microsoft’s cloud-based security services with your Active Directory deployment, Microsoft Defender for Identity provides sophisticated monitoring of suspicious user activity.
By registering your users’ standard behaviour, Defender for Identity can spot anomalies as soon as they appear, making it easy to pinpoint and neutralise attempted credential theft and unauthorised device use.
The Defender for Identity portal highlights suspicious activity in an easy-to-follow timeline format, providing threat reports on behaviours including attempts to brute-force passwords, network scans, searches for user information, privilege escalation attempts, account changes, and unexpected connections.
Email defence
Microsoft 365’s Exchange Online comes with a built-in Protection service that provides robust defense against spam and malware. Stand-alone Exchange accounts are available from £3.00 per month or as part of a full Microsoft 365 Business subscription, while Exchange Online Protection is available as a bolt-on for on-premises email from just 75p per user, per month.
Features include sophisticated spam and malware protection, highly configurable content filtering that can help ensure regulatory compliance, message tracing and near-instant threat reporting, mail protection reports via the Microsoft 365 Defender portal, and threat investigation tools that allow your administrators to analyse threats before they come close to your staff’s inboxes.
Expert administration
At the backend, Microsoft 365 Security provides a full monitoring and management interface, from behavioural analysis of user accounts to aid in spotting ongoing attacks and zero-day exploits, to device monitoring that can reveal potential vulnerabilities and required updates across your device fleet.
Attack surface reduction (ASR) rules can be rolled out across your organisation to enforce safety measures such as blocking unauthorised processes spawned by commonly exploited software and preventing obfuscated scripts and macros from running.
With help4IT, you’ll receive expert guidance and hands-on configuration to put in place the security rules your business needs to stay safe. Whether you need set-up and handover or ongoing hands-on support, threat investigation and analysis, or pro-active endpoint security monitoring by help4IT’s experts, your device and data security are in good hands.
1Based on 2021 results from SE Labs, AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives
