Microsoft Defender for Business – Everything You Need to Know

Published on 31 January 2022

As we all know, cyber-attacks have been continuing to rise, with a significant increase in ransomware attacks over recent periods. Small to medium-sized businesses, in particular, have experienced a notable surge in cyberattacks, making it a top priority for many. These attacks have become more chaotic and unskilled, leading to a higher success rate for cybercriminals. On a positive note, Microsoft has recognized this issue and responded by developing security solutions tailored to protect SMBs. Microsoft Defender for Business is a device-focused security solution designed to deliver enterprise-level security to SMBs while remaining cost-effective.

This is an exciting step for any business with under 300 employees to gain better cyber security for their company. It is compatible across all devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

What’s Included:

Threat and Vulnerability Management

• Helps find and prioritise weaknesses that cybercriminals could take advantage of, which allows you to secure the foundations of your business’s network environment.

Attack Surface Reduction

• Using things like ransomware mitigation, firewalls, application control and more. Attack Surface Reduction decreases the areas where your business is most vulnerable on all devices.

Next-Generation Protection

• Using antimalware and antivirus to protect and stop any threats to the front door of your business’s network.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

• Behaviour-based detection and responses will find ongoing threats and remove them. You will also have access to manual and live response data, so you can take action and have direct control over devices to ensure they are secure.

Automated Investigation and Remediation

• You can scale your security and take immediate action to find and resolve (common) attacks with automated suggestions. This allows you to focus on more challenging and sophisticated threats without getting inundated with alerts and notifications.

APIs and Integration

• Automate your workflows and add Microsoft Defender for Business’s security data into one of your existing security platforms.

As you can see this is an exciting addition for many SMBs. If you are already on a Microsoft 365 Business Plan then this addition is free, however, it can be purchased as a standalone item too. Microsoft Defender for Business is designed to protect SMBs against cybersecurity threats like malware and ransomware. It will elevate your cybersecurity from traditional antivirus to next-generation protection against the growing threat of cybercrime. If you would like more information on how Microsoft Defender for Business can benefit your business, please book a meeting below or call us on 01908 044202.