Microsoft Defender XDR A Unified Security Operations Suite
Introduction
Microsoft is pushing a new solution as a sole security operations platform a.k.a Microsoft Defender XDR, this platform is going to provide a single pane of glass for all security incidents across various Microsoft security products including Defender for Cloud, Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud Apps, Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Sentinel. It also provides investigative functionalities with tailored recommendations powered by the newly introduced GPT-powered security copilot.
Here's a list of the different Microsoft Defender XDR products and solutions that Microsoft Defender XDR coordinates with:
One stop solution
Microsoft Defender XDR is an eXtended detection and response (XDR) solution that automatically collects, correlates, and analyzes signal, threat, and alert data from across your Microsoft 365 environment, including endpoint, email, applications, and identities. It leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to stop attacks, and remediate affected assets into a safe state.
Think of XDR as the next step in security, unifying endpoint (endpoint detection and response or EDR), email, app, and identity security in one place.
Anatomy of a cyber security attack
Microsoft Defender XDR is a Cloud-based, unified, pre- and post-breach enterprise defence suite. It coordinates preventiondetectioninvestigation, and response across endpoints, identities, apps, email, collaborative applications, and all of their data.
In this scenario, a cybersecurity attack is occurring. An employee in your organization receives a phishing email, opens the attachment, and unknowingly installs malware. This could result in a series of events that may lead to unauthorized access and theft of sensitive data. However, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is in place to provide protection.
- Exchange Online Protection, a component of Microsoft Defender for Office 365, can identify the phishing email and use mail flow rules (transport rules) to prevent it from reaching the recipient's Inbox.
- Defender for Office 365 utilizes Safe Attachments to analyze email attachments and identify any harmful content, ensuring that the email either becomes non-actionable for the user or is prevented from being delivered at all.
- Defender for Endpoint oversees devices connected to the corporate network, identifying and addressing device and network vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.
- Defender for Identity monitors for sudden account changes such as privilege escalation or high-risk lateral movement, as well as reports on identity issues like unconstrained Kerberos delegation for the security team to rectify.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps detects abnormal activities such as impossible travel, unauthorized credential access, and unusual file download, sharing, or email forwarding, promptly reporting these to the security team.
Defender XDR Architecture
The diagram below illustrates a high-level architecture for key Microsoft Defender XDR components and integrations.
- Microsoft Defender XDR amalgamates signals from all Defender components to offer extended detection and response (XDR) across domains, encompassing a unified incident queue, automated attack response, self-healing capabilities for compromised devices, user identities, and mailboxes, cross-threat hunting, and comprehensive threat analytics.
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 protects organizations from malicious threats present in email messages, URLs, and collaboration tools, and shares these signals with Microsoft Defender XDR. Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is integrated for end-to-end protection of incoming emails and attachments.
- Microsoft Defender for Identity gathers signals from servers running Active Directory Federated Services (AD FS) and on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) to safeguard hybrid identity environments and protect against lateral movements by hackers using compromised accounts.
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint collects signals from and protects the devices used by an organization.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps captures signals from the organization's use of cloud apps and secures data flowing between the environment and these apps, including sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud apps.
- Microsoft Entra ID Protection evaluates risk data from billions of sign-in attempts to assess the risk of each sign-in to an environment and uses this data to allow or prevent account access based on Conditional Access policy configurations. Microsoft Entra ID Protection is licensed separately from Microsoft Defender XDR and is included with Microsoft Entra ID P2.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the coordinated approach of Microsoft Defender XDR provides a single pane of glass for security incidents, facilitating efficient and effective management and response. The amalgamation of signals from different Defender components ensures extended detection and response capabilities, empowering organizations to proactively safeguard their digital assets.
With the introduction of GPT-powered security copilot and seamless integrations with various Microsoft security solutions, Microsoft Defender XDR emerges as a pivotal tool in modern cybersecurity, offering tailored recommendations and automated attack response, thereby elevating the security posture of organizations to effectively mitigate evolving cyber threats.
This product is currently part of Microsoft’s private preview program.