With more employees, devices, applications and data moving to the cloud and hybrid environments, the attack surface has expanded exponentially. At the same time, threat actors have grown more sophisticated, deploying evasive, fileless malware and weaponizing stolen identities at a massive scale.
Ransomware gangs paralyze operations for profit, while nation-state hackers steal intellectual property and trade secrets. While bolstering security is no simple task, leveraging the right Microsoft solutions can help tip the scales in your favor.
This post explores 9 innovative products from Microsoft that can take your cyber defenses to new heights when combined with a comprehensive security strategy.
1. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
A foundational layer of protection is Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, which delivers anti-malware, application control, device control, vulnerability management and more through a single agent. This Microsoft solution uses cloud-powered AI to analyze trillions of signals daily from endpoints across the world, enabling it to rapidly detect and block both known and unknown threats.
Its behavior monitoring and ransomware protection help prevent file-less and file-based attacks from executing. Defender for Endpoint also simplifies security management through a centralized console that provides visibility across all endpoints.
2. Microsoft Sentinel
Gaining full visibility into your environment is critical for detecting threats and responding quickly. Microsoft Sentinel provides a security information and event management (SIEM) solution to ingest, analyze and investigate data from various sources, like Defender for Endpoint, Azure Active Directory and more.
With the Sentinel Microsoft solution, you can leverage powerful AI and analytics to detect anomalies and correlate threats across your hybrid infrastructure. Its investigation workbench helps accelerate incident response by automating workflows and allowing security teams to collaborate on investigations. Sentinel also offers out-of-the-box integration with over 150 security technologies.
3. Microsoft Identity Manager
Strong identity and access management are paramount for blocking unauthorized access attempts. Microsoft Identity Manager helps secure identities across hybrid IT environments by simplifying user provisioning, access requests and access reviews.
- It provides self-service password reset and single sign-on capabilities while also streamlining tasks like user onboarding.
- Identity Manager further enhances security through just-in-time access that only grants permissions when needed, reducing the attack surface.
- Its access certifications and attestations ensure permissions remain aligned with job functions over time.
Combined with Azure Active Directory Premium, Identity Manager enables granular role-based access control across all your applications and systems.
4. Microsoft Cloud App Security
As more workloads move to the cloud, protection must follow. Microsoft Cloud App Security enables visibility and control over SaaS applications usage. It offers cloud discovery to gain insight into all sanctioned and unsanctioned SaaS apps in use. Cloud App Security also provides data loss prevention, app permission reviews, inline monitoring and conditional access controls.
These Microsoft solution capabilities help secure access and detect anomalies or policy violations. Additionally, its API protection helps safeguard APIs from threats like data exfiltration, fraud and account takeover. When paired with Microsoft Defender for Identity, Cloud App Security strengthens your zero-trust strategy across cloud and on-premises environments.
5. Microsoft Defender for Identity
To protect on-premises Active Directory environments, Microsoft Defender for Identity delivers identity protection, monitoring and response.
- This Microsoft solution uses AI and behavioral analytics to detect identity-based threats like compromised credentials, ransomware activity and lateral movement.
- Defender for Identity also helps identify risky permissions, dormant accounts and other vulnerabilities.
- Its investigation and remediation tools aid incident response by surfacing related events, users and machines for further analysis. And its API integration with Azure Active Directory lets you extend monitoring to cloud-based identities.
Overall, Defender for Identity safeguards user identities from cyberattacks and reduces your attack surface.
6. Microsoft Defender for Business
Small and mid-sized businesses require tailored security that scales with their needs. Microsoft Defender for Business provides comprehensive endpoint protection through a single lightweight agent. It leverages the same AI and threat intelligence capabilities as Defender for Endpoint to block malware, viruses and other threats in real time.
This Microsoft solution also secures identities with features like multi-factor authentication and privileged access management. Its reporting and management portal offers visibility across all devices and helps satisfy compliance requirements.
7. Microsoft Azure Sentinel
To extend your security posture to the cloud, Microsoft Azure Sentinel gives you a SIEM, a security data lake, and automated actions—all powered by AI. It collects and analyzes activity data across Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, on-premises systems and over 150 security products.
Sentinel’s threat intelligence and behavior analytics help identify anomalies, detect threats and accelerate investigations. Its built-in automations can perform tasks like isolating compromised devices or revoking suspicious user access.
For advanced analytics, Sentinel supports custom queries, visualizations and playbooks. Its cloud scale allows ingesting limitless amounts of data cost-effectively. Overall, Azure Sentinel strengthens cloud security posture monitoring and response.
8. Microsoft Azure Active Directory
Securing identities in the cloud starts with Azure Active Directory, the cloud-based identity and access management service. Azure AD helps secure access to thousands of SaaS and web apps through single sign-on. Its built-in multi-factor authentication and conditional access policies enforce strong authentication for risky sign-ins.
The Azure AD Microsoft solution also protects against identity-based threats through automated threat detection, advanced monitoring and automated response capabilities. Its identity protection identifies compromised credentials and responds to cyberattacks. For hybrid scenarios, Azure AD enables seamless synchronization with on-premises Active Directory.
9. Microsoft Security Compliance Center
Ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations is crucial for security and privacy.
Microsoft Security Compliance Center is a centralized hub for assessing and managing compliance across Microsoft cloud services like Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
- It provides out-of-the-box policies and templates aligned to standards like ISO, FedRAMP, HIPAA and more.
- Compliance Center also helps automate assessment tasks through its policy management engine. Its reporting features give visibility into compliance posture over time.
- And its guided remediation workflows simplify achieving and maintaining compliance.
When combined with other Microsoft solutions, Compliance Center streamlines satisfying compliance requirements holistically for your cloud infrastructure, apps and data.
Final Words
Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, so defenses require an adaptive, multi-layered approach. The 9 Microsoft solutions covered empower organizations with intelligent, connected capabilities that span identities, endpoints, apps, infrastructure and more. By leveraging these products together as part of a comprehensive strategy, enterprises can gain unmatched visibility, protection and control. With such an integrated security ecosystem, they can unlock the next level of resilience against modern threats.
