James P. Courtney II: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Protects Against Many Attack Vectors

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection [ATP]) is part of a suite of tools included in Microsoft 365 Defender. As an endpoint protection tool, it provides all the necessary functions in a well- integrated package to protect you against most endpoint threat vectors, including phishing, malware, and attacks through malicious websites. In addition to protecting Windows systems, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint protects devices running Linux; Android; and macOS, iOS, and iPadOS operating systems.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is one of the most comprehensive enterprise security products for on-premises infrastructures. People familiar with Defender ATP will have no difficulty transitioning to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint because much of the basic functionality is the same. New users will find the Microsoft Defender Security Center dashboard intuitive and easy to understand.

One big advantage of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is its ability to automate many remediation functions so that you can respond much more quickly to alerts and events. If you have not created scenario-based playbooks or kept your processes up-to-date, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comes with default response automations that you can customize. Because of its machine learning capabilities, the tool learns from your environment. As you add customized automation to block certain kinds of threats, the tool will model that blocking and containment based on specific behaviors in your environment. Additionally, endpoint behavioral sensors are built into the Windows 10 operating system, so if your environment is up- to-date, you will not need to install and manage agents. All these capabilities add up to a tool that is faster to implement so that you start seeing value.