Since 2023, Microsoft has seen a 2.75 times increase in the number of organizations encountering ransomware campaigns.¹ And up to 90% of successful ransomware campaigns leverage unmanaged endpoints, which are typically personal devices that people bring to work.¹ While the number of ransomware attempts has increased drastically, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has reduced the percent of successful ransomware attacks at a higher rate—more than three times over the same time period.¹

The key to fighting ransomware at scale is Microsoft’s unwavering commitment to simplifying, automating, and augmenting security analyst workstreams to meet the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s cyberthreat environment. We are excited to announce that Gartner has named Microsoft a Leader in the 2024 Gartner^® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection Platforms for the fifth consecutive time. Notably, Microsoft has moved to a tie for number 1 on the Vision Axis. We believe this announcement reflects Microsoft’s continued progress in helping organizations protect their endpoints against even the most sophisticated attacks, while driving continued efficiency for security operations center (SOC) teams.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is an endpoint security platform that helps organizations secure their digital estate using AI-powered, industry-leading endpoint detection and response across Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It is core to Microsoft Defender XDR and built on global threat intelligence—informed by more than 78 trillion daily signals and more than 10,000 security experts—empowering security teams to fend off sophisticated threats.²

Our customers and partners have been an invaluable part of this multiyear journey, and we are grateful for both their business and their partnership. Read the complimentary report providing more details on our positioning as a Leader.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is built from the ground up with operational resilience in mind. It starts with our agent architecture that follows best practices for Windows by limiting its reliance on kernel mode while protecting customers in real-time. It does not load content updates from files in the kernel mode driver. As an added safeguard, we deliver updates to customers applying Microsoft’s long-established safe deployment practices (SDP) model. Customers have full control over how these updates are delivered and how controls are applied to their device estate. This model of shared control helps provide security and resiliency. 

Over the last 12 months, Microsoft has delivered significant innovations that have helped defenders gain the upper hand against cyberthreats including: improved attack disruption, Microsoft Copilot for Security, a new Linux agent, simplified settings management, the unified security operations platform and Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR.

Automatic attack disruption, unique to Microsoft, is a self-defense capability that stops in-progress cyberattacks by analyzing the attacker’s intent, identifying compromised assets, and isolating or disabling assets like users or devices at machine speed. For example, in July 2024 we discovered the CVE-2024-37085 vulnerability. Numerous ransomware operators exploited it to encrypt the entire file system and move laterally in the network. Attack disruption fends off such sophisticated ransomware attempts by blocking lateral movement and remote encryption in a decentralized way across all your device estate—in just three minutes on average.³ This is a capability that Microsoft continues to invest in to disrupt more scenarios even earlier in the cyberattack chain.  

Microsoft Copilot for Security is the industry’s first generative AI that empowers security teams to protect at the speed and scale of AI, generally available as of April 2024. Embedded within the Defender XDR experience, it assists analysts by providing enriched context for faster and smarter decisions. It accelerates investigation, containment, and remediation with prescriptive step-by-step guidance. Analysts can now easily understand attacker actions with intuitive script analysis and launch complex Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries using plain language. The results from a randomized controlled trial based on 147 security professionals showed significant efficiency gains including speed and quality improvements when using Copilot for Security. Security professionals were up to 22% faster across all tasks, and more than 93% of users wanted to use Copilot again.

A new Linux agent has been built from scratch, using eBPF sensor technology to deliver the performance and stability needed for mission-critical server workloads while providing visibility into cyberthreats. We continue prioritizing innovations across every type of endpoint from Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and IoT to provide the holistic endpoint security that organizations need.

Simplified setup and change management help analysts configure devices correctly to minimize threat exposure. With the general availability of simplified settings management, SOC analysts can manage security policies without leaving the Defender XDR portal.

Unified security operations platform brings the foundational tools a SOC needs into a single experience, with a consistent data model, unified capabilities, and broad protection. This unification helps SOCs close critical security gaps and streamline their operations, delivering better overall protection, reducing their response time, and improving overall efficiency. Defender for Endpoint is core to this platform, which combines “the power of leading solutions in security information and event management (SIEM), extended detection and response (XDR), and generative AI for security.” By working seamlessly across Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR, and Microsoft Copilot for Security, security analysts need only a single set of automation rules and playbooks. Plus, they can use plain language to execute complex tasks in an instant with Copilot for Security embedded in the platform.

Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR gives your security team coverage with around-the-clock access to Microsoft expertise. Recognizing that sophisticated cyberthreats go beyond the endpoint, Microsoft offers Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR. This managed service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping organizations extend their SOC team to fully triage events and respond to incidents across domains.

Thank you to all our customers. You inspire us as together we work to create a safer world.

Learn more

If you’re not yet taking advantage of Microsoft’s leading endpoint security solution, visit Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and start a free trial today to evaluate our leading endpoint protection platform. 

Are you a regular user of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint? Review your experience on Gartner Peer Insights™ and get a $25 gift card.    

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹2024 Microsoft Digital Defense Report. Publishing October 15, 2024.

²Microsoft Digital Defense Report, Microsoft. 2023.

³Get end-to-end protection with Microsoft’s unified security operations platform, now in public preview, Rob Lefferts. April 3, 2024.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Evgeny Mirolyubov, Franz Hinner, Deepak Mishra, Satarupa Patnaik, Chris Silva, September 23, 2024. 

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