Microsoft partners now have access to a standalone version of Microsoft Defender for Business.

Defender for Business brings enterprise-grade endpoint security to SMBs. That includes endpoint detection and response capabilities to protect against ransomware and other sophisticated cyber threats.

Defender for Business and Microsoft 365 Business Premium give partners new opportunities to help secure customers with value-add managed services. Both solutions integrate with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse. Microsoft released it in March. Microsoft cloud service providers can view security incidents across tenants in a unified portal.

Security for All

Vasu Jakkal is Microsoft‘s corporate vice president of security, compliance and identity.

Microsoft’s Vasu Jakkal

“Microsoft believes in security for all,” she said  “We are proud to further deliver on that vision today. With the general availability of Defender for Business, SMBs will get greater protection with simplified security to help them better protect, detect and respond to threats.”

Last month, Microsoft surveyed more than 150 U.S. SMBs to better understand their changing security needs. More than 70% of SMBs think cyber threats are becoming more of a business risk. In addition, nearly one in four reported experiencing a security breach in the past year.

With Defender for Business, SMBs get multilayered protection, detection and response, spanning the five phases of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework. Those are identify, protect, detect, respond and recover.

The automated investigation and remediation capabilities in Defender for Business help automate the type of work handled by dedicated SecOps teams, by continuously detecting and automatically remediating various threats.

Defender for Business is also included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium for businesses with up to 300 employees.