Protecting the computers in your organization against viruses and malware is an important piece of any security strategy – one that applies whether your business is small or large. With a Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription, you can enforce Microsoft Defender Antivirus on your PCs to provide robust antimalware protection. It works deep inside Windows OS to protect against threats in an unobtrusive way.
You’ve told us that you would like more visibility and control into the ways that Microsoft Defender is protecting the devices in your small and medium-sized business. So today, we’re pleased to announce that we’re adding management capabilities for Defender Antivirus in the Business Premium subscription plan.
These new antivirus management capabilities will start rolling out next quarter and will appear in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Let’s take a closer look at what’s coming.
Stay on top of active threats
From the new Active Threats page in the Microsoft 365 admin center, you will be able to view active threats in your environment, understand which users and devices are affected by them, which of these were blocked or quarantined, and where a review is needed.
This will enable you to better understand the threats that Defender Antivirus is mitigating – including threat type, severity level, impact on users and devices, and detailed information on it from Microsoft Threat intelligence – so you may focus your time and resources on the most critical risks.
View a list of all active threats and impacted devices at your business
Keep track of protected devices
With the new Active Devices page, you will have one place to see which devices in your business are running Microsoft Defender Antivirus, if those are up to date, if they have any active threats, and where action is needed – such as a reboot, required update, or overdue scan.
This will enable you to see an overview of the protection state of your devices without the time-consuming effort of going to each PC to know if the device is protected, and if it needs an action.
See a list of all devices protected by Defender Antivirus and their state
Get started from the Microsoft 365 admin center
These new management capabilities will work for Windows 10 devices in your organization that are enrolled in Microsoft Intune with a Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription plan.
To see a demo of the new antivirus management capabilities coming to Business, Premium and how you can easily enforce Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned on to protect your PCs, watch the following the video:
Once these are rolled out, the new capabilities will appear in the Microsoft 365 admin center. You will be able to add a new card on the admin center homepage to see a quick overview of active threats and protected devices in your business.
Note: Antivirus management is already available to enterprise customers as part of Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection in the Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 plan.
We’ll be rolling these capabilities next quarter, and are eager for you to put them to work to secure the devices in your organization. If you have questions about the upcoming capabilities, or feedback for the team, let us know here in the SMB Tech Community.