Elevating security for SMBs with AI-powered email protection and new partner initiatives
Cybersecurity is increasingly top of mind for small and medium businesses (SMBs) with a recentsurvey indicating that 94% consider cybersecurity critical to their business 1 . This is understandable, as 1 in 3 SMBs say they have experienced a cyberattack 2 , underscoring a need to bring sophisticated security to SMBs, but in an affordable and easy to use package. Continuing on our mission to bring enterprise-grade security to customers of all sizes, we are excited to announce that we’re bringing AI-powered email and collaboration protection to Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Business Premium to better protect SMBs. Since partners play a critical role in helping secure SMB customers, we’re also announcing new integrations and programs to help them better serve their customers. Enhanced email and collaboration security with intent-based detections backed by LLM for SMBs Phishing emails are no longer clumsy, error-ridden messages with apparent mistakes. Our research teams have found that bad actors have begun using Gen AI to craft phishing emails, enhancing the language and customization, making them increasingly difficult to spot. Moreover, they use AI to engage in prolonged conversations with targets to extract money via payroll fraud, invoicing scams, or simply to gather PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Thus, we are excited to announce that Microsoft Defender for Office 365 now provides AI-powered email and collaboration security, using purpose-built Large Language Models (LLM) at scale. These models have been trained on one of the largest datasets in the industry and enable more accurate identification of text-only attacks like Business Email Compromise (BEC). Our solution interprets email language to understand and identify attacker intent and classify threats at machine speed. With an initial rollout to select customers over the past few months, we have seen impressive results of a 99.995% attacker intent detection accuracy and filtering, and 140K BEC emails blocked daily based on the LLM alone. Defender for Office 365 can effectively predict and neutralize attacks by recognizing malicious intent and safeguard your inbox against sophisticated social engineering tactics. We are now rolling out the new LLM-powered email analysis and filtering to Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 customers, which is also included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium. New SMB initiatives to help easily deliver security services at scale Managed Service Provider (MSP) partners play a critical role in helping secure SMB customers’ IT environments. We are introducing integrations and strategic programs to help MSPs better serve their customers. Huntress Managed Detection and Response integration with Microsoft Defender for Business and Microsoft Entra: With the global shortage in cybersecurity professionals many partners also face a lack of in-house security specialists. For those partners who want to resell security services but do not have the resources to invest in an in-house SOC, we are pleased to announce Microsoft Defender for Business and Microsoft Entra integrations with Huntress’ Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution, designed for MSPs serving SMBs. Huntress’ 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) will triage, manage and remediate incidents and alerts for Defender for Business, helping expand the MSPs defenses and extending protection for joint customers without requiring any additional partner investment for in-house SOC. The integration is available to standalone Defender for Business and Microsoft 365 Business Premium customers starting today. Huntress is also integrating with Microsoft Entra ID to help ensure that joint customers use multifactor authentication (MFA) and Huntress to provide risk-based conditional access policies to protect their users and accounts. The Entra ID integration will be available by end of 2024. Training and readiness with Arrow and TDSYNNEX: Additionally, we are thrilled to announce strategic initiatives with Arrow and TDSYNNEX to enable their MSPs with training and readiness on Microsoft Defender for Business. This year-long collaboration provides resources and support for MSPs primarily in North America and Europe as they look to expand their security service offerings through Microsoft solutions. Microsoft SMB verified solution with MISA SMBs have unique requirements different from traditional Enterprise-centric security solutions. The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) is thrilled to welcome SMB verified solution status to its portfolio. This status highlights technology solutions that are purpose built to meet the needs of SMBs, and the MSPs who manage IT and Security on their behalf. MISA members who meet the qualifying criteria and have gone through engineering review, will receive a specialized MISA member badge showcasing the verification and will be featured in the MISA partner catalog. We are excited to launch this status with our first two SMB verified partners: Blackpoint Cyber and Huntress. Learn more at Ignite 2024: Attend the sessions below to learn more about what’s happening in the SMB space: Date Time (CST) Location Session 11/19 1:30pm - 1:45pm Theater (THR553) Detect and respond to next gen email threats with Defender for Office 365 (add to your schedule) 11/20 2:30 - 4:30pm MSFT Expert Meetup Hub Huntress 11/21 12:30 - 2:30pm MSFT Expert Meetup Hub Blackpoint Cyber Additional Information: To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions for SMBs, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft Defender for Business, please visit our website. To learn more about MISA, visit the website. To learn more about Microsoft SMB verified solution, view the eligibility criteria. To get started on your SMB managed services journey, our partner playbooks –Microsoft 365 Business Premium Partner Playbook andMicrosoft Defender for Business Partner kit– provide you with sales and technical trainings as well as customer ready assets. References 1,2 SMB Cybersecurity Report 2024
