Getting started with the new Purview Content Search
“I’m looking to get started with the new Content Search experience in Purview. Where do I get started?” Welcome to the exciting new world of Content Search! This revamped experience is designed to be more intuitive, making it easier for you to navigate and find what you need. The modern Content Search experience offers additional capabilities like enhanced data sources to make it easier to identify the locations that you want to search, an improved condition builder, and a streamlined export experience. Also, you will now be able to take advantage of Premier features if you have E5 licensing, further elevating your search experience. Privacy is a key focus in this update, allowing you to restrict access to your content searches and ensure that sensitive information remains secure. Additionally, the ability to configure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions means you can customize Content Search functionality to suit your needs, granting or limiting access as necessary. There are two different ways of accessing Content Search. You can access content search by clicking on the eDiscovery solution card under the Purview portal and select Content Search on the left nav. ation pane within the eDiscovery section. The "Content Search" option is highlighted, indicating its selection for searching emails, documents, and other content across Microsoft 365. This is a shortcut that will take you to the Content Search case in the new unified Purview eDiscovery. You will see all of your existing content searches here. “What do I need to do first?” First, let’s talk about permissions and privacy. The first step in using the new content search is to make sure that you have access to the new Content Search. eDiscovery managers and administrators will automatically have access to new content search. However, if you are not a member of either of these built-in role groups or in a custom role group, you may need to have either an eDiscovery manager or an eDiscovery administrator grant you access to the new content search. You will need to take the following steps if you receive this message when attempting to access the new content search: Figure 2: A screenshot of a web application displaying a 'Permission Error' message in a pop-up window, indicating that the user does not have access to the requested page. Here are the steps for assigning a custom RBAC group or individual user to the Content Search: 1) NOTE: You will need to have someone with eDiscovery manager or eDiscovery admin permissions to assign these permissions. This is done through the Case settings button under Content Search: & Eliza Gallager Incident" is listed with details such as description, query text, created by, created date, modified by, and modified date. 2) This will take you to the case settings page. You will need to click Permissions. After you select Permissions, you will have the options to add an individual user (Users) or all members of a built-in or custom role group (Role groups) You can see where I have added a custom role group named “Content Search” in this example. 3) Once you have added either the user or the role group, they will then be able to access the new Content Search! “Thanks! I can now access the new Content Search, but it looks like I now have access to holds. My team should not have the ability to place holds. What can we do?” Have no fear! The new Content Search will not provide admins the permission to apply holds. This is tightly controlled via the Purview roles assigned to you by an authorized administrator. If the holds tab is present in the new Content Search case, it is because you already have the Hold Purview role assigned to you. You can learn more about the different roles that eDiscovery and Content Search use in this article: Assign permissions in eDiscovery. You can customize what content search activities a user can perform by using Purview custom role groups. Let’s say that you want to restrict the ability to create and manage holds with Microsoft Purview. We are going to do that by creating a new custom role group named Content Search. Here are the steps for creating a custom role group. 1) The Microsoft Purview portal supports directly managing permissions for users who perform tasks within Microsoft Purview including eDiscovery and Content Search. Using the Roles and scopes area in Settings in the Purview portal, you can manage permissions for your users. IMPORTANT: To view Role groups in the Roles and scopes area in the Microsoft Purview portal, users need to be a global administrator or need to be assigned the Role Management role (a role is assigned only to the Organization Management role group). The Role Management role allows users to view, create, and modify role groups. 2) Next, click the +Create role group button to create a new role group in Purview. You can learn more about the different roles that eDiscovery and Content Search use in this article: Assign permissions in eDiscovery. After reviewing the different Content Search-related roles, select the ones applicable to your Content Search users. Here are the roles that we selected for our Content Search users: 3) Microsoft always recommends that you use roles with the fewest permissions. When planning your access control strategy, it's a best practice to manage access for the least privilege for your eDiscovery and Content Search users. Least privilege means you grant your administrators exactly the permission they need to do their job. 4) Please refer to this article if you need any other assistance creating custom role groups in Purview: Permissions in the Microsoft Purview portal. “Excellent! I can’t see the holds tab anymore. However, I’m noticing that I have access to E5 features like review sets. We only have E3 licenses. What can we do to disable the Premium features?” Depending on your tenant configuration, the new Content Search may have eDiscovery (Premium) features enabled (these features include review sets, advanced indexing, cloud attachment support, and many others). The eDiscovery (Premium) features can be disabled via the Content Search case settings. This can be done by clicking on the Case settings button from the new Content Search. Within the Case details page there is a toggle to enable or disable the eDiscovery (Premium) features. ons for Case details, Permissions, Data sources, Search & analytics, and Review sets. The Case details section shows information such as the license type (eDiscovery Premium), premium features toggle, case name ('Content Search'), case number, and a description field. The status of the case is marked as active with a creation date and time. “Thanks! It looks like I have the correct permissions and settings. Where do I get started?” 1) Let’s start with creating a new search. Under the new Content Search, you’re going to click the Create a search button. 2) Give your new search a unique name and description. 3) Under the Query tab in your new search, you will see Data sources on the left side. The new Content Search’s enhanced data sources will make it a lot easier for you to set the locations that you would like to search. You can use Content Search to search for M365 content such as email, documents, and instant messaging conversations in your organization. Use search to find content in these cloud-based Microsoft 365 data sources: Exchange Online mailboxes SharePoint sites OneDrive accounts Microsoft Teams Microsoft 365 Groups Viva Engage In this example, we will be searching a Nestor’s mailbox and OneDrive site for an email sent in March 2025 that contains the keyword string “Project 9” 4) Click Add sources under Data sources to add your locations (you can also search all your mailboxes or sites by selecting Add tenant-wide sources if needed) 5) Type in the name of the user or their email address to find the user that you’re wanting to search and then select them. ch results display one item matching the query 'Nestor Wilke,' with an option to select or deselect it. 6) Click the Manage button to see the locations associated with this user. The enhanced data source experience will automatically identify a user’s mailbox and OneDrive site if they have one enabled. 7) Select Save to continue. Optional: you can exclude either their Mailbox or OneDrive site by unchecking them under the Manage sources view. 8) Now that we have identified the locations that we want to search. The next step is to create a query to define what we are wanting to search for within the locations. 9) Under the Keywords condition, make sure that Equal is selected, and type in Project 9 and hit enter. This will let you specify that you are looking for any chat, email, or document that contains the phrase “Project 9” 10) Next, click on the + Add conditions button to add the date range condition. Select Date from the list and hit Apply. 11) Switch the Date operator from Before to Between and select March 1, 2025 through March 31, 2025 as the date range. 12) Click the Run query button to generate the search estimate. Then click Run Query after selecting any additional options that you may want. 13) After the search has run, the Statistics tab will help you verify whether the relevant content was found. You can also generate a sample of the results by going under the Sample tab and hitting the Generate sample results button. 14) You can export the results of your search after you have verified that the relevant content has been returned by your search by selecting the Export button. Please give your export a name and description. 15) You can choose what format you want the results to be exported in by scrolling down. es, organize data into separate folders, condense paths to fit within 259 characters, and give items a friendly name. In the Export type section, choose one of the following options: Export items report only: Only the summary and item report are created. The various options for organizing data, folder and path structure, condensing paths, and other structures are hidden. Export items with items report: Items are exported with the item report. Other export format options are available with this option in the Export format section. In the Export formatsection, choose one of the following options: Create PSTs for messages: This option creates .pst files for messages. Create .msg files for messages: This option creates .msg files for messages Select one or more of the following output package options: Organize data from different locations into separate folders or PSTs: This option organizes data into separate folders for each data location. Include folder and path of the source: This option includes the original folder and folder path structure for items. Condense paths to fit within 256 characters: This option condenses the folder path for each item to 259 characters or less. Give each item a friendly name: This option creates a friendly name for each item. 16) After you have selected the options for your export, select the Export button. 17) Click the Export button to go to the Export tab. 18) Select your export once the status shows as “Complete” ort packages available for download. The export packages listed are "Report_Content_Search_Results_April_23_Phishing_investigation.zip" and "PST.zip", with a download button provided. 19) Select the export packages that you wish to download and hit the Download button. Clicking the Download button will kick off a browser download. The new Content Search does not use classic Content Search and eDiscovery (Standard)’s .NET eDiscovery Export Tool application. NOTE: You may have to disable popup blocking depending on your browser settings. The download report relating to the export is named Reports-caseName-EntityName-ProcessName-timestamp.zip. With EntityName being the user given name to the export. This will include several .CSV files including items.csv which provides details of all items exported, including information such as item ID, location of the item, subject/title of the item, item class/type, and success/error status. The .PST files exported will be included in an export package called "PSTs.00x.zip" 20) Files exported (e.g. files stored in OneDrive and SharePoint) will be included in an export package called Items.00x.zip To learn more about the Microsoft Purview eDiscovery and Content Search solutions and become an eDiscovery Ninja, please check out our eDiscovery Ninja Guide at https://aka.ms/eDiscoNinja!Upcoming changes to Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Today, we are announcing three significant updates to the Microsoft Purview eDiscovery products and services. These updates reinforce our commitment to meeting and exceeding the data security, privacy, and compliance requirements of our customers. Effective May 26, 2025, the following changes will take effect: Content Search will transition to the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. The eDiscovery (Standard) classic experience will transition to the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. The eDiscovery export PowerShell cmdlet parameters will be retired. These updates aim to unify and simplify the eDiscovery user experience in the new Microsoft Purview Portal, while preserving the accessibility and integrity of existing eDiscovery cases. Content Search transition to the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience The classic eDiscovery Content Search solution will be streamlined into the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. Effective May 26 th , the Content Search solution will no longer be available in the classic Purview portal. Content Search provides administrators with the ability to create compliance searches to investigate data located in Microsoft 365. We hear from customers that the Content Seach tool is used to investigate data privacy concerns, perform legal or incident investigations, validate data classifications, etc. Currently, each compliance search created in the Content Search tool is created outside of the boundaries of a Purview eDiscovery (Standard) case. This means that administrators in Purview Role Groups containing the Compliance Search role can view all Content Searches in their tenant. While the Content Search solution does not enable any additional search permission access, the view of all Content Searches in a customer tenant is not an ideal architecture. Alternatively, when using a Purview eDiscovery case, these administrators only have access to cases in which they are assigned. Customers can now create their new compliance searches within an eDiscovery case using the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. All content searches in a tenant created prior to May 26, 2025 are now accessible in the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience within a case titled “Content Search”. Although the permissions remain consistent, eDiscovery managers and those with custom permissions will now only be able to view searches from within the eDiscovery cases in which they are assigned, including the “Content Search” case. eDiscovery Standard transition to the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience The classic Purview eDiscovery (Standard) solution experience has transitioned into the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. Effective May 26 th , the classic Purview eDiscovery (Standard) solution will no longer be available to customers within the classic Purview portal. All existing eDiscovery cases created in the classic purview experience are now available within the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. Retirement of eDiscovery Export PowerShell Cmdlet parameters The Export parameter within the ComplianceSearchAction eDiscovery PowerShell cmdlets will be retired on May 26, 2025: New-ComplianceSearchAction -Export parameter Get-ComplianceSearchAction -Export parameter Set-ComplianceSearchAction -ChangeExportKey parameter We recognize that the removal of the Export parameter may require adjustments to your current workflow process when using Purview eDiscovery (Standard). The remaining Purview eDiscovery PowerShell cmdlets will continue to be supported after May 26 th , 2025: Create and update Compliance Cases New-ComplianceCase, Set-ComplianceCase Create and update Case Holds New-CaseHoldPolicy, Set-CaseHoldPolicy, New-CaseHoldRule, Set-CaseHoldRule Create, update and start Compliance Searches New-ComplianceSearch,Set-ComplianceSearch, Start-ComplianceSearch, Apply Purge action to a Compliance Search New-ComplianceSearchAction -Purge Additionally, if you have a Microsoft 365 E5 license and use eDiscovery (Premium), your organization can script all eDiscovery operations, including export, using the Microsoft Graph eDiscovery APIs. Purview eDiscovery Premium On May 26 th , there will be no changes to the classic Purview eDiscovery (Premium) solution in the classic Purview portal. Cases that were created using the Purview eDiscovery (Premium) classic case experience can also now be accessed in the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience. We recognize that these changes may impact your current processes, and we appreciate your support as we implement these updates. Microsoft runs on trust and protecting your data is our utmost priority. We believe these improvements will provide a more secure and reliable eDiscovery experience. To learn more about the Microsoft Purview eDiscovery solution and become an eDiscovery Ninja, please check out our eDiscovery Ninja Guide at https://aka.ms/eDiscoNinja!How to deploy Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI to secure your AI apps
Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM for AI) is designed to enhance data security for the following AI applications: Microsoft Copilot experiences, including Microsoft 365 Copilot. Enterprise AI apps, including ChatGPT enterprise integration. Other AI apps, including all other AI applications like ChatGPT consumer, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini, accessed through the browser. In this blog, we will dive into the different policies and reporting we have to discover, protect and govern these three types of AI applications. Prerequisites Please refer to the prerequisites for DSPM for AI in the Microsoft Learn Docs. Login to the Purview portal To begin, start by logging into Microsoft 365 Purview portal with your admin credentials: In the Microsoft Purview portal, go to the Home page. Find DSPM for AI under solutions. 1. Securing Microsoft 365 Copilot Discover potential data security risks in Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions In the Overview tab of DSPM for AI, start with the tasks in “Get Started” and Activate Purview Audit if you have not yet activated it in your tenant to get insights into user interactions with Microsoft Copilot experiences In the Recommendations tab, review the recommendations that are under “Not Started”. Create the following data discovery policies to discover sensitive information in AI interactions by clicking into each of them and select “Create policies”. Detect risky interactions in AI apps - This public preview Purview Insider Risk Management policy helps calculate user risk by detecting risky prompts and responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences. Click here to learn more about Risky AI usage policy. With the policies to discover sensitive information in Microsoft Copilot experiences in place, head back to the Reports tab of DSPM for AI to discover any AI interactions that may be risky, with the option to filter to Microsoft Copilot Experiences, and review the following for Microsoft Copilot experiences: Total interactions over time (Microsoft Copilot) Sensitive interactions per AI app Top unethical AI interactions Top sensitivity labels references in Microsoft 365 Copilot Insider Risk severity Insider risk severity per AI app Potential risky AI usage Protect sensitive data in Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions From the Reports tab, click on “View details” for each of the report graphs to view detailed activities in the Activity Explorer. Using available filters, filter the results to view activities from Microsoft Copilot experiences based on different Activity type, AI app category and App type, Scope, which support administrative units for DSPM for AI, and more. Then drill down to each activity to view details including the capability to view prompts and response with the right permissions. To protect the sensitive data in interactions for Microsoft 365 Copilot, review the Not Started policies in the Recommendations tab and create these policies: Information Protection Policy for Sensitivity Labels - This option creates default sensitivity labels and sensitivity label policies. If you've already configured sensitivity labels and their policies, this configuration is skipped. Protect sensitive data referenced in Microsoft 365 Copilot - This guides you through the process of creating a Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy to restrict the processing of content with specific sensitivity labels in Copilot interactions. Click here to learn more about Data Loss Prevention for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Protect sensitive data referenced in Copilot responses - Sensitivity labels help protect files by controlling user access to data. Microsoft 365 Copilot honors sensitivity labels on files and only shows users files they already have access to in prompts and responses. Use Data assessments to identify potential oversharing risks, including unlabeled files. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on using DSPM for AI data assessments! ommended action to protect sensitive data referenced in Copilot responses Use Copilot to improve your data security posture - Data Security Posture Management combines deep insights with Security Copilot capabilities to help you identify and address security risks in your org. Once you have created policies from the Recommendations tab, you can go to the Policies tab to review and manage all the policies you have created across your organization to discover and safeguard AI activity in one centralized place, as well as edit the policies or investigate alerts associated with those policies in solution. Note that additional policies not from the Recommendations tab will also appear in the Policies tab when DSPM for AI identifies them as policies to Secure and govern all AI apps. Govern the prompts and responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions Understand and comply with AI regulations by selecting “Guided assistance to AI regulations” in the Recommendations tab and walking through the “Actions to take”. From the Recommendations tab, create a Control unethical behavior in AI Purview Communications Compliance policy to detect sensitive information in prompts and responses and address potentially unethical behavior in Microsoft Copilot experiences and ChatGPT for Enterprise. This policy covers all users and groups in your organization. To retain and/or delete Microsoft 365 Copilot prompts and responses, setup a Data Lifecycle policy by navigating to Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management and find Retention Policies under the Policies header. You can also preserve, collect, analyze, review, and export Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions by creating an eDiscovery case. 2. Securing Enterprise AI apps Please refer to this amazing blog on Unlocking the Power of Microsoft Purview for ChatGPT Enterprise | Microsoft Community Hub for detailed information on how to integrate with ChatGPT for enterprise, the Purview solutions it currently supports through Purview Communication Compliance, Insider Risk Management, eDiscovery, and Data Lifecycle Management. Learn more about the feature also through our public documentation. 3. Securing other AI Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI currently supports the following list of AI sites. Be sure to also check out our blog on the new Microsoft Purview data security controls for the browser & network to secure other AI apps. Discover potential data security risks in prompts sent to other AI apps In the Overview tab of DSPM for AI, go through these three steps in “Get Started” to discover potential data security risk in other AI interactions: Install Microsoft Purview browser extension ser extension For Windows users: The Purview extension is not necessary for the enforcement of data loss prevention on the Edge browser but required for Chrome to detect sensitive info pasted or uploaded to AI sites. The extension is also required to detect browsing to other AI sites through an Insider Risk Management policy for both Edge and Chrome browser. Therefore, Purview browser extension is required for both Edge and Chrome in Windows. For MacOS users: The Purview extension is not necessary for the enforcement of data loss prevention on macOS devices, and currently, browsing to other AI sites through Purview Insider Risk Management is not supported on MacOS, therefore, no Purview browser extension is required for MacOS. Onboard devices to Microsoft Purview Extend your insights for data discovery – this one-click collection policy will setup three separate Purview detection policies for other AI apps: Detect sensitive info shared in AI prompts in Edge – a Purview collection policy that detects prompts sent to ChatGPT consumer, Micrsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Google Gemini in Microsoft Edge and discovers sensitive information shared in prompt contents. This policy covers all users and groups in your organization in audit mode only. Detect when users visit AI sites – a Purview Insider Risk Management policy that detects when users use a browser to visit AI sites. Detect sensitive info pasted or uploaded to AI sites – a Purview Endpoint Data loss prevention (eDLP) policy that discovers sensitive content pasted or uploaded in Microsoft Edge, Chrome, and Firefox to AI sites. This policy covers all users and groups in your org in audit mode only. With the policies to discover sensitive information in other AI apps in place, head back to the Reports tab of DSPM for AI to discover any AI interactions that may be risky, with the option to filter by Other AI Apps, and review the following for other AI apps: Total interactions over time (other AI apps) Total visits (other AI apps) Sensitive interactions per AI app Insider Risk severity Insider risk severity per AI app Protect sensitive info shared with other AI apps From the Reports tab, click on “View details” for each of the report graphs to view detailed activities in the Activity Explorer. Using available filters, filter the results to view activities based on different Activity type, AI app category and App type, Scope, which support administrative units for DSPM for AI, and more. To protect the sensitive data in interactions for other AI apps, review the Not Started policies in the Recommendations tab and create these policies: Fortify your data security – This will create three policies to manage your data security risks with other AI apps: 1) Block elevated risk users from pasting or uploading sensitive info on AI sites – this will create a Microsoft Purview endpoint data loss prevention (eDLP) policy that uses adaptive protection to give a warn-with-override to elevated risk users attempting to paste or upload sensitive information to other AI apps in Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. This policy covers all users and groups in your org in test mode. Learn more about adaptive protection in Data loss prevention. 2) Block elevated risk users from submitting prompts to AI apps in Microsoft Edge – this will create a Microsoft Purview browser data loss prevention (DLP) policy, and using adaptive protection, this policy will block elevated, moderate, and minor risk users attempting to put information in other AI apps using Microsoft Edge. This integration is built-in to Microsoft Edge. Learn more about adaptive protection in Data loss prevention. 3) Block sensitive info from being sent to AI apps in Microsoft Edge - this will create a Microsoft Purview browser data loss prevention (DLP) policy to detect inline for a selection of common sensitive information types and blocks prompts being sent to AI apps while using Microsoft Edge. This integration is built-in to Microsoft Edge. Once you have created policies from the Recommendations tab, you can go to the Policies tab to review and manage all the policies you have created across your organization to discover and safeguard AI activity in one centralized place, as well as edit the policies or investigate alerts associated with those policies in solution. Note that additional policies not from the Recommendations tab will also appear in the Policies tab when DSPM for AI identifies them as policies to Secure and govern all AI apps. Conclusion Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI can help you discover, protect, and govern the interactions from AI applications in Microsoft Copilot experiences, Enterprise AI apps, and other AI apps. We recommend you review the Reports in DSPM for AI routinely to discover any new interactions that may be of concern, and to create policies to secure and govern those interactions as necessary. We also recommend you utilize the Activity Explorer in DSPM for AI to review different Activity explorer events while users interacting with AI, including the capability to view prompts and response with the right permissions. We will continue to update this blog with new features that become available in DSPM for AI, and stay tuned for another blog post on addressing oversharing for deploying Microsoft 365 Copilot with Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI Data Assessments! Follow-up Reading Check out this blog on the details of each recommended policies in DSPM for AI: Microsoft Purview – Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI | Microsoft Community Hub Address oversharing concerns with Microsoft 365 blueprint - aka.ms/Copilot/Oversharing Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and other generative AI apps | Microsoft Learn Considerations for deploying Microsoft Purview AI Hub and data security and compliance protections for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Learn Commonly used properties in Copilot audit logs - Audit logs for Copilot and AI activities | Microsoft Learn Supported AI sites by Microsoft Purview for data security and compliance protections | Microsoft Learn Where Copilot usage data is stored and how you can audit it - Microsoft 365 Copilot data protection and auditing architecture | Microsoft Learn Downloadable whitepaper: Data Security for AI Adoption | Microsoft Public roadmap for DSPM for AI - Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365
Unveiling the Shadows: Extended Critical Asset Protection with MSEM
As cybersecurity evolves, identifying critical assets becomes an essential step in exposure management, as it allows for the prioritization of the most significant assets. This task is challenging because each type of critical asset requires different data to indicate its criticality. The challenge is even greater when a critical asset is not managed by a security agent such as EDR or AV, making the relevant data unreachable. Breaking traditional boundaries, Microsoft Security Exposure Management leverages multiple insights and signals to provide enhanced visibility into both managed and unmanaged critical assets. This approach allows customers to enhance visibility and facilitates more proactive defense strategies by maintaining an up-to-date, prioritized inventory of assets. Visibility is the Key Attackers often exploit unmanaged assets to compromise systems, pivot, or target sensitive data. The risk escalates if these devices are critical and have access to valuable information. Thus, organizations must ensure comprehensive visibility across their networks. This blog post will discuss methods Microsoft Security Exposure Management uses to improve visibility into both managed and unmanaged critical assets. Case Study: Domain Controllers A domain controller server is one of the most critical assets within an organization’s environment. It authenticates users, stores sensitive Active Directory data like user password hashes, and enforces security policies. Threat actors frequently target domain controller servers because once they are compromised, they gain high privileges, which allow full control over the network. This can result in a massive impact, such as organization-wide encryption. Therefore, having the right visibility into both managed and unmanaged domain controllers is crucial to protect the organization's network. Microsoft Security Exposure Management creates such visibility by collecting and analyzing signals and events from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) onboarded devices. This approach extends, enriches, and improves the customer’s device inventory, ensuring comprehensive insight into both managed and unmanaged domain controller assets. Domain Controller Discovery Methods Microsoft Browser Protocol The Microsoft Browser protocol, a component of the SMB protocol, facilitates the discovery and connection of network resources within a Windows environment. Once a Windows server is promoted to a domain controller, the operating system automatically broadcasts Microsoft Browser packets to the local network, indicating that the originating server is a domain controller. These packets hold meaningful information such as the device’s name, operating system-related information, and more. 1: An MSBrowser packet originating from a domain controller. Microsoft Security Exposure Management leverages Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’s deep packet inspection capabilities to parse and extract valuable data such as the domain controller’s NetBios name, operating system version and more from the Microsoft Browser protocol. Group Policy Events Group Policy (GPO) is a key component in every Active Directory environment. GPO allows administrators to manage and configure operating systems, applications, and user settings in an Active Directory domain-joined environment. Depending on the configuration, every domain-joined device locates the relevant domain controller within the same Active Directory site and pulls the relevant group policies that should be applied. During this process, the client's operating system audits valuable information within the Windows event log Once the relevant event has been observed on an MDE onboarded device, valuable information such as the domain controller’s FQDN and IP address is extracted from it. LDAP Protocol A domain controller stores the Active Directory configuration in a central database that is replicated between the domain controllers within the same domain. This database holds user data, user groups, security policies, and more. To query and update information in this database, a dedicated network protocol, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), is used. For example, to retrieve a user’s display name or determine their group membership, an LDAP query is directed to the domain controller for the relevant information. This same database also holds details about other domain controllers, configured domain trusts, and additional domain-related metadata. 3: Domain controller computer account in Active directory Users and Computers management console. Once a domain controller is onboarded to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, the LDAP protocol is used to identify all other domain controllers within the same domain, along with their operating system information, FQDN, and more. Identifying what is critical After gaining visibility through various protocols, it's crucial to identify which domain controllers are production and contain sensitive data, distinguishing them from test assets in a testing environment. Microsoft Security Exposure Management uses several techniques, including tracking the number of devices, users, and logins, to accurately identify production domain controllers. Domain controllers and other important assets not identified as production assets are not automatically classified as critical assets by the system. However, they remain visible under the relevant classification, allowing customers to manually override the system’s decision and classify them as critical. Building the Full Picture In addition to classifying assets as domain controllers, Microsoft Security Exposure Management provides customers with additional visibility by automatically classifying other critical devices and identities such as Exchange servers, VMware vCenter, backup servers, and more. 4: Microsoft Defender XDR Critical Asset Management settings page. Identifying critical assets and distinguishing them from other assets empowers analysts and administrators with additional information to prioritize tasks related to these assets. The context of asset criticality is integrated within various Microsoft Defender XDR experiences, including the device page, incidents, and more. This empowers customers to streamline SOC operations, swiftly prioritize and address threats to critical assets, implement targeted security recommendations, and disrupt ongoing attacks. For those looking to learn more about critical assets and exposure management, here are some additional resources you can explore. Overview of critical asset protection - Overview of critical asset management in Microsoft Security Exposure Management - Microsoft Security Exposure Management | Microsoft Learn Learn about predefined classifications - Criticality Levels for Classifications - Microsoft Security Exposure Management | Microsoft Learn Overview of critical assets protection blog post - Critical Asset Protection with Microsoft Security Exposure Management | Microsoft Community HubIntroducing the Microsoft Purview Audit Search Graph API
The new Microsoft Purview Audit Search Graph API will enable the programmatic search and retrieval of relevant audit logs with improvements in search completeness, reliability, and performance. This API serves as an improved alternative to the existing PowerShell cmdlet, Search-UnifiedAuditLog.Automating and Streamlining Vulnerability Management for Your Clients
Learn how to enhance vulnerability management for your windows clients using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Intune, and Azure AD. Harness the potential of automation to simplify processes and minimize expenses. *Discover how automation transforms security by removing manual tasks, minimizing human error, and conserving time and resources. *Observe how Microsoft's tools deliver a complete vulnerability management solution for both on-site and remote devices. *Follow our detailed guide on setup, enrollment, strategic updates deployment, and monitoring progress through the Microsoft 365 Defender portal. Take charge of your vulnerability management and protect your organization. Don't miss our blog post, and keep an eye out for the upcoming entry on servers!Navigating the New Frontier: Information Security in the Era of M365 Copilot
Explore the intersection of AI and security in our latest feature, where Microsoft Purview meets M365 Copilot. Dive into the critical role of sensitivity labels, advanced data classification, and encryption in shaping a secure digital workspace. Gain expert insights from industry professionals and discover practical strategies for balancing innovative AI tools with rigorous security protocols.
