Introducing a Unified Security Operations Platform with Microsoft Sentinel and Defender XDR
Read about our announcement of an exciting private preview that represents the next step in the SOC protection and efficiency journey by bringing together the power of Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Security Copilot into a unified security operations platform.Level Up Your Security Skills with the New Microsoft Sentinel Ninja Training!
If you’ve explored our Microsoft Sentinel Ninja Training in the past, it’s time to revisit! Our training program has undergone some exciting changes to keep you ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape. Microsoft Sentinel is a cutting-edge, cloud-native SIEM and SOAR solution designed to help security professionals protect their organizations from today’s complex threats. Our Ninja Training program is here to guide you through every aspect of this powerful tool. So, what’s new? In addition to the structured security roles format, the Ninja Training now offers a more interactive experience with updated modules, hands-on labs, and real-world scenarios. Whether you're focusing on threat detection, incident response, or automation, the training ensures you gain the practical skills needed to optimize your security operations. One of the biggest updates is the integration of Sentinel into the Defender XDR portal, creating a unified security platform. This merger simplifies workflows, speeds up incident response, and minimizes tool-switching, allowing for seamless operations. Other highlights include: Step-by-step guidance through the official Microsoft Sentinel documentation. Exclusive webinars and up-to-date blog posts from Microsoft experts. If you're ready to take your Sentinel skills to the next level or want to revisit the program’s new features, head over to the blog now and dive into the refreshed Microsoft Sentinel Ninja Training! Don’t miss out—your next cybersecurity breakthrough is just a click away!What’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: February 2026
February brings a set of new innovations to Sentinel that helps you work with security content across your SOC. This month’s updates focus on how security teams ingest, manage, and operationalize content, with new connectors, multi-tenant content distribution capabilities, and an enhanced UEBA Essentials solution to surface high‑risk behavior faster across cloud and identity environments. We’re also introducing new partner-built agentic experiences available through Microsoft Security Store, enabling customers to extend Sentinel with specialized expertise directly inside their existing workflows. Together, these innovations help SOC teams move faster, scale smarter, and unlock deeper security insight without added complexity. Expand your visibility and capabilities with Sentinel content Seamlessly onboard security data with growing out-of-the-box connectors (general availability) Sentinel continues to expand its connector ecosystem, making it easier for security teams to bring together data from across cloud, SaaS, and on-premises‑premises environments so nothing critical slips through the cracks. With broader coverage and faster onboarding, SOCs can unlock unified visibility, stronger analytics, and deeper context across their entire security stack. Customers can now use out-of-the-box connectors and solutions for: o Mimecast Audit Logs o CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection o Vectra XDR o Palo Alto Networks Cloud NGFW o SocPrime o Proofpoint on Demand (POD) Email Security o Pathlock o MongoDB o Contrast ADR For the full list of connectors, see our documentation. Share your input on what to prioritize next with our App Assure team. Microsoft 365 Copilot data connector (public preview) The Microsoft 365 Copilot connector brings Microsoft 365 Copilot audit logs and activity data into Sentinel, giving security teams visibility into how Microsoft 365 Copilot is being used across their organization. Once ingested, this data can power analytics rules, custom detections, workbooks, automation, and investigations, helping SOC teams quickly spot anomalies, misuse, and policy violations. Customers can also send this data to the Sentinel data lake for advanced scenarios, such as custom graphs and MCP integrations, while benefiting from lower cost ingestion and flexible retention. Learn more here. Transition your Sentinel connectors to the codeless connector framework (CCF) Microsoft is modernizing data connectors by shifting from Azure Function based connectors to the codeless connector framework (CCF). CCF enables partners, customers, and developers to build custom connectors that ingest data into Sentinel with a fully SaaS managed experience, built-in health monitoring, centralized credential management, and enhanced performance. We recommend that customers review their deployed connectors and move to the latest CCF versions to ensure uninterrupted data collection and continued access to the latest Sentinel capabilities. As part of Azure’s modernization of custom data collection, the legacy custom data collection API will be retired in September 2026. Centrally manage and distribute Sentinel content across multiple tenants (public preview) For partners and SOCs managing multiple Sentinel tenants, you can centrally manage and distribute Sentinel content across multiple tenants from the Microsoft Defender portal. With multi-tenant content distribution, you can replicate analytics rules, automation rules, workbooks, and alert tuning rules across tenants instead of rebuilding the same detections, automation, and dashboards in one environment at a time. This helps you onboard new tenants faster, reduce configuration drift, and maintain a consistent security baseline while still keeping local execution in each target tenant under centralized control. Learn more: New content types supported in multi-tenant content distribution Find high-risk anomalous behavior faster with an enhanced UEBA essentials solution (public preview) UEBA Essentials solution now helps SOC teams uncover high‑risk anomalous behavior faster across Azure, AWS, GCP, and Okta. With expanded multi-cloud anomaly detection and new queries powered by the anomalies table, analysts can quickly surface the riskiest activity, establish reliable behavioral baselines, and understand anomalies in context without chasing noisy or disconnected signals. UEBA Essentials aligns activity to MITRE ATT&CK, highlights complex malicious IP patterns, and builds a comprehensive anomaly profile for users in seconds, reducing investigation time while improving signal quality across identity and cloud environments. UEBA Essentials is available directly from the Sentinel content hub, with 30+ prebuilt UEBA queries ready to deploy. Behavior analytics can be enabled automatically from the connectors page as new data sources are added, making it easy to turn deeper insight into immediate action. For more information, see: UEBA Solution Power Boost: Practical Tools for Anomaly Detection Extend Sentinel with partner-built Security Copilot agents in Microsoft Security Store (general availability) You can extend Sentinel with partner-built Security Copilot agents that are discoverable and deployable through Microsoft Security Store in the Defender experience. These AI-powered agents are created by trusted partners specifically to work with Sentinel to deliver packaged expertise for investigation, triage, and response without requiring you to build your own agentic workflows from scratch. These partner-built agents work with Sentinel analytics and incidents to help SOC teams triage faster, investigate deeper, and surface insights that would otherwise take hours of manual effort. For example, these agents can review Sentinel and Defender environments, map attacker activity, or automate forensic analysis and SOC reporting. BlueVoyant’s Watchtower agent helps optimize Sentinel and Defender configurations, AdaQuest’s Data Leak agent accelerates response by surfacing risky data exposure and identity misuse, and Glueckkanja’s Attack Mapping agent automatically maps fragmented entities and attacker behavior into a coherent investigation story. Together, these agents show how the Security Store turns partner innovation into enterprise-ready, Security Copilot-powered capabilities that you can use in your existing SOC workflows. Browse these and more partner-built Security Copilot agents in the Security Store within the Defender portal. At Ignite, we announced the native integration of Security Store within the Defender portal. Read more about the GA announcement here: Microsoft Security Store: Now Generally Available Explore Sentinel experience Enhanced reports in the Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent (general availability) The Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent now applies a structured knowledge graph to Microsoft Defender for Threat Intelligence, enabling it to surface fresher, more relevant threats tailored to a customer’s specific industry and region. Building on this foundation, the agent also features embedded, high‑fidelity Microsoft Threat Intelligence citations, providing authoritative context directly within each insight. With these advancements, security teams gain clearer, more actionable guidance and mitigation steps through context‑rich insights aligned to their environment, helping them focus on what matters most and respond more confidently to emerging threats. Learn more: Microsoft Security Copilot Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent in Microsoft Defender Microsoft Purview Data Security Investigations (DSI) integrated with Sentinel graph (general availability) Sentinel now brings together data‑centric and threat‑centric insights to help teams understand risk faster and respond with more confidence. By combining AI‑powered deep content analysis from Microsoft Purview with activity‑centric graph analytics in Sentinel, security teams can identify sensitive or risky data, see how it was accessed, moved, or exposed, and take action from a single experience. This gives SOC and data security teams a full, contextual view of the potential blast radius, connecting what happened to the data with who accessed it and how, so investigations are faster, clearer, and more actionable. Start using the Microsoft Purview Data Security Investigations (DSI) integration with the Sentinel graph to give your analysts richer context and streamline end‑to‑end data risk investigations. Deadline to migrate the Sentinel experience from Azure to Defender extended to March 2027 To reduce friction and support customers of all sizes, we are extending the sunset date for managing Sentinel in the Azure portal to March 31, 2027. This additional time ensures customers can transition confidently while taking advantage of new capabilities that are becoming available in the Defender portal. Learn more about this decision, why you should start planning your move today, and find helpful resources here: UPDATE: New timeline for transitioning Sentinel experience to Defender portal Events and webinars Stay connected with the latest security innovations and best practices through global conferences and expert‑led sessions that bring the community together to learn, connect, and explore how Microsoft is delivering AI‑driven, end‑to‑end security for the modern enterprise. Join us at RSAC, March 23–26, 2026 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco Register for RSAC and stop by the Microsoft booth to see our latest security innovations in action. Learn how Sentinel SIEM and platform help organizations stay ahead of threats, simplify operations, and protect what matters most. Register today! Microsoft Security Webinars Discover upcoming sessions on Sentinel SIEM & platform, Defender, and more. Sign up today and be part of the conversation that shapes security for everyone. Learn more about upcoming webinars. Additional resources Blogs: UPDATE: New timeline for transitioning Sentinel experience to Defender portal, Accelerate your move to Microsoft Sentinel with AI-powered SIEM migration tool, Automating Microsoft Sentinel: A blog series on enabling Smart Security, The Agentic SOC Era: How Sentinel MCP Enables Autonomous Security Reasoning Documentation: What Is a Security Graph? , SIEM migration tool, Onboarding to Microsoft Sentinel data lake from the Defender portal Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!Introducing Threat Intelligence Ingestion Rules
Microsoft Sentinel just rolled out a powerful new public preview feature: Ingestion Rules. This feature lets you fine-tune your threat intelligence (TI) feeds before they are ingested to Microsoft Sentinel. You can now set custom conditions and actions on Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), Threat Actors, Attack Patterns, Identities, and their Relationships. Use cases include: Filter Out False Positives: Suppress IoCs from feeds known to generate frequent false positives, ensuring only relevant intel reaches your analysts. Extending IoC validity periods for feeds that need longer lifespans. Tagging TI objects to match your organization's terminology and workflows Get Started Today with Ingestion Rules To create new “Ingestion rule”, navigate to “Intel Management” and Click on “Ingestion rules” With the new Ingestion rules feature, you have the power to modify or remove indicators even before they are integrated into Sentinel. These rules allow you to act on indicators currently in the ingestion pipeline. > Click on “Ingestion rules” Note: It can take up to 15 minutes for the rule to take effect Use Case #1: Delete IOC’s with less confidence score while ingesting When ingesting IOC's from TAXII/Upload API/File Upload, indicators are imported continuously. With pre-ingestion rules, you can filter out indicators that do not meet a certain confidence threshold. Specifically, you can set a rule to drop all indicators in the pipeline with a confidence score of 0, ensuring that only reliable data makes it through. Use Case #2: Extending IOC’s The following rule can be created to automatically extend the expiration date for all indicators in the pipeline where the confidence score is greater than 75. This ensures that these high-value indicators remain active and usable for a longer duration, enhancing the overall effectiveness of threat detection and response. Use Case #3: Bulk Tagging Bulk tagging is an efficient way to manage and categorize large volumes of indicators based on their confidence scores. With pre-ingestion rules, you can set up a rule to tag all indicators in the pipeline where the confidence score is greater than 75. This automated tagging process helps in organizing indicators, making it easier to search, filter, and analyze them based on their tags. It streamlines the workflow and improves the overall management of indicators within Sentinel. Managing Ingestion rules In addition to the specific use cases mentioned, managing ingestion rules gives you control over the entire ingestion process. 1. Reorder Rules You can reorder rules to prioritize certain actions over others, ensuring that the most critical rules are applied first. This flexibility allows for a tailored approach to data ingestion, optimizing the system's performance and accuracy. 2. Create From Creating new ingestion rules from existing ones can save you a significant amount of time and offer the flexibility to incorporate additional logic or remove unnecessary elements. Effectively duplicating these rules ensures you can quickly adapt to new requirements, streamline operations, and maintain a high level of efficiency in managing your data ingestion process. 3. Delete Ingestion Rules Over time, certain rules may become obsolete or redundant as your organizational needs and security strategies evolve. It's important to note that each workspace is limited to a maximum of 25 ingestion rules. Having a clean and relevant set of rules ensures that your data ingestion process remains streamlined and efficient, minimizing unnecessary processing and potential conflicts. Deleting outdated or unnecessary rules allows for a more focused approach to threat detection and response. It reduces clutter, which can significantly enhance the performance. By regularly reviewing and purging obsolete rules, you maintain a high level of operational efficiency and ensure that only the most critical and up-to-date rules are in place. Conclusion By leveraging these pre-ingestion rules effectively, you can enhance the quality and reliability of the IOC’s ingested into Sentinel, leading to more accurate threat detection and an improved security posture for your organization.
Ingesting Non-Microsoft Cloud Security Data into Microsoft Sentinel for Government & DIB Customers
Microsoft Azure Government customers that are using Microsoft Sentinel to monitor their Azure & Office 365 Tenants, the next logical step in modernizing their SOC Operations is to ingest security data from non-Microsoft Clouds like Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to get a holistic picture of their security alerting, monitoring, and response across all cloud environments. This blog series will review how to ingest security data from non-Microsoft clouds into an Azure Government Sentinel instance. Throughout this series, we’ll be covering: FedRamp Cloud Authorizations, AWS ingestion scenarios, and connector architecture. Ingesting AWS Commercial and GovCloud data into Azure Government Sentinel. Ingesting AWS Commercial and GovCloud data into Azure Commercial Sentinel. AWS Ingestion using Cloud Formation Template Ingesting GCP data into Sentinel in either Azure Government or Commercial.
