Defender XDR - 10. Case Studies and Success Stories

How Microsoft XDR Helps Organizations Enhance Their Security

In the final installment of the Defender XDR series, this 10th blog post shares some true stories of businesses that have effectively leveraged Defender XDR to derive benefits from their E5 Security license investments.

Agenda:

• Introduction
• Real Life Story 1: Large Danish reseller improved their security exposure by using Microsoft Secure Score
• Real Life Story 2: Large International company improved the security by introducing  Unified RBAC in Defender XDR
• Real Life Story 3: Large Danish company improved efficiency and speed by automated actions in Defender XDR  
• My recommendations
• Conclusion

Introduction

Cybersecurity is a top priority for every organization in today's digital world. However, traditional security solutions are often fragmented, complex, and costly to manage. That's why many organizations are looking for a more unified, comprehensive, and cost-effective approach to security. This is where Microsoft XDR comes in.

In this blog post, we will share three real-world examples of how organizations have successfully implemented Microsoft XDR to improve their security posture. We will also provide some recommendations on how you can leverage Microsoft XDR to enhance your own security strategy.

Real Life Story 1: Large Danish reseller improved their security exposure by using Microsoft Secure Score

My first story is about a large Danish company that improved its security by using the Secure Score feature in Defender XDR. The Secure Score is a tool that assists in giving the organization a number that reflects its security level across the Microsoft environment. With the Secure Score they got a totally new view of the organization's configurations and behaviors and got it compared with the best security practices and standards. Secure Score also gave the organization recommendations on how to increase its score and implement the necessary security safeguards.

We developed a project plan to ensure proper prioritization and comprehensive oversight of the project based on the recommendations from the secure score. We initially tackled the easiest tasks and then methodically implemented viable recommendations sequentially. With a proper plan and an understanding of the optimal configuration settings, we found ourselves in an advantageous position. We systematically deployed our initiatives in phases as per the project design, achieving successful rollout without any need to reverse policies due to disruptions in business operations.

The most impressive aspect was the internal security department's ability to present "simple" reporting using a single metric. Consequently, top management could readily perceive and comprehend our daily and weekly progress reflected in that ONE figure.  

By using Secure Score, the organization gained greater insight and overview of its security status and the areas where it could improve. The organization was also able to prioritize and plan its security initiatives and measure their effectiveness. The organization achieved a higher degree of security and compliance with the law and industry standards.

Real Life Story 2: Large International company improved the security by introducing  Unified RBAC in Defender XDR

My customer decided to implement Microsoft Defender XDR. One of the key features that made Defender XDR attractive for the company was the unified role-based access control (RBAC), which allowed the company to define and enforce granular and consistent permissions for different users and roles across its security environment.

By using unified RBAC in Defender XDR, the company achieved the following results:

• Improved security and compliance: My customer was able to reduce its exposure by applying the principle of least privilege access, which means that users and roles only have the minimum permissions they need to perform their tasks. This reduced the number of users and roles that had excessive or unnecessary permissions, such as the Security Administrator role, which grants full access to all security data and actions. The company also gained more visibility and oversight of the access and activities of its security users and roles and was able to audit and monitor them for any anomalies or violations.
• Enhanced efficiency and productivity: My customer also enabled some of the security tasks to be automated and delegated to lower-level or non-security personnel, such as IT administrators or help desk staff, who could use the predefined roles and permissions in Defender XDR to perform common security actions, such as running scans, isolating devices, or collecting investigation packages. This freed up the time and resources of security analysts and responders, who could focus on more critical and complex security issues.
• Increased flexibility and scalability: The company was able to easily adapt and customize its security operations to meet the specific needs and goals of different business units and regions. The company was able to create and modify roles and permissions based on the specific requirements and responsibilities of different users and teams.

My customer was very satisfied with the outcome of implementing unified RBAC in Defender XDR and considered it a success story that demonstrated the benefits of a unified and comprehensive security solution.

The customer implemented PIM groups to manage permissions, ensuring that individuals only had access when they made a request. This approach enabled the customer to verify whether the Security team possessed appropriate permissions. It's an effective method for managing non-built-in permissions in Entra ID. Keep in mind that Entra ID rules will always take precedence over any permissions in Defender XDR.

Real Life Story 3: Large Danish company improved efficiency and speed by automated actions in Defender XDR  

One of the challenges that many organizations face is how to handle the increasing volume and complexity of security alerts and incidents. This was the case for a large Danish company that had a diverse and dynamic IT environment, with thousands of endpoints and users across multiple locations and platforms. The customer had a small and busy security team, which had to manually review and respond to each alert and incident, often resulting in delays, errors, or missed opportunities.

The company decided to implement Microsoft Defender XDR. One of the key features that my customer used was the custom detection rules, which allowed the company to create and apply its own rules and logic to identify and prioritize the most relevant and critical threats. The company also used the automated actions feature, which enabled the company to automatically perform predefined actions in response to specific alerts or incidents, such as isolating devices, blocking files, or deleting emails.

By using custom detection rules and automated actions in Defender XDR, the customer achieved the following results:

• Improved efficiency and speed: The company was able to reduce the manual workload and complexity of security operations and streamline the workflow of security analysts and responders. The company was able to automate the response to common or repetitive alerts or incidents and focus on the more advanced or sophisticated ones. The company also reduced the time and resources needed to investigate and remediate threats and improved the quality and consistency of security actions.
• Enhanced security and compliance: The company was able to improve its security posture and performance and mitigate the risk of potential breaches or damage. The company was able to detect and respond to threats faster and more effectively and prevent them from spreading or escalating.
• Increased flexibility and scalability: The company was able to easily adapt and customize its security operations to meet the specific needs and goals of its business. The company was able to create and modify its own detection rules and actions based on the specific characteristics and behaviors of its IT environment, users, and threats. The customer was also able to scale its security operations as its IT environment grew and changed.

The company was very satisfied with the outcome of using custom detection rules and automated actions in Defender XDR and considered it a success story that demonstrated the benefits of a unified and comprehensive security solution.

My recommendations

Based on the three success stories of implementing Microsoft Defender XDR, I would recommend the following actions for organizations that want to improve their security operations and outcomes:

• Use secure score to measure and improve your security posture and performance, and compare it with industry benchmarks and best practices.
• Use secure score recommendations to identify and implement the most impactful actions to improve your security score and reduce your risk exposure.
• Use secure score reports and dashboards to monitor and track your progress and achievements, and communicate them to your stakeholders and management.
• Use unified RBAC to define and enforce granular and consistent permissions for different security users and roles, and apply the principle of least privilege access to reduce exposure and increase oversight.
• Use custom detection rules to create and apply your own logic and criteria to identify and prioritize the most relevant and critical threats for your IT environment and business.
• Use automated actions to automatically perform predefined actions in response to specific alerts or incidents, and streamline the workflow and quality of security operations.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I have shared three real-life success stories of organizations that implemented Microsoft Defender XDR and achieved significant improvements in their security operations and outcomes. These stories illustrate how Defender XDR can help organizations to:

• Measure and improve their security posture and performance using secure score
• Define and enforce granular and consistent permissions for different security users and roles using unified RBAC
• Create and apply their own logic and criteria to identify and prioritize the most relevant and critical threats using custom detection rules
• Automatically perform predefined actions in response to specific alerts or incidents using automated actions

Defender XDR is a tool that provides a unified and comprehensive security solution that empowers security teams to protect, detect, and respond to threats across endpoints, email, identity, and cloud. Defender XDR enables security teams to:

• Gain visibility and control over their entire IT environment and threat landscape
• Reduce complexity and workload of security operations and streamline the workflow and quality of security actions
• Adapt and customize their security operations to meet the specific needs and goals of their business
• Scale their security operations as their IT environment grows and changes

I hope that these success stories and recommendations can inspire and guide you to leverage the power and potential of Defender XDR and achieve your security objectives and aspirations. Thank you for reading this blog post.

This was the end of my Defender XDR series - I hope you enjoyed it. Now we have the basics in place and ready to get ahead. If you have any topic you want me to look into, please let me know. For now – THANK you so much for all the support and feedback.

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