One in four small to medium-sized businesses has experienced a security breach1 in the past year and lacks the resources of large enterprises to protect themselves
REDMOND, Wash., May 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. announced the general availability (GA) of the stand-alone version of Microsoft Defender for Business. Defender for Business brings enterprise-grade endpoint security to SMBs, including endpoint detection and response capabilities to protect against ransomware and other sophisticated cyberthreats.
In April 2022, Microsoft surveyed more than 150 small and medium businesses in an online quantitative survey in the U.S. to better understand changing SMB security needs. The survey found that more than 70% of SMBs think cyberthreats are becoming more of a business risk. That concern is well-founded — nearly one in four SMBs surveyed reported experiencing a security breach in the past year.
Despite facing similar risks as enterprises, SMBs often lack access to the right resources and tools, including specialized security staff. Many SMBs still rely on traditional antivirus solutions for their security. Although 80% of SMBs state they have some form of antivirus solution, 93% continue to have concerns about increasing and evolving cyberattacks.
“Microsoft believes in security for all,” said Vasu Jakkal, CVP, security, compliance & identity at Microsoft. “We are proud to further deliver on that vision today. With the GA of Defender for Business, SMBs will get greater protection with simplified security to help them better protect, detect and respond to threats.”
With Defender for Business, SMBs get multilayered protection, detection and response, spanning the five phases of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework — identify, protect, detect, respond and recover — to protect and remediate against known and unknown threats.
Defender for Business comes with built-in policies to get customers up and running quickly. The automated investigation and remediation capabilities in Defender for Business help automate the type of work handled by dedicated SecOps teams, by continuously detecting and automatically remediating various threats.
“Automated investigation and remediation are a huge part of the product,” said Adam Atwell, cloud solutions architect at consulting firm Kite Technology Group. “It’s just happening in the background. Defender for Business makes our security so simple.”
Defender for Business is also included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, our comprehensive security and productivity solution for businesses with up to 300 employees. Customers can also choose to buy it stand-alone for $3 per user, per month. Additional support for servers is planned later this calendar year with an add-on solution.