Microsoft expands managed security services as cyber threats grow at 'alarming rate'

The services will fall under a new category called Microsoft Security Experts

Microsoft is increasing its managed security offerings by adding three new services aimed at operation centres and enterprises customers.

The technology giant is launching the expanded services suite under a new category dubbed Microsoft Security Experts, the company said in a blog post.

These include Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting and Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise.

It comes as Microsoft said cyber threats have grown at an "alarming rate" over the last year, with the company having to block over 9.6 billion malware threats and more than 35.7 billion phishing and other malicious emails.

Microsoft corporate vice president of security compliance, identity and management Vasu Jakkal said the new services were designed with "input from our incredible partner ecosystem".

She said: "It's getting harder every day for organisations to build and maintain a full security team, let alone one with the ever-expanding skillset required to meet the range of today's security demands.

"With input from our incredible partner ecosystem, we've designed three new managed services that can help you scale your team of experts to fit your needs—without the challenges of hiring and training them."

Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting

This service offers those with a security operations centre help from Microsoft to hunt for threats across Microsoft Defender data, including endpoints, Office 365, cloud applications, and identity.

Microsoft says experts will investigate and hand off the contextual alert information and remediation instructions.

On top of this, consultations will also be offered about a specific incident, nation-state actor, or attack vector, whilst specific recommendations will also be given about improving security.

Igor Tsyganskiy, chief technology officer at Bridgewater Associates, said: "Defender Experts for Hunting is like the tip of an iceberg. It is supported by all of the Microsoft applications, technologies, and cloud services overlaid with security tools that connect the entire system together, then powered by machine learning."

Defender Experts for Hunting is in preview now and will be available in the summer.

Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR

This service is a managed XDR services that extends beyond endpoints to provide detection and response across Microsoft 365 Defender.

The vendor says it also investigates alerts and uses automation and human expertise to respond to incidents.

The service is designed for customers who need to extend the capacity of their security operations centre.

Defender Experts for XDR will move into preview in Autumn 2022.

Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise

This service combines proactive threat hunting and managed XDR, leveraging Microsoft's complete security information and event management (SIEM) and XDR stack to protect all cloud environments and all platforms.

It is designed for large enterprises looking for more "comprehensive, high-touch managed services from Microsoft experts," Jakkal said.

She added: "Dedicated Microsoft security experts manage onboarding, daily interactions, practice modernisation, and incident response for you."

Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise is sold through a custom statement of work and is available today.