Microsoft Defender for Business helps SMBs boost security and fend off the threat of ransomware

Microsoft has announced the general availability (GA) of the stand-alone version of Microsoft Defender for Business, giving partners an immediate and golden opportunity to bring enterprise-grade endpoint security to their SMB customers – including protection against ransomware.

► Provides multi-layered protection that’s simple for smaller businesses

► Built-in policies get customers up and running quickly

► Automated features continuously detect and remediate threats

This latest release of Defender for Business comes with endpoint detection and response capabilities that protect businesses against ransomware and other sophisticated cyberthreats. Built-in policies help to get customers up and running quickly and automated features continuously look for and remediated various threats.

It provides multi-layered 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 is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, which caters for 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.

Both solutions integrate with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, which was made generally available in March, enabling Microsoft cloud MSPs to view security incidents across tenants in a unified portal.