Microsoft announced yesterday several new capabilities coming to Microsoft Defender for Cloud. The latest updates are designed to help organizations proactively reduce risks and respond to security threats.
Microsoft Defender Cloud Security Posture Management will extend its data-aware security posture, advanced agentless scanning, attack path analysis, and cloud security graph capabilities to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) on August 15. This release will offer a single contextual view of cloud risks across Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), GCP, and hybrid environments. Microsoft also plans to bring sensitive data discovery capabilities to GCP Cloud Storage.
“With this advancement, customers will be able to discover all their GCP Cloud Storage buckets, identify more than 100 sensitive information types, and assess their data security posture through cloud security graph queries and attack path analysis. Now customers can identify potentially sensitive data exposure risks across Azure, AWS, and GCP storage resources and harden their multi-cloud data security posture,” Vasu Jakkal, CVP, Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management.
Malware scanning capabilities coming to Microsoft Defender for Storage
The malware scanning feature, which is currently in preview, will become generally available for Microsoft Defender for Storage on September 1. The security feature provides an additional layer of security to project storage accounts against malware infection. It automatically scans all content uploaded to Azure Blob Storage for metamorphic and polymorphic malware.
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is now available as a standalone solution. This release lets organizations purchase it separately to secure managed and unmanaged devices. Microsoft has announced that support for vulnerability assessments for containers is generally available in Defender CSPM. The feature enables organizations to detect security vulnerabilities and prioritize remediations.
Last but not least, Microsoft Intune lets IT admins use Defender for Endpoint to manage the security settings on Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. Microsoft has also announced a new hardware-backed device attestation solution for Samsung Galaxy devices. The new service provides additional verifiable health checks to ensure that the device has not been compromised.