Microsoft Intune provides comprehensive endpoint security features to protect your organization's devices and data. This article explores the key security capabilities offered by Intune, including threat management, data protection, and access control.
Key Endpoint Security Features in Intune
1. Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) Integration
Intune seamlessly integrates with leading Mobile Threat Defense solutions, enabling you to detect and remediate threats on mobile devices. By leveraging the power of MTD partners, you can gain visibility into device-level risks such as malware, phishing attempts, and unsecured network connections.
Benefits:
- Proactive threat detection
- Automated remediation actions
- Enhanced protection against mobile-specific attacks
2. Data Protection Policies
Intune allows you to define granular data protection policies to safeguard sensitive information on managed devices. This includes app protection policies that control how data can be copied, saved, and shared between managed and unmanaged apps.
- App Configuration Policies: Configure settings for apps that are deployed through Intune.
- App Protection Policies: Protect organizational data by encrypting it, preventing copy/paste to unmanaged apps, and enforcing PIN requirements.
- Data Transfer Restrictions: Control the flow of data between corporate and personal apps.
3. Device Compliance and Conditional Access
Ensure that devices meet your organization's security standards before granting them access to corporate resources. Intune's compliance policies define the security requirements for devices, while Azure Active Directory Conditional Access uses these compliance signals to enforce access controls.
Examples of Compliance Settings:
- Require devices to be encrypted.
- Enforce strong passcode policies.
- Ensure devices are running a minimum OS version.
- Require devices to be jailbroken or rooted detection.
4. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
For Windows endpoints, Intune works in conjunction with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to provide advanced threat protection. This includes next-generation protection, attack surface reduction, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities.
Key EDR Capabilities:
- Real-time threat monitoring and alerting
- Automated investigation and remediation
- Rich threat intelligence
- Centralized management through the Microsoft 365 Security Center
5. BitLocker Drive Encryption Management
Intune enables centralized management of BitLocker drive encryption for Windows devices. You can enforce BitLocker policies, manage recovery keys, and ensure that sensitive data on device hard drives is protected.
Implementing Intune Endpoint Security
Setting up and managing endpoint security in Intune involves several steps:
- Configure Device Compliance Policies: Define the security requirements for devices.
- Create App Protection Policies: Protect corporate data within applications.
- Integrate with MTD Solutions (Optional): Enhance mobile threat detection.
- Configure Conditional Access Policies: Control access to resources based on device compliance and other signals.
- Deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (for Windows): Leverage advanced threat protection.
Conclusion
Microsoft Intune is a cornerstone of modern endpoint security strategies. By leveraging its comprehensive features, organizations can effectively protect their diverse fleet of devices from evolving threats, ensure data integrity, and maintain a secure IT environment.