Understanding Application Guard for Office, Now Generally Available

Understanding Application Guard for Office, Now Generally Available

Application Guard first appeared in Windows 10 1709 ("Fall Creators Update") to isolate Edge browser activity within a Hyper V container.  Microsoft now extends that same idea to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Office 365 ProPlus Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise on Windows 10... ... if you have Microsoft 365 E5 or E5 Security.  You knew that was coming! With Application Guard for Office, your files can open in a sandbox without access local…
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Web Content Filtering – Migrate Rules from Existing Security Software

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Web Content Filtering – Migrate Rules from Existing Security Software

In my last blog, I wrote about web content filtering in MDATP and how it now allows you to block website categories on the client across all apps.  Category blockers are great because, with one easy checkbox, you ban hundreds of thousands of dangerous on inappropriate websites.  Nothing is perfect, though, and anyone who's ever worked a helpdesk or SOC will attest that false positives and false negatives are common. The engine for MDATP…
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Web Content Filtering – Administration, Limitations, and User Experience

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Web Content Filtering – Administration, Limitations, and User Experience

Historically, one of the big features missing "out of the box" with MDATP was web content filtering.  Customers typically look at MDATP as an option when their existing endpoint security is due for license renewal, and compare their existing solution against it.  They would be moving from one of the big security vendors such as Sophos, Norton, and McAfee, which all supported web content filtering.  Higher lever stakeholders often listed the ability to block…