News

Microsoft Defender ATP Evaluation Lab Released

• By Kurt Mackie
• 09/12/2019

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that its Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Evaluation Lab is now production-ready.

The product's "general availability" status means that organizations can now begin using it to assess Microsoft's top-of-the-line bundle of security services.

Microsoft Defender ATP (formerly called "Windows Defender ATP") isn't for everyone. Organizations will need a Windows E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 subscription to use it, which are licenses at the top of Microsoft's pricing list. With the new lab, though, Microsoft is making it easier for organizations to evaluate this security suite before buying the licensing.

Essentially, IT pros can get a preprovisioned lab to test Microsoft Defender ATP in about "30 minutes," without having to install anything. The lab supports up to three Windows 10 PCs in a virtual network that gets set up by Microsoft, which can be accessed via Remote Desktop Protocol.

The Microsoft Defender ATP service has various components. It can be used to assess endpoint security and reduce attack surfaces. It has some automated remediation capabilities, plus discovery capabilities. Microsoft also recently described it having an Automated Investigation and Remediation service. There's also access to Microsoft's Security Operation Center threat-hunting expertise via a service called "Microsoft Threat Experts."

Lab testers just will get access to the following Microsoft Defender ATP capabilities, according to this Microsoft document:

• Attack Surface Reduction
• Block at first sight
• Controlled Folder Access
• Exploit Protection
• Network Protection
• Potentially unwanted application detection
• Cloud-delivered protection
• Windows Defender SmartScreen

In addition, the latest versions of Windows 10, Office 2019 Standard, Java, Python and Sysinternals will get provisioned for the lab users.

Testers can conduct simulated attacks within the virtual environment and see the results in a dashboard. The lab includes built-in tutorials to learn how to use the service.

There's one big catch to using the lab, as it's a very limited trial. IT pros will get a total of three days to use it (the dashboard includes a countdown timer). The lab can't be refreshed after that three-day time period, Microsoft's document explained.