Managing endpoint security for different operating systems and devices feels like juggling countless balls in the air. Endpoint security managers must protect company data and ensure smooth operations on mobile, desktop, and virtualized endpoints.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager has great security features that many IT professionals don’t use to their full potential. The cloud-based endpoint security solution has powerful tools like security baselines, compliance policies, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint integration. These features often remain unused.
This piece shows you the key features you might have missed in your endpoint security strategy. You’ll learn to use pre-configured security settings and implement compliance policies. The remote management capabilities will change your approach to device security.
What Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager Actually Does
As an endpoint security manager, you’ll spend a lot of time working with specialized tools in Microsoft Intune. The admin console has a powerful section that many people don’t use enough. This area becomes your security operations hub.
Understanding the Endpoint security node in Intune
The Endpoint security node acts as your command center for device security management in the Microsoft Intune admin center. You’ll find it under the Manage section. This specialized area lets you focus on securing your devices instead of searching through broader device configuration settings.
The Overview dashboard shows up right away when you open the Endpoint security node. It displays united security information such as:
- Defender for Endpoint Connector status
- Windows devices onboarded to Defender for Endpoint
- Antivirus agent status
- Additional monitoring reports
Security administrators get great advantages from this centralized view. Here’s what you can do:
- Review all managed devices’ status through the All devices view
- Deploy security baselines that set up best practice configurations
- Use specialized policies to manage focused security configurations
- Set device compliance requirements through compliance policies
The quickest way to spot non-compliant devices is a standout feature. You can drill down to see exactly which policies they fail to meet. This makes fixing issues much easier than digging through general device management logs.
How it connects with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
The Endpoint security node shows its real strength when you combine it smoothly with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. These two platforms create a complete security ecosystem together.
You need admin access to both Microsoft Defender Security Center and Microsoft Intune admin center to set up the connection. The services sync with each other at least once every 24 hours. This creates a robust security management system.
The integration gives you these key capabilities:
- Security tasks create continuous connection between Defender for Endpoint and Intune. Your security team spots at-risk devices and sends detailed fix steps to Intune admins who take action right away. The Defender team gets updates once the task is complete.
- The system makes it simple to set up Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on clients. Intune gets an onboarding configuration package from Defender automatically. This package sets up devices to talk to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint services.
- The integration also lets you use Defender for Endpoint device risk signals in your compliance policies. This helps you spot and fix security problems before they grow into serious issues.
Features IT Pros Often Overlook
IT professionals have powerful security tools at their disposal. Yet many don’t tap into the hidden features of Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager. Here are three features that can substantially improve your security operations.
Security tasks and how they streamline remediation
Security tasks create smooth connections between your Microsoft Defender for Endpoint team and Intune administrators. Defender for Endpoint spots vulnerable devices and sends this data to Intune as a Security task. This process removes delays between finding threats and fixing them.
The security tasks process is straightforward:
- Your security team spots vulnerabilities through Defender for Endpoint
- They create tasks that show at-risk devices and steps to fix them
- Intune admins take the task, fix the issue, and mark it done
- Both teams know which devices were fixed and the timing
These tasks help fix application vulnerabilities like outdated software or configuration problems such as missing protection settings. The status updates show up in both Intune and Defender for Endpoint once completed.
Using the All Devices view for quick compliance checks
The All Devices view sits under the Endpoint security node. It shows a detailed list of your Microsoft Entra ID devices in Intune. You’ll see vital information like management status, compliance status, OS details, and when devices last checked in.
This central dashboard lets you:
- Spot non-compliant devices quickly
- Click any device to see detailed compliance data
- Find exactly which policies a device fails to meet
The view also gives you quick remote actions to secure devices. You can restart them, run malware scans, or change BitLocker keys on Windows 10 devices in just a few clicks.
Duplicating policies to save time and reduce errors
Policy duplication helps you work smarter. You don’t need to recreate similar policies for different groups manually. Just duplicate an existing policy and tweak what’s needed.
This feature works great especially when you have multiple locations or departments that need similar security setups with small differences. Your duplicate keeps all settings and scope tags from the original. It won’t include assignments, so you can customize those as needed.
Policy duplication helps keep your security setups consistent. It saves substantial time compared to building new policies from scratch.
Real-World Use Cases and Admin Tips
The right tools make up only half the battle in our security operations center. Real-world experience gives an explanation you won’t find in documentation.
How we used Endpoint Detection and Response to stop a threat
Our team faced a sophisticated attack that bypassed perimeter defenses. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’s detection capabilities alerted us through the security tasks feature. The EDR system gathered complete behavioral telemetry that included process information, network activities, and registry changes.
The security team spotted affected devices quickly and created remediation tasks that went straight to our Intune administrators. The continuous connection between teams helped us contain the threat within hours instead of days.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint stores telemetry for six months, which helped us trace the attack back to its origin. We then configured endpoint security policies to automatically onboard new devices to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. This ensures consistent protection throughout our environment.
Lessons learned from managing disk encryption policies
We found several critical insights about disk encryption management after struggling with BitLocker deployments. Everything about recovery options must be clear before enabling BitLocker to prevent data loss.
The BitLocker implementation worked best when we configured the policy to encrypt devices silently without user interaction—even for standard users without local administrator rights. This setup needs Windows 10 version 1809 or later.
There’s another reason we learned – recovery keys must back up properly to Microsoft Entra ID. The encryption would complete even when recovery key backup failed. This created major recovery challenges for our helpdesk team.
Tips for using remote actions like BitLocker key rotation
Remote actions have transformed how we manage security without physical device access. Here’s what we learned about BitLocker key rotation:
- Ensure devices run Windows 10 version 1909 or later
- Configure “Client-driven recovery password rotation” in your BitLocker policy
- Enable “Save BitLocker recovery information to Microsoft Entra ID”
- Use the Intune admin center to trigger rotation whenever a recovery key has been exposed
Remote actions like Quick Scan and Full Scan are a great way to get potential malware infections without disrupting users. The synchronize device action forces immediate check-in with Intune. This lets us verify policy changes without waiting for scheduled sync intervals.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Policy Management
Policy conflicts can destroy your endpoint security strategy. My experience managing enterprise endpoints has taught me that preventing issues works better than fixing conflicts after they happen.
Understanding policy conflicts and how to prevent them
Devices receive different configurations for the same setting from multiple sources, which creates conflicts. These sources could be separate policy types (like security baselines or endpoint protection templates) or multiple instances of the same policy. The setting may fail to apply to the device when Microsoft Endpoint Manager spots conflicting configurations during policy evaluation.
A clear plan for using multiple policy types has proven useful in my experience. We avoided using different baselines, instances of the same baseline, or different policy types to manage similar settings on a device. This needs careful planning about ways to deploy configurations to different devices.
You can check policy conflicts in the detailed report by going to Devices – Monitor – Configuration policy assignment failure.
Why RBAC roles matter more than you think
Your security posture depends heavily on role-based access control (RBAC). Microsoft suggests using the principle of least-permissions by giving administrators only the minimum permissions they need to do their jobs.
The Endpoint Security Manager role proves valuable as it lets you manage security and compliance features. Global Administrator and Intune Service Administrator roles should be saved for emergency scenarios.
RBAC works best when you:
- Limit role assignments to specific security groups
- Configure scope tags to restrict what resources administrators can see
- Note that permissions add up when users have multiple role assignments
How to test policies before full deployment
Testing thoroughly matters before you roll out policies widely. You can verify a policy by selecting its name from the endpoint security policies list.
Policies usually take up to 90 minutes to reach devices. You can speed up this process by selecting ‘Policy sync’ from the actions menu for devices managed by Defender for Endpoint. This cuts the wait time to about 10 minutes.
Duplicating existing policies offers a great way to test. The copy gets a new name while keeping the same setting configurations and scope tags as the original, but without assignments. This lets you test safely before making changes in your production environment.
Conclusion
Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager is a great tool for IT professionals who manage complex device security. Our experience shows that security tasks and continuous connection with Defender for Endpoint can reduce threat response time from days to hours.
The right endpoint security strategy becomes stronger when you use all the available tools. Security tasks help teams communicate better. The All Devices view gives you quick compliance updates. You can save time and reduce setup errors by duplicating policies across your organization.
Note that these points are crucial to succeed:
- Test policies well before deployment
- Plan carefully to avoid conflicts
- Set RBAC roles based on what’s needed
- Set up BitLocker recovery options early
Numosaic Microsoft ecosystem solutions make endpoint security management easier by adding to these built-in features. Start with one overlooked feature, see how it affects your system, and slowly add more security tools. The learning process might look tough at first, but these core features will make your organization’s security much stronger.
FAQs
Q1. What is Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager and what does it do?
Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager is a comprehensive security solution that helps IT professionals protect company data across multiple devices and operating systems. It offers features like security baselines, compliance policies, and integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to manage and secure endpoints effectively.
Q2. How does the integration between Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint work?
The integration creates a seamless security ecosystem between the two platforms. It enables security tasks to be shared between teams, streamlines onboarding for Defender for Endpoint on clients, and allows the use of Defender for Endpoint device risk signals in compliance policies, enhancing overall security posture.
Q3. What are some overlooked features in Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager?
Some often overlooked features include security tasks for streamlined remediation, the All Devices view for quick compliance checks, and policy duplication to save time and reduce errors. These features can significantly improve security operations and efficiency.
Q4. How can IT professionals avoid policy conflicts in Microsoft Endpoint Security Manager?
To avoid policy conflicts, IT pros should develop a clear plan for using multiple policy types, avoid managing identical settings on a device through different methods, and carefully plan configuration deployments. Regular monitoring of policy assignment failures can also help identify and resolve conflicts.
Q5. What are some best practices for testing policies before full deployment?
Best practices for testing policies include creating duplicates of existing policies for safe testing, verifying policies by selecting them from the endpoint security policies list, and using the ‘Policy sync’ action to expedite the process for devices managed by Defender for Endpoint. This approach allows for thorough testing before implementing changes in the production environment.
