Microsoft Security

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1. changelog Aug 4, 2026 · issue 036

   Microsoft adds a DevSecOps pillar and AI-focused Zero Trust Assessment to the Zero Trust Workshop.

   • Introduces a new DevSecOps pillar in the Zero Trust Workshop with 15 control groups and 91 tasks covering developer platforms, CI/CD pipelines, source repositories, dependencies, artifacts, and infrastructure-as-code.
   • Adds four AI-assisted development tasks in the DevSecOps pillar: code governance, tool allowlisting, data protection, and AI and machine learning pipeline supply-chain security.
   • Introduces a new AI-focused Zero Trust Assessment experience to establish a baseline across Zero Trust pillars including AI and DevSecOps scenarios.
   • Improves the AI pillar in the Zero Trust Workshop with guidance based on the Microsoft AI Memory framework, treating memory as a governed security boundary with intent, provenanceprovenanceEvidence recording where a software artifact came from and how it was built, including its source and build process. It helps a consumer check that the artifact matches a trusted build., lifecycle visibility, and user control.
   • Publishes a new e-book, "Zero Trust for AI: Rebuilding security controls for autonomous and agentic systems", covering AI agents, tools, memory, data, and runtime operations.

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   • Introduces pattern and practice guidance for least privilege for AI agents, Zero Trust for source code access, memory safety in agentic systems, software supply chainsoftware supply chainThe dependencies, tools and processes used to build and deliver software. Compromising one part can affect the products or organizations that rely on it. protection, and security adoption for development.

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2. changelog Jul 30, 2026 · issue 031

   Microsoft Intune Suite advanced endpoint management now included in Microsoft 365 E5 (and select E3) at no added cost.

   • Includes Microsoft Intune Suite capabilities in Microsoft 365 E5 (and select capabilities in Microsoft 365 E3) at no additional cost as of July 1, 2026.
   • Enables reduction of standing admin rights, modernized certificate management, accelerated issue resolution, and streamlined app delivery through advanced endpoint management.
   • Integrates Microsoft Security Copilot into Intune workflows for AI-assisted endpoint management.

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3. changelog Jul 27, 2026 · issue 028

   Microsoft launches Project Perception agentic security system and the External Red Team Alliance (EXTRA) for global AI safety research.

   • Introduces Project Perception, a new agentic security system with a multi-layer Cyber Stack — signals/sensors, security context, multi-model architecture, agent harnessagent harnessThe software around an AI agent that manages its tools, execution loop, state and limits. It determines how the model's proposed actions are run and checked., and actuators — designed to continuously perceive, reason, and act at machine speed.
   • Adds a continuously updated security context layer that transforms signals, threat intelligence, and asset/identity/relationship data into a shared, near-real-time representation for AI agents, reducing token cost and improving reasoning accuracy.
   • Adopts a multi-model architecture that dynamically selects the best-fit model (frontier or specialized) per security task, optimizing for quality, latency, reliability, and cost without locking customers to a single model.
   • Introduces actuators that translate AI reasoning directly into real-time protections and actions across integrated security workflows, closing the gap between insight and enforcement.
   • Launches EXTRA (External Red Team Alliance), a formalized global program funding 18 university labs across six continents with unrestricted gifts to advance independent AI safety and red-teaming research.

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4. docs update Jul 8, 2026 · issue 008

   Microsoft Defender now includes an Active DirectoryActive DirectoryMicrosoft's directory service for Windows networks that centralises authentication and authorisation; cyber tools target or integrate with it because it controls identity and access across most enterprise environments. domain investigation page with security posture and trust relationship visibility.

   • New Active Directory domain investigation page surfaces domain properties, deployment health, identity summary, service account breakdown, sensitive entities, active recommendations, group policies, and trust relationships.

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5. July 2026 Jul 1, 2026 · release notes

   Microsoft Defender July 2026 adds AI agent posture risk assessment and Domain investigation page

   └──▷ HOW TO FIND IT
   Use the Domain investigation page to get a comprehensive view of an Active DirectoryActive DirectoryMicrosoft's directory service for Windows networks that centralises authentication and authorisation; cyber tools target or integrate with it because it controls identity and access across most enterprise environments. domain's security health and identity summary.
   📍Navigate to the Defender portal › Identity › Domains, select a domain, and open the Investigate view.
   Investigate detected threats against Microsoft Agent 365 agents using advanced hunting queries for runtime signal data.
   📍Go to Advanced Hunting in the Defender portal and query logs populated from Microsoft Copilot Studio or Foundry runtime signals.
   • (Preview) Assess posture risk for enterprise and local AI agents to prioritize risky agents and improve security posture.
   • (GA) The Domain investigation page allows you to investigate an Active Directory domain, showing properties, health, identity summary, and trust relationships.
   • (Preview) Detect threats to Microsoft Agent 365 agents by analyzing runtime signals from agent interactions and tool usage.

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6. ​​What’s new in Microsoft Security: June 2026 (2026-06-30) Jun 30, 2026 · issue 002

   Microsoft Security June 2026: AI agent protection, multicloud DB coverage, Entra backup GA, and unified identity risk scoring.

   ⤢ ⤢ ⤢ ⤢
   • Introduces Codename MDASH (private preview): a multi-model agentic scanning system that discovers, validates, and routes software vulnerabilities into Defender workflows and engineering pipelines for closed-loop remediation.
   • Expands Microsoft Defender endpoint protection to discover 25+ types of local AI agents and Model Context ProtocolModel Context ProtocolModel Context Protocol, a standard for connecting AI applications to external tools and data sources. A compatible server exposes capabilities an assistant can use through a common interface. (MCPMCPModel Context Protocol, a standard for connecting AI applications to external tools and data sources. A compatible server exposes capabilities an assistant can use through a common interface.) servers on managed Windows and macOS devices, with runtime prompt-injectionprompt-injectionAn attack where text the model reads, such as a web page, file or tool result, carries instructions that override the user's. It is the main security risk for agents with tools. detection and blocking for coding agents such as GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code.
   • Adds Advanced Hunting support for investigating AI agent exposure across an environment (preview).
   • Extends Microsoft Defender for Cloud database threat protection (GA) to open-source relational databases on AWS RDS, adding anomalous-access and brute-force detection alongside automated sensitive data discovery.
   • Ships Microsoft Purview customizable reports (GA) in Data Security PostureData Security PostureAn organisation's overall state of readiness to protect data, covering where sensitive data lives, who can reach it, and whether controls are correctly applied — giving cyber tools a continuous risk baseline to act on. Management (DSPMDSPMData security posture management, locating sensitive data and checking how it is protected and who can reach it. It helps teams prioritize risks around their data stores.), enabling role-specific, exportable report views with out-of-the-box and custom report creation for data security trend analysis.

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   • Broadens Defender for Cloud multicloud coverage with approximately 90 additional AWS and Google Cloud resource types and 200+ new security recommendations spanning cloud-native apps, identities, data services, and workloads.
   • Introduces a unified identity risk score that aggregates behavior, access patterns, and threat intelligence across accounts, sessions, and applications into a single explainable signal, with automatic Conditional AccessConditional AccessA policy enforcement framework, most commonly Microsoft's in Entra ID, that grants or blocks resource access based on signals like user identity, device state, and location — letting cyber tools trigger step-up auth or deny risky sessions. policy enforcement triggers.

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7. Guarding AI memory (2026-06-22) Jun 22, 2026 · issue 001

   Microsoft 365 Copilot gains AI memory security controls: prompt-injectionprompt-injectionAn attack where text the model reads, such as a web page, file or tool result, carries instructions that override the user's. It is the main security risk for agents with tools. sanitization, Task Adherence checks, audit logs in Defender Advanced Hunting, and tenant-level policy.

   ⤢ ⤢

   ⤢
   └──▷ TRY IT
   Hunt for anomalous AI memory writes across your tenant to detect potential memory-poisoning attempts or unexpected agent behavior changes.
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   $ In Defender Advanced Hunting, run a KQL query joining the MemoryUpdated field:
   
   CloudAppEvents
   | where ActionType == "MemoryUpdated"
   | project Timestamp, AccountDisplayName, Application, RawEventData
   | order by Timestamp desc

   Build a Sentinel analytics rule to alert whenever an AI memory write occurs outside of normal business hours, flagging potential delayed-execution attacks.
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   $ In Azure Portal Sentinel Analytics, create a Scheduled rule using the MemoryUpdated field:
   
   CloudAppEvents
   | where ActionType == "MemoryUpdated"
   | where hourofday(Timestamp) !between (8 .. 18)
   | summarize Count=count() by AccountDisplayName, bin(Timestamp, 1h)
   | where Count > 0

   Disable AI memory personalization across a tenant to reduce attack surfaceattack surfaceThe exposed systems, interfaces and access points an attacker could try to use. It includes internet-facing services as well as identities, software and other reachable resources. while evaluating the security posture of agentic deployments.
   📍In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Settings › Copilot › AI Memory and set the tenant-level policy to disable memory personalization for all users.
   • Adds proprietary prompt-injection classifiers that sanitize content on every memory write in M365 Copilot, stripping malicious input before persistence.
   • Introduces Task Adherence checks on every explicit memory write to detect misaligned tool invocations relative to user intent, mitigating prompt-injection impact on the memory tool call.
   • Enables tenant-level policy control over AI memory personalization in M365 Copilot.
   • Surfaces a new MemoryUpdated field in Defender Advanced Hunting, Microsoft Sentinel, and Azure Portal Sentinel Analytics, giving SOCSOCA security operations center, the team or function that monitors threats, investigates alerts and coordinates incident response. Its work can be internal, outsourced or shared. analysts visibility into memory-change events for alert-building and incident triage.
   • Integrates AI memory audit events into organizational audit logs with end-to-end traceability from source content through memory write to downstream influence on agent behavior.

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   • Brings AI memory data under unified M365 compliance boundaries — including Customer Lockbox, encryption at rest, Data Subject Requests, and eDiscoveryeDiscoveryA legal process for identifying, collecting, and producing electronically stored information in response to litigation or investigation; cyber tools integrate with it to extract and preserve forensic evidence in legally defensible formats. — consistent with email, chat, and document policies.

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8. June 2026 Jun 1, 2026 · release notes

   New AI agent discovery/protection, enriched entity pages, Identity dashboard card, and several advanced hunting tables for Defender XDRXDRExtended detection and response, combining signals and investigation across endpoints, networks, identities or cloud services. It helps analysts connect activity that separate tools might miss..

   └──▷ HOW TO FIND IT
   Review threat intelligence data directly in the entity page without switching contexts.
   📍Navigate to any Entity page (IP, domain, URL, or file) in Microsoft Defender XDR and select the Threat Intelligence Insights tab.
   Filter the SaaSSaaSSoftware delivered over the internet and run on the provider's infrastructure, so the buyer pays a subscription instead of installing or operating anything locally. identity coverage panel to show only applications currently detected in the environment.
   📍In the Identity Security dashboard, go to Coverage and maturity › Review and improve coverage (SaaS Identities) and toggle Show Only Observed Applications on.
   • Adds a Threat Intelligence Insights tab to Entity pages (IP, domain, URL, file) surfacing reputation scores, threat reports, infrastructure relationships, and sandbox analysis.
   • Adds a Human identities card to the Identity Security dashboard showing human identities by source (Entra IDEntra IDMicrosoft's cloud-based identity and access management service, formerly Azure Active Directory, used by cyber tools to authenticate users and enforce access policies in Microsoft 365 and Azure environments., SaaS, on-premises).
   • Adds an Observed column and Show Only Observed Applications toggle to the Review and improve coverage side panel for SaaS Identities.
   • Enables automatic discovery of supported local AI agents (coding agents, IDE extensions, desktop assistants, runtimes) on Windows endpoints, appearing as assets in inventory and advanced hunting.
   • Adds public preview runtime protection for local AI agents on Windows endpoints, inspecting agent loops to block risky activity like prompt injectionprompt injectionAn attack where text the model reads, such as a web page, file or tool result, carries instructions that override the user's. It is the main security risk for agents with tools. at the device level.

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   • Releases four new advanced hunting tables in GA: DisruptionAndResponseEvents, CloudAuditEvents, CloudDnsEvents, and CloudProcessEvents.
   • Makes the AgentsInfo table available in preview as a unified schema for agent inventory, transitioning from AIAgentsInfo.

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   └──▷ BREAKING ON UPGRADE

   • !The AIAgentsInfo table is deprecated and will be inaccessible after July 1, 2026; queries must migrate to AgentsInfo.
   • !Phishing Triage Agent and Security Alert Triage Agent permissions change from 'Email & Collaboration content: All Emails (read)' to the more limited Emails associated with alerts (read) permission.
9. May 2026 May 1, 2026 · release notes

   New standalone Defender Experts offerings, automatic device isolation, advanced hunting actions, identity scenarios, and preview chat assistant.

   • Microsoft Defender Experts for Servers and Hunting are now offered as standalone services, previously only available as add-ons to MDRMDRManaged detection and response, an outsourced service that monitors security signals, investigates threats and helps respond to incidents. It combines specialist analysts with detection tools. and Hunting respectively
   • Automatic attack disruption can isolate compromised devices from the network when high-confidence incident analysis indicates an active foothold
   • Take action wizard in advanced hunting now supports allowing or blocking top-level domains (TLDs) and file attachment hashes based on query results
   • Advanced hunting graph includes new identity-focused predefined scenarios for Kerberoast, AS-REP roast paths, domain compromise routes, OAuth risks, and guest user access
   • Defender Chat experience (Preview) introduces an open-prompt chat assistant for SOCSOCA security operations center, the team or function that monitors threats, investigates alerts and coordinates incident response. Its work can be internal, outsourced or shared. analysts to investigate threats and answer security questions in plain language

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10. April 2026 Apr 1, 2026 · release notes

    Preview incident action status, expanded AIAgentsInfo columns, GA built-in alert tuning, and MDRMDRManaged detection and response, an outsourced service that monitors security signals, investigates threats and helps respond to incidents. It combines specialist analysts with detection tools. menu entry.

    └──▷ HOW TO FIND IT
    Check why an incident was automatically disrupted or shielded without leaving the context of the event.
    📍In the Microsoft Defender portal, open the Incident page and navigate to the Activities tab
    Quickly access the Managed Detection and Response service for MDR customers directly from the main interface.
    📍In the Microsoft Defender portal navigation menu, click Defender Experts
    • (Preview) The Activities tab of the incident page now shows the current status of automatic attack disruption and predictive shielding actions related to a specific incident
    • (Preview) The AIAgentsInfo table in advanced hunting includes additional columns with deeper visibility into AI agents operating in your Microsoft 365 environment, expanding coverage beyond Copilot Studio to all agent types including Microsoft Foundry, third-party marketplace, and custom line-of-business agents
    • Built-in alert tuning rules are now generally available and suppress alerts from common benign activity in Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Office 365 without affecting Automated Investigation and Response (AIR) investigations and email notifications
    • Microsoft Defender Experts MDR customers can see Defender Experts as a distinct entry in the Microsoft Defender portal navigation menu

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11. March 2026 Mar 1, 2026 · release notes

    New Identity Security dashboard, non-human identitynon-human identityA non-human identity, an account or credential used by software or a device rather than a person. Service accounts, workload identities and automation tokens need their own permissions and lifecycle controls. tab, risk score, domain investigation page, and advanced hunting tables.

    • Adds the Identity Security dashboard (Preview) providing summary cards for identity providersidentity providersA service that authenticates users and supplies identity information to other applications. It is the sign-in authority behind many single sign-on systems., on-premises identities, SaaSSaaSSoftware delivered over the internet and run on the provider's infrastructure, so the buyer pays a subscription instead of installing or operating anything locally. identities, PAMPAMBrokering administrator sessions through a gateway instead of handing out standing credentials. Access is granted for one session, to one target, and recorded. and IGAIGAIdentity Governance and Administration: a framework for managing user access rights, roles, and lifecycle across systems, giving cyber tools a structured data source for detecting privilege abuse or access anomalies. integrations, and non-human identitiesnon-human identitiesA non-human identity, an account or credential used by software or a device rather than a person. Service accounts, workload identities and automation tokens need their own permissions and lifecycle controls.
    • Adds the Coverage and maturity page (Preview) showing organization's identity security coverage with maturity levels (Connected, Protected, Fortified, Resilient) and prioritized setup tasks
    • Updates the Identity inventory page to show human and non-human identities in separate tabs with new insight cards for critical assets and privileged identities
    • Adds the Non-human identities tab (Preview) displaying Microsoft Entra IDEntra IDMicrosoft's cloud-based identity and access management service, formerly Azure Active Directory, used by cyber tools to authenticate users and enforce access policies in Microsoft 365 and Azure environments. apps, Active DirectoryActive DirectoryMicrosoft's directory service for Windows networks that centralises authentication and authorisation; cyber tools target or integrate with it because it controls identity and access across most enterprise environments. service accounts, Google Workspace apps, and Salesforce apps
    • Adds the Identity risk score (Preview), a 0-100 metric available in Microsoft Entra ID to inform conditional access policies and identity protection workflows, with a new Risk score tab on the Identity page

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    • Adds the Domain investigation page (Preview) showing Active Directory domain security properties, deployment health, identity summary, service account breakdown, sensitive entities, active recommendations, group policies, and trust relationships
    • Adds the ability to view Identity security recommendations (Preview) from Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, SaaS applications, and supported non-Microsoft identity providers
    • Adds new advanced hunting schema tables in preview: CloudDnsEvents for cloud infrastructure DNS activity and CloudPolicyEnforcementEvents for policy enforcement evaluation decisions
    • Allows filtering or hiding specific entities on very large incidents to simplify complex incident graphs
    • Makes the proactive user containment (contain user) action generally available as part of predictive shielding

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12. January 2026 Jan 1, 2026 · release notes

    Preview NRTNRTNear-real-time processing, a design pattern where data is ingested and acted on within seconds to minutes rather than instantly or in batch, giving cyber tools low-latency detection without the cost of true real-time pipelines. config for custom detections in Sentinel, advanced hunting size limit handling, and UEBA columns.

    • (Preview) Custom detection rules in Microsoft Defender now support Near Real-Time (NRT) configuration on Microsoft Sentinel data
    • (Preview) In advanced hunting, if the query result exceeds the 64-MB size limit, the portal now returns the maximum number of records it can within this limit and displays a message indicating that the displayed results are partial due to size constraints.
    • (Preview) The BehaviorInfo and BehaviorEntities tables in advanced hunting now include additional columns and information about behavior data types and alerts from User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), providing more insights on the relationships between identified behaviors and entities.

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13. December 2025 Dec 1, 2025 · release notes

    Microsoft Security Copilot GA for threat briefings; Threat Hunting Assistant; Advanced Hunting graph GA with custom tabular functions.

    • Introduces the generally available Microsoft Security Copilot Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent for automated threat reports
    • Adds the Threat Hunting Assistant preview for natural language conversational threat hunting in Defender
    • Makes the Advanced Hunting interactive graph feature generally available with two new predefined threat scenarios
    • Enables custom functions in advanced hunting that accept tabular parameters as inputs
    • Provides preview CampaignInfo and FileMaliciousContentInfo tables for advanced hunting schemas

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14. October 2025 Oct 1, 2025 · release notes

    Microsoft Defender Experts MDRMDRManaged detection and response, an outsourced service that monitors security signals, investigates threats and helps respond to incidents. It combines specialist analysts with detection tools. and Hunting reports add Trends tab, Emerging threats section, and investigation summaries

    • Adds a Trends tab to Microsoft Defender Experts MDR reports showing monthly volume of investigated/resolved incidents for the last six months by severity, MITREMITREA US federally funded research and development center that maintains public frameworks—ATT&CK, CVE, D3FEND—that cyber tools use to classify threats, vulnerabilities, and defensive techniques in a common language. tactic, and threat type
    • Adds an Emerging threats section to Microsoft Defender Experts Hunting reports detailing proactive, hypothesis-based hunts conducted in the environment
    • Adds investigation summaries for nearly every hunt conducted by Defender Experts, regardless of whether a confirmed threat was identified

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15. September 2025 Sep 1, 2025 · release notes

    (Preview) New tasks for incident investigation breakdown and Blast radius analysis in Microsoft Defender portal

    • (Preview) Use tasks in the Microsoft Defender portal to break down incident investigations into actionable steps and assign them across your operations teams.
    • (Preview) Investigate incidents by using Blast radius analysis, which is an advanced graph visualization built on the Microsoft Sentinel data lake and graph infrastructure.

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16. August 2025 Aug 1, 2025 · release notes

    Preview: Dynamic alert titles/descriptions in Advanced Hunting; GA: Third-party network signal enrichment for Defender Experts MDRMDRManaged detection and response, an outsourced service that monitors security signals, investigates threats and helps respond to incidents. It combines specialist analysts with detection tools. and Sensitivity label filter.

    └──▷ HOW TO FIND IT
    Enable Sensitivity Label filtering for Incidents and Alerts in the Microsoft Defender portal via UI navigation.
    📍In the Microsoft Defender portal, go to Incidents or Alerts queue and enable the Sensitivity label filter in the filter pane.
    • (GA) Defender Experts MDR customers can now incorporate third-party network signals for enrichment.
    • (GA) The Sensitivity label filter is now available in the Incidents and Alerts queues in the Microsoft Defender portal.
    • (Preview) In advanced hunting, you can now enrich your custom detection rules by creating dynamic alert titles and descriptions, select more impacted entities, and add custom details to display in the alert side panel.
    • (GA) In advanced hunting, you can now view all your user-defined rules —both custom detection rules and analytics rules—in the Detection rules page.

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17. June 2025 Jun 1, 2025 · release notes

    Microsoft Copilot incident summary prompts and advanced hunting adx() operator added to Defender portal.

    └──▷ TRY IT
    Query Azure Data Explorer tables directly from the Defender advanced hunting pane.
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    $ SecurityEvents | adx("KustoCluster", "KustoDatabase", "KustoTable")

    Use suggested prompts in the Defender portal to investigate an incident.
    📍In the Microsoft Defender portal, open Incident Summary › Suggested Prompts (Preview) and run a prompt.
    • Adds adx() operator to advanced hunting queries for Azure Data Explorer tables without leaving Microsoft Defender

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18. May 2025 May 1, 2025 · release notes

    Preview of unified Detection rules page, unified security summary report, unified IdentityInfo table, and new Teams hunting tables.

    • (Preview) You can now view all your user-defined rules —both custom detection rules and analytics rules—in the Detection rules page
    • Defender portal users who onboard Microsoft Sentinel and enable the User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) can now take advantage of the new unified IdentityInfo table in advanced hunting
    • The MessageEvents table contains details about messages sent and received within your organization at the time of delivery
    • The MessagePostDeliveryEvents table contains information about security events that occurred after the delivery of a Microsoft Teams message in your organization
    • The MessageUrlInfo table contains information about URLs sent through Microsoft Teams messages in your organization

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    • (Preview) You can now highlight your security operations achievements and the impact of Microsoft Defender by using the unified security summary

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