Respond to alerts and incidents across Microsoft Defender portal, investigate Microsoft 365 activities, respond to incidents in Microsoft Sentinel, and implement Security Copilot.
Covers responding to alerts and incidents in the Microsoft Defender portal including investigating threats from Defender for Office 365, ransomware and business email compromise incidents, compromised entities from DLP policies, insider risk policies, Defender for Cloud workload protections, Defender for Cloud Apps, Microsoft Entra ID, and Defender for Identity. Includes responding to Defender for Endpoint alerts through device timelines, live response, investigation packages, and evidence investigation. Also covers investigating Microsoft 365 activities through unified audit log, Content Search, and Microsoft Graph activity logs. Encompasses responding to incidents in Microsoft Sentinel with automation rules, playbooks, and on-premises resource playbooks. Includes implementing and using Microsoft Security Copilot for promptbooks, source management, connectors, permissions, cost monitoring, and incident investigation.
5 minutes
5 Questions
Incident response management is a critical component of the Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Associate role, focusing on effectively handling security incidents from detection through resolution. In Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR, analysts must understand the complete incident lifecycle to protect organizational assets.
The incident response process begins with detection and triage. Security analysts receive alerts from various sources including Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. These alerts are correlated into incidents, grouping related suspicious activities together for efficient investigation.
During the investigation phase, analysts examine incident details, review associated alerts, analyze affected entities such as users, devices, and mailboxes, and gather evidence. Microsoft Sentinel provides investigation graphs and entity pages that help analysts understand attack scope and progression. Analysts can run queries using Kusto Query Language to uncover additional context and identify attack patterns.
Classification is essential for proper incident handling. Analysts must determine if an incident represents a true positive, false positive, or benign positive. This classification helps improve detection accuracy over time and ensures appropriate response actions are taken.
Response actions include containment, eradication, and recovery steps. Analysts may isolate compromised devices, disable user accounts, block malicious files, or quarantine emails. Microsoft Defender XDR provides automated investigation and response capabilities that can accelerate remediation for known threat types.
Documentation throughout the process is vital. Analysts should add comments, tags, and status updates to incidents, ensuring proper tracking and communication with stakeholders. Assigning incidents to appropriate team members and setting severity levels helps prioritize workload effectively.
Post-incident activities involve reviewing lessons learned, updating detection rules, and improving security posture. Analysts should identify gaps in defenses and recommend preventive measures. Proper incident closure includes documenting resolution steps and maintaining audit trails for compliance purposes.Incident response management is a critical component of the Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Associate role, focusing on effectively handling security incidents from detection through resolution. In Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR, analysts must understand the complete incident l…