Prepare for SC-200 with a reference that remembers your progress.

Microsoft Defender XDR is an integrated threat-protection suite. It detects activity across four domains: endpoints, identity, email, and applications. Correlation turns separate signals into a complete attack-chain story, helping analysts determine sequence, scope, affected entities, and remediation.

A malicious attachment can arrive through personal email or a USB drive and bypass the organization's protected email flow. When it runs, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can still detect the payload. This illustrates defense in depth: one security domain can detect an attack that entered through another path.

Remediation modes

• Fully automated remediation
• Automated remediation requiring analyst approval
• Manual investigation and remediation

Threat information can also enrich Microsoft Threat Intelligence and help other Microsoft products detect related variants across email, collaboration, Azure, and other parts of the attack surface. Continuous Access Evaluation (CAE) can apply access changes to supported active sessions.

Defender XDR provides integrated detection and response across Microsoft security domains; Microsoft Sentinel can supply broader SIEM visibility and context. Team structure depends on organization size, and tier labels describe specialized functions rather than a ranking of value.

Microsoft recommends a high-quality alert feed—approximately 90% true positives for alerts requiring analyst response. Automation reduces repetitive work, and integration gives analysts a single console for endpoint, email, identity, and application evidence.

Microsoft Graph is a unified programming model for data across Microsoft 365, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. REST APIs and SDKs use the single endpoint https://graph.microsoft.com.

The Microsoft Graph Security API acts as a broker: it federates a request to applicable security providers, aggregates their responses, and returns a common schema. This supports alert correlation, SIEM streaming, threat-indicator submission, investigation context, reporting, and SecOps automation.

• v1.0: stable API surface for production use.
• beta: preview capabilities that may change without notice.

Advanced hunting through Microsoft Graph

POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/security/runHuntingQuery
{
  "Query": "DeviceProcessEvents
    | where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "powershell.exe"
    | project Timestamp, FileName, InitiatingProcessFileName
    | order by Timestamp desc
    | limit 2"
}

The KQL query searches device process events, filters for PowerShell as the initiating process, selects three fields, sorts newest first, and returns two rows.

This unit delegates its practical content to an interactive Microsoft cloud guide. It demonstrates Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel working together during an investigation in a hybrid environment.

1. Review the unified incident and related alerts.
2. Examine the attack timeline, evidence, and affected entities.
3. Determine scope, entry point, and current status.
4. Use Sentinel data when broader hybrid-environment context is needed.
5. Contain and remediate the threat, document findings, and close or escalate.

• Defender XDR correlates endpoint, identity, email, and application signals.
• Unified incidents provide a clearer attack story and improve response.
• A modern SOC combines triage, investigation, threat hunting, and threat intelligence.
• Sentinel can add broader SIEM visibility to an XDR investigation.
• Microsoft Graph enables programmatic security integration and automation.