---
title: Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection
description: Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection is an enterprise security platform that helps secops to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to possible cybersecurity threats related to advanced persistent threats.
keywords: introduction to Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, introduction to Microsoft Defender ATP, cybersecurity, advanced persistent threat, enterprise security, machine behavioral sensor, cloud security, analytics, threat intelligence, attack surface reduction, next generation protection, automated investigation and remediation, microsoft threat experts, secure score, advanced hunting, microsoft threat protection, cyber threat hunting
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search.appverid: met150
ms.prod: w10
ms.mktglfcycl: deploy
ms.sitesec: library
ms.pagetype: security
ms.author: macapara
author: mjcaparas
ms.localizationpriority: medium
manager: dansimp
audience: ITPro
ms.collection: M365-security-compliance
ms.topic: conceptual
---
# Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection
> Want to experience Microsoft Defender ATP? [Sign up for a free trial.](https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/windows/microsoft-defender-atp?ocid=docs-wdatp-main-abovefoldlink)
>
> For more info about Windows 10 Enterprise Edition features and functionality, see [Windows 10 Enterprise edition](https://www.microsoft.com/WindowsForBusiness/buy).
Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection is a platform designed to help enterprise networks prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats.
Microsoft Defender ATP uses the following combination of technology built into Windows 10 and Microsoft's robust cloud service:
- **Endpoint behavioral sensors**: Embedded in Windows 10, these sensors
collect and process behavioral signals from the operating system and sends this sensor data to your private, isolated, cloud instance of Microsoft Defender ATP.
- **Cloud security analytics**: Leveraging big-data, machine-learning, and
unique Microsoft optics across the Windows ecosystem,
enterprise cloud products (such as Office 365), and online assets, behavioral signals
are translated into insights, detections, and recommended responses
to advanced threats.
- **Threat intelligence**: Generated by Microsoft hunters, security teams,
and augmented by threat intelligence provided by partners, threat
intelligence enables Microsoft Defender ATP to identify attacker
tools, techniques, and procedures, and generate alerts when these
are observed in collected sensor data.
> [!TIP]
> - Learn about the latest enhancements in Microsoft Defender ATP: [What's new in Microsoft Defender ATP](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/11/15/whats-new-in-windows-defender-atp/).
> - Microsoft Defender ATP demonstrated industry-leading optics and detection capabilities in the recent MITRE evaluation. Read: [Insights from the MITRE ATT&CK-based evaluation](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/12/03/insights-from-the-mitre-attack-based-evaluation-of-windows-defender-atp/).
**[Threat & Vulnerability Management](next-gen-threat-and-vuln-mgt.md)**
This built-in capability uses a game-changing risk-based approach to the discovery, prioritization, and remediation of endpoint vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
**[Attack surface reduction](overview-attack-surface-reduction.md)**
The attack surface reduction set of capabilities provide the first line of defense in the stack. By ensuring configuration settings are properly set and exploit mitigation techniques are applied, these set of capabilities resist attacks and exploitation. This set of capabilities also includes [network protection](network-protection.md) and [web protection](web-protection-overview.md), which regulate access to malicious IP addresses, domains, and URLs.
**[Next generation protection](https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-defender-antivirus/windows-defender-antivirus-in-windows-10)**
To further reinforce the security perimeter of your network, Microsoft Defender ATP uses next generation protection designed to catch all types of emerging threats.
**[Endpoint detection and response](overview-endpoint-detection-response.md)**
Endpoint detection and response capabilities are put in place to detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats that may have made it past the first two security pillars. [Advanced hunting](advanced-hunting-overview.md) provides a query-based threat-hunting tool that lets you proactively find breaches and create custom detections.
**[Automated investigation and remediation](automated-investigations.md)**
In conjunction with being able to quickly respond to advanced attacks, Microsoft Defender ATP offers automatic investigation and remediation capabilities that help reduce the volume of alerts in minutes at scale.
**[Secure score](overview-secure-score.md)**
> [!NOTE]
> Secure score is now part of [Threat & Vulnerability Management](next-gen-threat-and-vuln-mgt.md) as [Configuration score](configuration-score.md). The secure score page will be available for a few weeks. View the [Secure score](https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-atp/overview-secure-score) page.
Microsoft Defender ATP includes a secure score to help you dynamically assess the security state of your enterprise network, identify unprotected systems, and take recommended actions to improve the overall security of your organization.
**[Microsoft Threat Experts](microsoft-threat-experts.md)**
Microsoft Defender ATP's new managed threat hunting service provides proactive hunting, prioritization, and additional context and insights that further empower Security operation centers (SOCs) to identify and respond to threats quickly and accurately.
**[Management and APIs](management-apis.md)**
Integrate Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection into your existing workflows.
**[Microsoft Threat Protection](threat-protection-integration.md)**
Microsoft Defender ATP is part of the Microsoft Threat Protection solution that helps implement end-to-end security across possible attack surfaces in the modern workplace. Bring the power of Microsoft threat protection to your organization.
## In this section
To help you maximize the effectiveness of the security platform, you can configure individual capabilities that surface in Microsoft Defender Security Center.
Topic | Description
:---|:---
[Overview](overview.md) | Understand the concepts behind the capabilities in Microsoft Defender ATP so you take full advantage of the complete threat protection platform.
[Minimum requirements](minimum-requirements.md) | Learn about the requirements of the platform and the initial steps you need to take to get started with Microsoft Defender ATP.
[Configure and manage capabilities](onboard.md)| Configure and manage the individual capabilities in Microsoft Defender ATP.
[Troubleshoot Microsoft Defender ATP](troubleshoot-mdatp.md) | Learn how to address issues that you might encounter while using the platform.
## Related topic
[Microsoft Defender ATP helps detect sophisticated threats](https://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase/Article/Content/854/Windows-Defender-ATP-helps-detect-sophisticated-threats)
