Module 0: ES0 — Endpoint Security Foundations & Modern Threat Landscape
Endpoint Security Foundations & Modern Threat Landscape
Every M365 E5 customer has Defender for Endpoint. Almost none have configured it beyond the defaults. The AV is running — with default cloud protection levels. The EDR is collecting telemetry — that nobody hunts through. Attack surface reduction rules exist — in audit mode on 12% of devices, block mode on none. The endpoint security stack is installed but not engineered.
This module establishes why that gap exists, what it costs, and the systematic approach to closing it. You’ll examine how modern attack chains exploit the gap between “deployed” and “tuned,” map the endpoint security stack from OS internals through prevention to detection and response, and build the assessment framework that measures where your environment stands today against where it needs to be.
What you will learn
- Why signature-based AV fails against fileless, in-memory, and living-off-the-land attack chains — and what actually works
- How modern attack chains interact with each layer of the endpoint security stack
- The layered defense model: hardening → prevention → detection → response → forensic readiness
- Key metrics that measure endpoint security effectiveness beyond marketing benchmarks
- How the Microsoft security ecosystem components integrate for endpoint protection
- The current state of NE’s endpoint security posture — and the gaps that drive the rest of this course
- The deployment sequence that avoids breaking production while building real protection
- The blast radius problem and why getting the sequence wrong causes more damage than doing nothing
- The endpoint security maturity model and how to assess your own environment
Subsections
ES0.1 Why Traditional AV Fails · ES0.2 Modern Attack Chains on Endpoints · ES0.3 The Endpoint Security Stack · ES0.4 Key Metrics: MTTD, MTTR, and What Actually Matters · ES0.5 The Microsoft Ecosystem View · ES0.6 The NE Endpoint Landscape · ES0.7 The Deployment Sequence That Matters · ES0.8 The Blast Radius Problem · ES0.9 The Endpoint Security Maturity Model · ES0.10 Attacker Perspective: What the Adversary Sees · ES0.11 Interactive Lab: Endpoint Security Assessment · ES0.12 Module Summary · ES0.13 Check My Knowledge