Enable the Mobile Threat Defense connector in Intune

During Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) setup, you should have created a policy for classifying threats in your Mobile Threat Defense partner console and created a related device compliance policy in Microsoft Intune. If you already configured the Intune connector in the MTD partner console, you can now enable the MTD connection for your MTD partner application.

Applies to:

Classic conditional access policies for Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) apps

When you integrate a new Mobile Threat Defense application with Intune and enable the connection to Intune, Intune creates a classic Conditional Access policy in Microsoft Entra ID. Each third-party MTD partner you integrate with creates a new classic Conditional Access policy. These policies can be ignored, but shouldn't be edited, deleted, or disabled.

Note

As of the August 2023 Intune service release (2308), classic Conditional Access (CA) policies are no longer created for the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint connector. If your tenant has a classic CA policy that was previously created for integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, it can be deleted. Classic CA policies continue to be needed for 3rd party MTD partners.

If the classic policy is deleted, delete the connection to Intune that was responsible for its creation and then set it up again. This process recreates the classic policy. It isn't supported to migrate classic policies for MTD apps to the new policy type for Conditional Access.

Classic Conditional Access policies for MTD apps:

  • Are used by Intune MTD to require that devices are registered in Microsoft Entra ID, and that they have a device ID before they communicate with the MTD partner. The ID is required so that devices and can successfully report their status to Intune.
  • Have no effect on any other Cloud apps or Resources.
  • Are distinct from Conditional Access policies you might create to help manage MTD.
  • By default, don't interact with other Conditional Access policies you use for evaluation.

To view classic Conditional Access policies, in Azure, go to Microsoft Entra ID > Conditional Access > Classic policies.

To enable the Mobile Threat Defense connector

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.

  2. Select Tenant administration > Connectors and tokens > Mobile Threat Defense. To set up an integration with a third-party Mobile Threat Defense vendor, you must be a Microsoft Entra Global administrator or be assigned the Endpoint Security Manager built-in admin role for Intune. You can also use a custom role that includes the Mobile Threat Defense permission in Intune.

  3. On the Mobile Threat Defense pane, select Add.

  4. For Mobile Threat Defense connector to setup, select your MTD partner solution from the drop-down list.

  5. Enable the toggle options according to your organization's requirements. The toggle options that are visible can vary depending on the MTD partner. For example, the following image shows the available options that are available for Symantec Endpoint Protection:

    Screen shot example that shows the MDM Compliance Policy Settings for the MDT connector.

Mobile Threat Defense toggle options

Note

Ensure your tenant's MDM Authority is set to Intune to see the full list of toggle options.

The available options for connectors are divided into three categories. When a partner doesn't support a category, that category isn't available:

  • Compliance policy evaluation
  • App protection policy evaluation
  • Shared settings

Enable the toggles for those options your organization requires.

Compliance policy evaluation

  • Connect Android devices version <supported versions> and above to <MTD partner name>: When you enable this option, compliance policies using the Device Threat Level rule for Android devices (on supported OS versions) evaluate devices including data from this connector.

  • Connect iOS/iPadOS devices version <supported versions> and above to <MTD partner name>: When you enable this option, compliance policies using the Device Threat Level rule for iOS/iPadOS devices (on supported OS versions) evaluate devices including data from this connector.

  • Enable App Sync for iOS Devices: Allows this Mobile Threat Defense partner to request metadata of iOS applications from Intune to use for threat analysis purposes. This iOS device must be MDM-enrolled device and provides updated app data during device check-in. You can find standard Intune policy check-in frequencies in the Refresh cycle times.

    Note

    App Sync data is sent to Mobile Threat Defense partners at an interval based on device check-in, and should not be confused with the refresh interval for the Discovered Apps report.

  • Send full application inventory data on personally-owned iOS/iPadOS Devices​: This setting controls the application inventory data that Intune shares with this Mobile Threat Defense partner. Data is shared when the partner syncs app data and requests the app inventory list.

    Choose from the following options:

    • On - Allows this Mobile Threat Defense partner to request a list of iOS/iPadOS applications from Intune for personally-owned iOS/iPadOS devices. This list includes unmanaged apps (apps not deployed through Intune) and the apps that were deployed through Intune.
    • Off - Data about unmanaged apps isn't provided to the partner. Intune does share data for the apps that are deployed through Intune.

    This setting has no effect for corporate devices. For corporate devices, Intune sends data about both managed and unmanaged apps when requested by this MTD vendor.

  • Block unsupported OS versions: Block if the device is running an operating system less than the minimum supported version. Details of the minimum supported version would be shared within the docs for the Mobile Threat Defense vendor.

App protection policy evaluation

  • Connect Android devices of version <supported versions> to <MTD partner name> for app protection policy evaluation: When you enable this option, app protection policies using the "Max allowed threat level" rule evaluate devices including data from this connector.

  • Connect iOS devices version <supported versions> to <MTD partner name> for app protection policy evaluation: When you enable this option, app protection policies using the "Max allowed threat level" rule evaluate devices including data from this connector.

To learn more about using Mobile Threat Defense connectors for Intune App Protection Policy evaluation, see Set up Mobile Threat Defense for unenrolled devices.

Shared settings

  • Number of days until partner is unresponsive: Number of days of inactivity before Intune considers the partner to be unresponsive because the connection is lost. Intune ignores compliance state for unresponsive MTD partners.

Important

When possible, we recommend that you add and assign the MTD apps before creating the device compliance and the Conditional Access policy rules. This helps ensures that the MTD app is ready and available for end users to install before they can get access to email or other company resources.

Tip

You can see the Connection status and the Last synchronized time between Intune and the MTD partner from the Mobile Threat Defense pane.

Next steps