Step 6. Identify SOC maintenance tasks

Applies to:

  • Microsoft Defender XDR

Here are the periodic or as-needed tasks to maintain your SOC for Microsoft Defender XDR.

Activity Description Cadence Team assigned
Service administration collaboration with SOC Teams Administration of peripheral services such as asset tracking (CMDB), application licensing (new SaaS licenses), device purchases (upgrades or renew device deployments), and other Microsoft 365 tenant-wide changes (Intune, Microsoft 365, and others) that may affect deployment of Microsoft Defender XDR products. Weekly and as needed Engineering & SecOps
Update anti-phishing and data loss prevention campaigns Incorporate SOC use case and lessons learned with extended organization (HR, legal, training, and others). Monthly and as needed SOC Oversight
Deploy automation scripts and services where appropriate Download and test automation scripts and configuration files from approved Microsoft sites to improve Microsoft Defender XDR operations. Weekly and as needed Engineering and SecOps
Portal or license management Check announcements and the Microsoft Messaging Center for Microsoft Defender portal or licensing needs based on Microsoft updates and new features. Weekly SOC Oversight
Update SOC escalation tickets All SOC teams update escalation tickets (such as Sentinel, ServiceNow tickets) assigned to them. Daily All SOC teams
Track Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management (MDVM) remediation activity Generate MDVM Secure Score remediation activity and report to asset owners through an intranet portal. Daily Monitoring
Generate Secure Score report Monitoring team tracks and reports Secure Score improvements. Weekly SOC Monitoring
Run IR tabletop exercise Test SOC team playbooks in tabletop exercise. As needed All SOC teams

Integrate these tasks into your current SOC processes.

Next steps

You should review the guides referred to in this content and in the Microsoft Defender XDR library to determine how your own implementation of Microsoft Defender XDR should be structured and integrated.

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender XDR Tech Community.