Deployment Guides
Step-by-step deployment for the full Microsoft 365 security stack
Product guides
MDE · MDO · MDI · Intune · more
Checklist steps
Interactive progress tracking
Pitfalls documented
With fixes for each
Validation checks
Post-deployment testing
Pillar guide · Email and App Security
Email & App + Collaboration Protection
Deployment Best Practices
Overview
Establish baseline email and app protection with Business Premium (MDO Plan 1) by configuring Safe Links, Safe Attachments, impersonation safeguards, and core threat policies. Then go beyond with Defender Suite (MDO Plan 2) for automated investigation, attack simulation, priority account protection, Teams security, and deep threat visibility.
Audience: IT administrators in SMBs with less than 300 employees, and managed service providers deploying security baselines
References & Microsoft Learn
Standard/Strict preset policy configuration
Compare customer settings to Microsoft recommendations
Block auto-forwarding
Enable unified audit log
Built-in and custom alert policies
Enable file protection across collaboration workloads
Tag and protect executive accounts
Run phishing simulations
AIR automated remediation
Email threat investigation and remediation
Advanced hunting and auto-remediation rules
Teams protection with MDO Plan 2
Operational workflows for SecOps
Value behind another secure email gateway, no MX changes
Advanced setup, optional MX flip
Microsoft recommended policy configurations
Official Defender for Office blog
Policy coverage verification from CSS Support
Short, direct MDO task documentation