• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Advanced capabilities to detect, investigate, and respond to threats on endpoints, including sophisticated threats like ransomware.
• Automated Investigation and Remediation: Automatically investigates alerts and remediates threats with minimal human intervention, reducing the time and effort required for incident response.
• Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM): Core TVM capabilities, including risk-based prioritization, vulnerability assessment, configuration assessment, and continuous monitoring, to help organizations understand and manage their cyberattack surface.
• Advanced Threat Intelligence: Access to cyberthreat analytics generated by Microsoft security experts and augmented by a vast network of cloud and human intelligence.
• Automatic Attack Disruption: Uses AI and behavioral analysis to automatically disrupt sophisticated cyberattacks like ransomware, blocking lateral movement and remote encryption across devices.
• Cross-Platform Support: Protects a wide range of devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, all managed from a single console in the Microsoft Defender XDR portal.
• Microsoft Threat Experts: Offers an additional managed hunting service for expert-level monitoring and analysis of critical threats.
• Sandbox (Deep Analysis): Allows for safe, deep analysis of suspicious files and URLs. 

✅ What is Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2?

Defender for Endpoint P2 is Microsoft’s highest-tier endpoint security platform.
It provides advanced threat protection, endpoint detection and response (EDR), automated investigation, and threat hunting across all devices in your organization.

It is included in:

• Microsoft 365 E5

• Windows 10/11 Enterprise E5 Security add-on

• Can be purchased as a standalone product

Key Capabilities (What P2 Includes)

1. Advanced Threat Protection (EDR)

• Detects advanced attacks using behavioral sensors + cloud analytics

• Provides rich incident timelines

• Supports real-time and historical attack analysis

• Enables analysts to investigate deeply at file, registry, process, and network levels

2. Endpoint Threat & Vulnerability Management (TVM)

• Built-in vulnerability scanning (no agent required)

• Software inventory & security misconfiguration assessment

• Prioritized actionable security recommendations

• Exposure scoring with impact-based patch guidance

3. Automated Investigation & Response (AIR)

• Automatically investigates alerts and incidents

• Remediates malicious files, processes, registry keys

• Reduces manual workload for security teams

4. Microsoft Threat Experts (MDR Add-On)

You can add Experts on Demand for:

• Attack insights

• Threat hunting

• Incident support

(Not included by default, but integrates directly.)

5. Endpoint Firewall & Web Control

• Network protection (blocks malicious URLs/IPs)

• Web content filtering by category

• Attack surface reduction recommendations

6. Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) Rules

• Block ransomware behaviors

• Prevent Office macro attacks

• Stop memory exploits

• Device control (USB control, removable storage)

7. Threat Intelligence Integration

• Microsoft global threat intelligence feeds

• Indicators of compromise (IoCs)

• Custom indicators (hash, IP, URL blocking)

8. Cross-Platform Protection

Defender for Endpoint P2 supports:

• Windows 10/11

• Windows Server 2012 R2 → 2025

• macOS

• Linux

• iOS

• Android

Plan 1 vs Plan 2 — Quick Comparison

 If you need advanced SOC capabilities, EDR, and automation — P2 is the correct choice.

Ideal For

• Companies with a security operations center (SOC)

• Organizations that need automated response to attacks

• Businesses handling sensitive data

• Mid-size to large enterprises

• Microsoft 365 E5 customers

Summary

Defender for Endpoint P2 is a complete enterprise security suite offering prevention, detection, investigation, and automated response. If your organization needs EDR, threat hunting, and automated remediation, P2 is the optimal tier.