What you need to know
- The "Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Differentiated protection for Priority accounts" feature set is on the way.
- It may release as early as March 2022, though no dates are locked guarantees yet.
- Not only will it result in accounts with different priority levels receiving different protection, but it will add a context filter and an updated Threat Detection Details tab.
If you're ever wondering what's in the pipeline for Microsoft's large assortment of products and services, just take a little time to peruse the Microsoft 365 roadmap. It's loaded with filters to help single out any particularly exciting items, such as feature ID 88873, also known as "Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Differentiated protection for Priority accounts."
This isn't just one feature; it's a bundle of a couple of them, all slated to hit general availability (GA) in March 2022. However, that date is more of a general estimate than a strict commitment from Microsoft, so understand that feature ID 88873 could enter GA earlier or later and that the estimated delivery date is subject to change at any time.
As for what the Defender update entails, here's what the roadmap entry says:
We are introducing differentiated protection for Priority accounts, which will provide users tagged as Priority accounts with a higher level of protection. As part of this release, we are introducing a Context filter within Threat Explorer and the Threat Protection Status report through which you can search for emails where Priority account protection is involved. In addition, the Threat Detection Details tab on the Email Entity page will be updated to show the threats, corresponding detection details, and whether these detections were identified as part of Priority account protection.
Oftentimes roadmap entries are rather trim due to a lack of items beyond a single note or two, so this one's bulk is not to be ignored. Prepare for priority account protection to be a threat protection variable in Office 365.
