Posted August 12th, 2022
UTC will be upgrading the Microsoft licenses for faculty and staff in the month of August. The new licenses will provide improved security for UTC computers and Microsoft online applications, including your email account. You do not need to do anything to receive the benefits of these security improvements. These new licenses will automatically be applied to your account.
Here are some of the security features that will be included with your new license:
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint plan 2
Malwarebytes will soon be replaced by Microsoft Defender as the University’s antimalware software. Information Technology will remove Malwarebytes on Tuesday, August 16th, which will allow Windows Defender to return to active duty. In September, IT will enable advanced features that will safeguard university computers further. These features will enable IT to respond to threats in real time by providing a single location for monitoring malware and intrusions on and off the campus network. With Defender plan 2, if any UTC computers become compromised, the other computers will be alerted to the presence of malware and will become hardened against intrusion so virus or ransomware will not spread. All of this is powered by Microsoft Azure cloud intelligence.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 with Safe Documents
Defender for Office 365 adds Automated Investigation and Response to Exchange Online. We will see real-time benefits such as safe links and safe attachments. According to Microsoft’s documentation, “Safe Links scanning can help protect your organization from malicious links that are used in phishing and other attacks” by adding real-time verification of the links in emails and Teams messages. “Safe Attachments uses a virtual environment to check attachments in email messages before they're delivered to recipients (a process known as detonation).” These features and a host of other features will be added to our Exchange Online Protection with the new Microsoft licenses that will be applied by the end of the month.
If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at 423-425-4000 or ithelp@utc.edu.