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Detection & response readiness
Microsoft Defender XDR and Sentinel detection and response services
Make sure security alerts reach the right people and turn into fast, confident action. Konsolute configures Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel, tunes detections and prepares your team with tested triage, escalation and incident response procedures.
WHAT THIS HELPS YOU ACHIEVE
Turn security signals into confident action
Security tools generate alerts, but outcomes depend on what happens next. We connect the right signals, cut the noise and agree who investigates, who decides and who acts, so incidents are handled consistently rather than left in a queue.
See the right signals
Connect the identity, endpoint, email and cloud signals that matter, so investigations start with the evidence they need.
Reduce alert noise
Tune detections and suppress known false positives, so analysts spend their time on alerts that genuinely matter.
Respond with authority
Agree who can isolate devices, disable accounts or block senders, and when they need approval to act.
Prove you are ready
Test playbooks and run tabletop exercises, so the team knows its role before a real incident puts it to the test.
OUR DETECTION & RESPONSE SERVICES
Detection and response readiness on Microsoft security
Start with a review of your current alerts, a Sentinel deployment, detection tuning or a full readiness programme with playbooks and exercises.
Defender XDR configuration
Configure Microsoft Defender XDR so incidents correlate alerts across identity, endpoint, email and cloud apps. Check product coverage, unified incident settings and portal roles for the licences you hold.
Microsoft Sentinel deployment
Deploy Microsoft Sentinel with the data connectors, retention and workspace design your use cases need. Prioritise log sources by detection value and cost, rather than ingesting everything by default.
Detection rules & tuning
Enable and tune analytics rules for your environment, suppressing known benign activity and adding custom detections where gaps exist. Map coverage to the threats that matter most to you.
Automation & playbooks
Automate repetitive triage and containment steps with automation rules and Logic Apps playbooks. Add approvals for disruptive actions and test every playbook before it runs in production.
Incident response readiness
Write incident response procedures that name roles, decision makers and communication routes. Run tabletop exercises against realistic scenarios such as ransomware, account compromise and data loss.
Operating model & handover
Agree who monitors, investigates and responds, during and outside working hours. Hand over runbooks, configuration records and tuning guidance, with any managed service scoped separately.
CAPABILITIES & DELIVERY SCOPE
From signal to decision to action
Detection only helps if someone can act on it. We design the data sources, detections, automation and human decisions together, scoped to the products, licences and team you have.
Defender XDR coverage
Check which Defender products are deployed and healthy, how incidents correlate across them and who has access to investigate and act in the portal.
- Product onboarding and health
- Incident correlation settings
- Portal roles and permissions
Sentinel data sources
Choose data connectors and log sources by detection value, retention needs and cost, and design the workspace around your organisation and data residency.
- Connector and log source priorities
- Retention and cost planning
- Workspace and access design
Analytics rules
Enable the analytics rules that fit your environment, then tune thresholds, entity mapping and grouping so incidents are useful rather than noisy.
- Rule selection and enablement
- Thresholds and entity mapping
- Incident grouping settings
Tuning & coverage
Review false positives with the people who know the systems, record suppressions and map detection coverage so gaps are visible and owned.
- False positive review and suppression
- Custom detections for known gaps
- Coverage mapped to priority threats
Automation rules
Use automation rules to assign, tag and enrich incidents on arrival, so analysts start every investigation with context instead of manual triage.
- Incident assignment and tagging
- Enrichment with asset and user context
- Severity and routing rules
Response playbooks
Build playbooks for repeatable containment actions, with approval steps for disruptive ones, and test them against non-production scenarios first.
- Containment and notification playbooks
- Approval gates for disruptive actions
- Testing and failure handling
Incident response procedures
Define incident severity, roles, escalation and communication routes, including when to involve leadership, legal, suppliers or external responders.
- Severity definitions and escalation
- Roles, authority and contacts
- Evidence handling and communications
Exercises & review
Run tabletop exercises against realistic scenarios, record what worked and what didn't, and update procedures, detections and contacts afterwards.
- Scenario-based tabletop exercises
- Lessons learned and actions
- Scheduled procedure reviews
TECHNICAL DESIGN DECISIONS
Detection your team can actually act on
A detection platform that produces thousands of ignored alerts creates false confidence. We design for the people who will respond, balancing coverage, noise, cost and authority to act.
Value before volume
Ingest log sources because they support a detection or investigation, not by default. More data raises cost without necessarily improving detection.
Tuned, not just enabled
Review every enabled rule against your environment. Untuned detections bury real incidents and teach analysts to ignore the alert queue.
Authority to act
Agree in advance who can isolate devices, disable accounts or block traffic, so containment isn't delayed while people look for approval.
Clear service boundaries
State plainly who watches alerts and when. A configured platform is not a 24/7 service unless monitoring hours and ownership are agreed.
OUR APPROACH
How we deliver detection and response readiness
Six stages take you from understanding your current signals to tuned detections, tested playbooks and a team that has rehearsed its response.
Assess current signals
Review deployed security products, log sources, alert volumes and current response practice.
Design the model
Agree priority threats, data sources, detections and the response operating model.
Configure & connect
Configure Defender XDR and Sentinel, connect sources and enable selected rules.
Tune detections
Tune detections against real activity and suppress known benign alerts.
Automate & prepare
Build and test playbooks, procedures and escalation routes with your team.
Exercise & hand over
Run a tabletop exercise and hand over runbooks, records and review dates.
Detect.Respond.Rehearse.
WHERE DETECTION & RESPONSE CAN HELP
Start where alerts are being missed or ignored
A focused engagement can tune one noisy platform or establish detection and response from scratch. We confirm the products, licences, data sources and people involved during discovery.
- Configure Defender XDR products you already pay for but don't use fully
- Deploy Microsoft Sentinel with a cost-aware log source plan
- Reduce alert noise that is hiding genuine incidents
- Automate repetitive triage and containment steps
- Write incident response procedures and test them in a tabletop exercise
- Prepare for a move to a managed detection and response service
See it in practice: Konsolute built a Zero Trust Microsoft 365 tenant for Great British Energy – Nuclear, with Microsoft Defender protection and security monitoring designed in from the start.
WHAT WE DELIVER
A tuned platform and a team ready to respond
Deliverables reflect the agreed scope. Your team receives the configuration, detections, procedures and evidence needed to operate and improve detection and response.
Signal & coverage baseline
A view of deployed products, connected log sources, detection coverage and gaps, with agreed priorities.
Configured platform
Documented Defender XDR and Sentinel settings, connectors, analytics rules, automation and playbooks.
Tuning & test evidence
Records of tuning decisions, suppressions, playbook tests and tabletop exercise outcomes.
Response runbooks
Incident procedures, escalation contacts, response authority and a schedule for reviewing detections.
FAQ
Detection and response FAQs
Defender XDR, Sentinel, costs, alert noise, automation and 24/7 cover.
We configure Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel, tune detections, build automation and prepare your team with incident response procedures and exercises. The scope covers agreed products, data sources and use cases. We confirm licences, roles and deliverables before starting.
Defender XDR correlates alerts from Microsoft’s own security products into incidents across identity, endpoint, email and cloud apps. Microsoft Sentinel is a SIEM that can also bring in logs from other systems and run your own detections and automation. Many organisations use both together.
Not always. If most of your estate is Microsoft and covered by Defender XDR, that may meet your needs. Sentinel adds value when you need logs from other systems, longer retention, custom detections or wider automation. We assess your requirements before recommending it.
Cost is driven mainly by the volume of data ingested and retained. We choose log sources by detection value, use suitable data tiers and retention settings, and review ingestion after go-live, rather than connecting every source by default.
Yes. We review alert volumes, identify recurring false positives with the people who know the systems and tune or suppress them, with each decision recorded. We also check that tuning doesn’t hide genuine threats, by mapping coverage before and after.
We automate repeatable steps such as enrichment, assignment, notification and selected containment actions. Disruptive actions, like isolating devices or disabling accounts, can include approval steps. Every playbook is tested before it runs against production incidents.
This service makes your platform and team ready to respond. Continuous monitoring outside working hours needs a separate managed service with agreed hours, escalation and response authority. We can help you define and set that up.
Yes. We review detections and containment options for ransomware behaviour, write response procedures and run a tabletop exercise based on a realistic scenario. Backup, recovery and communications are included where they are in scope.
Yes. We run scenario-based exercises with your technical team and decision makers, covering detection, escalation, containment, communications and recovery. Findings are recorded and turned into actions for procedures, detections and contacts.
Where Sentinel supports the source through a data connector, syslog, an API or a custom integration, we can bring it in. We assess the value of each source against its cost and agree which systems are in scope and who owns them.
Defender XDR capabilities depend on your Microsoft 365 and Defender licences, and Sentinel is billed by data ingested and retained. We review entitlements and estimate ingestion volumes, separating what you can do now from what needs additional spend.
We agree acceptance criteria, test detections and playbooks against simulated or historical activity and run a tabletop exercise with your team. The handover records results, remaining gaps and review dates, so readiness is demonstrated rather than assumed.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
How ready is your team for the next security incident?
Tell us about your security products, alert volumes and how incidents are handled today. Konsolute will help define the right detection and response scope.