What does a cyber insurance form mean by Microsoft Defender or an equivalent email protection?

What exactly does the form ask?

These are the forms' own words, with the form and page each comes from.

Additional Cybersecurity Controls (only for Applicants with revenues greater than $35M)

Do you use the Microsoft 365 Defender add-on or an equivalent cybersecurity product with advanced threat hunting to protect against phishing and business email compromise?

Google Advanced Protection Program or Microsoft Defender? (combines cloud security, email security and endpoint security)

If YES to all of the above, skip to Question 4.

What does it mean for a small firm?

These are paid additions on top of the mail service itself. On one form the question appears only above a stated revenue line, and on another a Yes to all of section 1 lets you skip ahead.

How do I answer it truthfully?

Look at the licences your mail service account holds. Answer Yes only if the product the form names, or one that does the same job, is licensed and switched on for every mailbox.

What can an outside reading show, and what can it not?

Your MX records are public. They show which service receives your mail, and whether it passes through a separate filtering service first. It shows whether Microsoft 365 or Google receives your mail.

It cannot see which licences you hold or what is switched on.

Which questions sit next to this one?

• Email filtering
• Microsoft Secure Score
• EDR