---
title: "[Intune] Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps for enhanced security monitoring"
url: "https://support.paratira.ai/en/article/intune-enable-microsoft-defender-for-cloud-apps-for-enhanced-security-monitoring"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2025-07-04T12:25:32.153Z"
---

# [Intune] Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps for enhanced security monitoring

The platform identifies insufficient cloud security monitoring capabilities and recommends enabling Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. Lack of advanced cloud security monitoring leaves organizations vulnerable to shadow IT, data leaks, and compliance violations across cloud applications.

## Recommendation Impact Across KPIs

| KPI | Impact | Calculated? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Reliability:** | No direct reliability impact identified | ❌ |
| **Security Compliance:** | PRIMARY REC - Enhanced security monitoring and threat detection capabilities across cloud applications | ✅ |
| **Economic:** | No direct economic impact calculated | ❌ |
| **User Experience:** | No direct user experience impact identified | ❌ |
| **Environment:** | No direct environmental impact identified | ❌ |

## Score Calculation

### 1\. Data Ingestion

-   Asset Name: Tenant
-   Current Security Score
-   Cloud App Usage Metrics
-   Compliance Status

### 2\. Data Enrichment

-   Mapping to NIST Framework
-   Microsoft 365 Licensing Requirements
-   Cloud Security Posture Assessment

### 3\. Health Score

-   Calculate the Health score based on NIST Score \* NIST Asset Weight
-   Multiplier applied for length of compliance since recommendation load date

## Example Graph

Bar chart showing percentage of secure score across different security controls, highlighting the impact of enabling Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps on overall security posture.

## Business Opportunities

### Product Sales Opportunity

As a provider this recommendation provides an opportunity to sell Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Plan 2 licenses. The platform will identify specific licensing requirements based on annual USD calculations from the M365 data table.

### Professional Services Opportunity

The recommendation provides an opportunity for configuration and implementation services. Professional services opportunity is currently under consideration for future development.

## Remediation Guidance

To resolve the recommendation the following steps are recommended:

1.  Assess Cloud Security Needs
2.  Review Current Cloud App Usage

Determine Licensing Requirements

Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

1.  Activate Defender for Cloud Apps
2.  Configure Data Protection Policies

Define Risk Thresholds

Monitor Cloud App Usage and Threats

1.  Monitor Real-Time Alerts
2.  Review Detected Threats

Leverage Automated Threat Detection

Post-Implementation Monitoring & Optimization

1.  Evaluate Effectiveness of Policies
2.  Track Cloud App Risk Levels

Optimize Response Capabilities

Ongoing Maintenance and Updates

1.  Stay Updated with New Features
2.  Conduct Periodic Audits
3.  Train Security Teams

## Supporting Information

### Supported Data Sources

-   Microsoft Graph Entra
-   Microsoft Graph Intune

### Recommendation Categorisation

-   Security
-   Compliance
-   Cloud Security

### Supported Instances

-   Microsoft 365 Tenant
-   Cloud Applications
-   Microsoft Defender Security Center

### Planned Instances

-   Additional Security Integration Points
-   Extended API Coverage
-   Enhanced Monitoring Capabilities