Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for US Government customers

Applies to:

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2
• Microsoft Defender XDR

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for US Government customers, built in the Azure US Government environment, uses the same underlying technologies as Defender for Endpoint in Azure Commercial.

This offering is available to GCC, GCC High, and DoD customers and is based on the same prevention, detection, investigation, and remediation as the commercial version. However, there are some differences in the availability of capabilities for this offering.

Note

If you're a GCC customer using Defender for Endpoint in Commercial, see the Defender for Endpoint documentation.

Licensing requirements

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for US Government customers requires one of the Microsoft volume licensing offers listed in this article for desktop and server licensing.

Desktop licensing

GCC	GCC High	DoD
Microsoft 365 GCC G5	Microsoft 365 E5 for GCC High	Microsoft 365 G5 for DOD
Microsoft 365 G5 Security GCC	Microsoft 365 G5 Security for GCC High	Microsoft 365 G5 Security for DOD
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint - GCC	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for GCC High	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for DOD
Windows 10 Enterprise E5 GCC	Windows 10 Enterprise E5 for GCC High	Windows 10 Enterprise E5 for DOD

• *G3 includes Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1

Server licensing

GCC	GCC High	DoD
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Server GCC	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Server for GCC High	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Server for DOD
Microsoft Defender for servers	Microsoft Defender for servers - Government	Microsoft Defender for servers - Government

Portal URLs

The following are the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint portal URLs for US Government customers:

Customer type	Portal URL
GCC	https://security.microsoft.com
GCC High	https://security.microsoft.us
DoD	https://security.apps.mil

Note

If you're a GCC customer and in the process of moving from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint commercial to GCC, use https://transition.security.microsoft.com to access your Microsoft Defender for Endpoint commercial data.

Endpoint versions

Standalone OS versions

The following OS versions are supported:

OS version	GCC	GCC High	DoD
Windows 11
Windows 10, version 21H1 and later
Windows 10, version 20H2 (with KB4586853) See note 1 following this table
Windows 10, version 2004 (with KB4586853) See note 1 following this table	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now
Windows 10, version 1909 (with KB4586819) See note 1 following this table	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now
Windows 10, version 1903 (with KB4586819) See note 1 following this table	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now
Windows 10, version 1809 (with KB4586839) See note 1 following this table	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now
Windows 10, version 1803 (with KB4598245) See note 1 following this table	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now	Deprecated; upgrade now
Windows 10, version 1709	Not supported	With KB4499147 See note 1 following this table Deprecated; upgrade now	Not supported
Windows 10, version 1703 and earlier	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported
Windows Server 2022 and later
Windows Server 2019 (with KB4586839) See note 1 following this table
Windows Server 2016 (Modern) See note 2 following this table
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Modern) See note 2 following this table
Windows Server 2016 (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Windows 8.1 Enterprise (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Windows 8 Pro (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Windows 7 SP1 Pro (Legacy) See note 3 following this table
Linux
macOS
Android
iOS

Note

1. The patch must be deployed before device onboarding in order to configure Defender for Endpoint to the correct environment.
2. Learn about the unified modern solution for Windows 2016 and 2012 R2. If you previously onboarded your servers using MMA, follow the guidance provided in Server migration to migrate to the new solution.
3. When using the Microsoft Monitoring Agent make sure to choose Azure US Government under Azure Cloud if using the setup wizard. If you're using a command line or a script, set the OPINSIGHTS_WORKSPACE_AZURE_CLOUD_TYPE parameter to 1. The minimum MMA supported version is 10.20.18029 (March 2020).

OS versions when using Microsoft Defender for servers

The following OS versions are supported when using Microsoft Defender for servers:

OS version	GCC	GCC High	DoD
Windows Server 2022 and later
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Required connectivity settings

If a proxy or firewall is blocking all traffic by default and allowing only specific domains through, add the domains listed in the downloadable sheet to the allowed domains list.

The following downloadable spreadsheet lists the services and their associated URLs your network must be able to connect to. Verify there are no firewall or network-filtering rules that would deny access to these URLs, or create an allow rule specifically for them.

Spreadsheet of domains list	Description
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint URL list for Gov/GCC/DoD	Spreadsheet of specific DNS records for service locations, geographic locations, and OS for Gov/GCC/DoD customers. Download the spreadsheet here.

For more information, see Configure device proxy and Internet connectivity settings.

Note

The spreadsheet contains commercial URLs as well, make sure you check the "US Gov" tabs.

When filtering, look for the records labeled as "US Gov" and your specific cloud under the geography column.

API

Instead of the public URIs listed in our API documentation, you need to use the following URIs:

Endpoint type	GCC	GCC High & DoD
Sign in	https://login.microsoftonline.com	https://login.microsoftonline.us
Defender for Endpoint API	https://api-gcc.securitycenter.microsoft.us	https://api-gov.securitycenter.microsoft.us

Feature parity with commercial

Defender for Endpoint for US Government customers doesn't have complete parity with the commercial offering. While our goal is to deliver all commercial features and functionality to our US Government customers, there are some capabilities not yet available we want to highlight.

These are the known gaps:

Feature name	GCC	GCC High	DoD
Microsoft Secure Score	See note following this table
Microsoft Threat Experts
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Security Configuration Management

Note

While Microsoft Secure Score is available for GCC, GCC High and DoD customers, there are some security recommendations that aren't available.

These are the features and known gaps for Mobile Threat Defense (Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Android & iOS):

Feature name	GCC	GCC High	DoD
Reports: Web content filtering
Reports: Device health
Web Protection (Anti-Phishing and custom indicators)
Malware Protection (Android-Only)
Jailbreak Detection (iOS-Only)
Conditional Access/Conditional Launch
Support for MAM
Privacy Controls
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management core capabilities (included in Defender for Endpoint Plan 2) See note following this table
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management premium capabilities See note following this table

Note

The following Defender Vulnerability Management functionality isn't available for GCC, GCC High, and DoD customers:

• Report inaccuracy
• Request CVE support

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Tech Community.