Endpoint Security for a Local Government Municipality
Industry
Public Sector
Customer
A Regional Public Sector Municipality
Key Highlights
Implemented Microsoft Defender Plan E2 for EDR, ASR, and AI integration
Structured 3-week design, pilot, and production rollout
Replaced legacy A/V solution with unified Defender platform
Enabled real-time threat detection and response across endpoints
Situation
The city needed to improve its endpoint security posture while maintaining operational continuity. The environment did not have an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) client in place, resulting in limited visibility into endpoint activity and no real-time attack analysis capability.
At the same time, the City required granular policy settings to support higher security or position-based needs. Leadership needed a structured deployment approach that would introduce Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE), validate configurations through testing and pilot groups, and coordinate removal of the existing A/V solution without disrupting daily operations.
Problem
Prior to the engagement, several gaps limited security effectiveness:
No EDR client and no real-time visibility into endpoint threats
No centralized tools for automated investigation or response
Legacy A/V solution requiring structured removal
No defined onboarding method for Defender deployment
Need for clearly defined policy settings, exclusions, and governance
Without a documented design and rollout plan, deploying MDE risked inconsistent implementation and operational disruption.
Solution
X-Centric delivered a structured three-week Defender deployment program covering assessment, design, pilot, and production rollout.
The engagement began with a comprehensive review of the entity’s environment, including operating systems, the current A/V solution, Active Directory, Group Policies, firewall configuration, and security and compliance requirements.
Based on this assessment, the team identified the appropriate deployment method for MDE and designed the onboarding process. A manual deployment method was developed to remediate failed automatic deployments, and structured removal steps were defined for the existing A/V solution.
Defender policies were designed and built across:
Defender Antivirus
Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules
Endpoint Detection & Response configurations
Threat Vulnerability Management
Automated Investigation & Remediation
Web Content Filtering
Tamper Protection
Device Isolation
Live Response & Forensics Collection
Required application exclusions
Network changes were planned to enable endpoint communication with the MDE service, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) was defined in the Defender portal.
Our team also selected test endpoints and launched a pilot group to validate onboarding and policy settings before full deployment.
Operational Impact
Endpoint Detection & Response is now active across the environment, providing continuous visibility into threats.
Microsoft Cloud AI supports real-time attack analysis and protection.
Attack Surface Reduction rules add another layer of defense across endpoints.
A structured onboarding approach ensured consistent coverage across all devices.
Business Outcomes
X-Centric's team hardened endpoints with real-time reporting and visibility for the city. Along with this, we also:
Unified portal for detection and issue resolution
Added AI-supported security operations integrated into daily workflows
Centralized inventory of devices within a single-pane solution
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