Every second counts when it comes to detecting and responding to potential security breaches, and in today’s ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, tools that facilitate rapid triage and decision-making become essential for upholding strong security hygiene.  

Today, we’re excited to introduce the latest feature to our rich reporting feature set —the alert timeline—a new view that minimizes the time needed for triage and investigation without compromising the quality of analysis.  
 

 
Simplifying alerts for faster response   

Alerts are an important factor to consider amongst the broader data-mix of events, alerts, and incidents. 

Alerts are primarily informational qualified events where predefined system logic indicates an issue before human input validates the information into an incident. Alerts mostly occur close to real-time, so that validation and restoration can happen as quickly as possible to keep MTTD (mean time to detect) and MTTR (mean time to resolve) low.  

The new alert timeline revamps the way users interact with alerts in the Defender portal and adds a more nuanced layer of visibility to the telemetry data across your organization. The alert timeline is designed to complement the existing ‘process tree’ view and offers users a comprehensive perspective on each alert. While the process tree provides a detailed breakdown of the alert’s associated processes and activities, the alert timeline presents a condensed chronological view that facilitates rapid triage and decision-making. 

Getting Started 

Navigate to Investigation & Response –> Alerts in the Defender portal to explore the new alert timeline tab. 
 

Figure 1: Alert timeline in the Defender portal

 
The alert timeline is accessible through the alert page and simplifies the process of understanding and responding to security alerts by providing a clear and intuitive timeline of events associated with each event. 
 

The alert timeline is also accessible through the incident page, ensuring that users can seamlessly navigate between the two interfaces to gain comprehensive insights into the progression of security incidents. 
 

Staying one step ahead of the evolving threat landscape 
 

As the cybersecurity terrain continues to shift, the necessity of tools enabling prompt triage and decisive action is vital for maintaining robust security protocols and safeguarding against potential breaches. 

Alert timeline streamlines the triage and investigation processes and ensures that every moment is maximized for effective analysis—without sacrificing quality. 

 
For more information:

Check out our documentation and start using the new alert timeline today.
Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint  
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