Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Cloud and workloadsRelease Notes
In brief
The Defender portal now supports evaluating Azure resources against the Defender for Cloud baseline, creating custom posture policies, and centrally managing recommendation exemptions with lifecycle tracking.
What Defender admins need to know
Administrators can use these capabilities to align posture assessments with business and compliance requirements and manage accepted risks at scale.
Summaries are generated from the documentation change itself.
Documentation change
View on Microsoft LearnThe comparison below shows only the changed extract. Use the full-page view for complete context.
| Date | Category | Update |
|---|---|---|
| October 28, 2026 | Public preview | Posture policies and recommendation exemptions available in Microsoft Defender |
| October 20, 2026 | Public preview | Expanded server onboarding experience |
| October 20, 2026 | Public preview | Cloud security plan management in the Defender portal |
| October 6, 2026 | Public preview | New Defender server security experience |
| October 5, 2026 | GA | KSPM misconfiguration recommendations moving to controller-level scope |
| October 5, 2026 | GA | On-demand malware scanning now supports scanning specific blobs, files, containers, and file shares |
Posture policies and recommendation exemptions available in Microsoft Defender
October 28, 2026
Posture policies and recommendation exemptions are now available in public preview in the Microsoft Defender portal for Azure environments.
With these new capabilities, you can:
- Gain visibility into your security posture through evaluations of Azure resources against the Microsoft Defender for Cloud baseline policy.
- Customize posture evaluations to align with your business, compliance, and operational requirements by creating and managing your own posture policies.
- Manage accepted risks at scale with centralized exemption management and lifecycle tracking.
For more information, see Exempt resources from recommendations and Security policies in Defender for Cloud.
Expanded server onboarding experience
October 20, 2026
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ ms.service: defender-for-cloud description: Learn about new, updated, and deprecated features in Microsoft Defender for Cloud, including preview releases, general availability updates, and upcoming changes. ms.topic: overview ms.custom: references_regions, msecd-doc-authoring-1030-ms.date: 2026-10-05T00:00:00.0000000Z+ms.date: 2026-10-28T00:00:00.0000000Z ai-usage: ai-assisted locale: en-us document_id: 0cdaa215-1c9d-088d-65a0-67efec1dc3b9@@ -33,13 +33,13 @@ monikers: [] item_type: Content source_path: defender-for-cloud/release-notes.md cmProducts:+- https://microsoft-devrel.poolparty.biz/DevRelOfferingOntology/c671beaa-a830-4c9f-aceb-97379ee031ca - https://authoring-docs-microsoft.poolparty.biz/devrel/8e3fdb08-a059-4277-98f6-c0e21e940707 - https://authoring-docs-microsoft.poolparty.biz/devrel/cbe4ca68-43ac-4375-aba5-5945a6394c20-- https://microsoft-devrel.poolparty.biz/DevRelOfferingOntology/c671beaa-a830-4c9f-aceb-97379ee031ca spProducts:+- https://microsoft-devrel.poolparty.biz/DevRelOfferingOntology/8921374c-4dbe-4ed0-b011-a39e18bfbd98 - https://authoring-docs-microsoft.poolparty.biz/devrel/88291526-9c74-4f87-878c-de0a82134421 - https://authoring-docs-microsoft.poolparty.biz/devrel/ced846cc-6a3c-4c8f-9dfb-3de0e90e2742-- https://microsoft-devrel.poolparty.biz/DevRelOfferingOntology/8921374c-4dbe-4ed0-b011-a39e18bfbd98 platformId: 8e52c7f4-0513-cf2a-2a7e-e8b7c4b9b436 --- @@ -61,12 +61,27 @@ Get notified when this page is updated by copying and pasting the following URL
| Date | Category | Update |
| --- | --- | --- |
+| October 28, 2026 | Public preview | Posture policies and recommendation exemptions available in Microsoft Defender |
| October 20, 2026 | Public preview | Expanded server onboarding experience |
| October 20, 2026 | Public preview | Cloud security plan management in the Defender portal |
| October 6, 2026 | Public preview | New Defender server security experience |
| October 5, 2026 | GA | KSPM misconfiguration recommendations moving to controller-level scope |
| October 5, 2026 | GA | On-demand malware scanning now supports scanning specific blobs, files, containers, and file shares |
+### Posture policies and recommendation exemptions available in Microsoft Defender
+
+October 28, 2026
+
+Posture policies and recommendation exemptions are now available in public preview in the Microsoft Defender portal for Azure environments.
+
+With these new capabilities, you can:
+
+- Gain visibility into your security posture through evaluations of Azure resources against the Microsoft Defender for Cloud baseline policy.
+- Customize posture evaluations to align with your business, compliance, and operational requirements by creating and managing your own posture policies.
+- Manage accepted risks at scale with centralized exemption management and lifecycle tracking.
+
+For more information, see [Exempt resources from recommendations](exempt-resource?pivots=defender-portal) and [Security policies in Defender for Cloud](security-policy-concept?pivots=defender-portal).
+
### Expanded server onboarding experience
October 20, 2026