Defender for Endpoint automatic enrollment is enforced to reduce risk from unmanaged Android threats

Overview

If automatic enrollment into Microsoft Defender for Endpoint isn’t configured for Android devices in Intune, managed endpoints might remain unprotected against mobile threats. Without Defender onboarding, devices lack advanced threat detection and response capabilities, increasing the risk of malware, phishing, and other mobile-based attacks. Unprotected devices can bypass security policies, access corporate resources, and expose sensitive data to compromise. This gap in mobile threat defense weakens the organization’s Zero Trust posture and reduces visibility into endpoint health.

Enabling automatic Defender enrollment ensures Android devices are protected by advanced threat detection and response capabilities. This supports Zero Trust by enforcing mobile threat protection, improving visibility, and reducing exposure to unmanaged or compromised endpoints.

Remediation

Use Intune to configure automatic enrollment into Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Android devices to enforce mobile threat protection:

• Integrate Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with Intune and Onboard Devices

Run it

The check runs as part of the whole assessment, with the ZeroTrustAssessment module installed:

Install-Module ZeroTrustAssessment -Scope CurrentUser
Connect-Maester
Invoke-Maester -Pack ZTA -SkipBuiltIn

Leave out -SkipBuiltIn to run Maester’s own checks in the same run.

About this check

Severity	High
Effort to fix	Low
Impact on users	Low
Pillar	Devices
Category	Tenant
Product	Intune
Feature	Tenant administration
Area	Devices and endpoints
ATT&CK	T1566 Phishing
Licence	Intune
Tenant	Workforce

Product, feature, area and ATT&CK are Maester’s: the assessment does not record them, so Maester keeps them in the pack’s taxonomy.json.

A Microsoft check, part of the Zero Trust Assessment pack. Text from ZeroTrustAssessment 3.1.0, © Microsoft, MIT licence.