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18.10.43.5.2 (L2) Ensure 'Join Microsoft MAPS' is set to 'Disabled'

Warning! Audit Deprecated

This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

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Information

This policy setting allows you to join Microsoft Active Protection Service (MAPS), which Microsoft has now renamed to

Windows Defender Antivirus Cloud Protection Service

and then

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Cloud Protection Service

. Microsoft MAPS / Microsoft Defender Antivirus Cloud Protection Service is the online community that helps you choose how to respond to potential threats. The community also helps stop the spread of new malicious software infections. You can choose to send basic or additional information about detected software. Additional information helps Microsoft create new definitions and help it to protect your computer.

Possible options are:

 - (0x0) Disabled (default)
 - (0x1) Basic membership
 - (0x2) Advanced membership

Basic membership will send basic information to Microsoft about software that has been detected including where the software came from the actions that you apply or that are applied automatically and whether the actions were successful.

Advanced membership in addition to basic information will send more information to Microsoft about malicious software spyware and potentially unwanted software including the location of the software file names how the software operates and how it has impacted your computer.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled

Note: In Windows 10 and above, Basic membership is no longer available, so setting the value to 1 Basic, or 2 Advanced, enrolls the device into Advanced membership. For more information, please visit:

Turn on cloud protection in Microsoft Defender Antivirus - Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Microsoft Learn

.

The information that would be sent can include things like location of detected items on your computer if harmful software was removed. The information would be automatically collected and sent. In some instances personal information might unintentionally be sent to Microsoft. However, Microsoft states that it will not use this information to identify you or contact you.

For privacy reasons in high security environments, it is best to prevent these data submissions altogether.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Disabled :

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Microsoft Defender Antivirus\MAPS\Join Microsoft MAPS

Note: This Group Policy path may not exist by default. It is provided by the Group Policy template WindowsDefender.admx/adml that is included with the Microsoft Windows 8.1 & Server 2012 R2 Administrative Templates (or newer).

Impact:

None - this is the default behavior.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/21997

Item Details

References: CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: 20f91d94051bb52cc928fd37093ce46b201af1acd71e03825e4dae3dd624ab4c