| title | Add users and assign licenses in Microsoft Defender for Business | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| description | Add users and assign Defender for Business licenses to protect their devices | ||
| search.appverid | MET150 | ||
| author | chrisda | ||
| ms.author | chrisda | ||
| manager | bagol | ||
| audience | Admin | ||
| ms.topic | how-to | ||
| ms.service | defender-business | ||
| ms.localizationpriority | medium | ||
| ms.date | 08/25/2025 | ||
| ms.collection |
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| ms.reviewer | efratka | ||
| f1.keywords | NOCSH |
After you sign up for Microsoft Defender for Business, your first step is to add users and assign licenses. This article describes how to add users and assign licenses, and how to verify multifactor authentication (MFA) is enabled for users.
:::image type="content" source="media/mdb-setup-step2.png" alt-text="Visual depicting step 2 - add users and assign licenses in Defender for Business.":::
For complete instructions, see Add users and assign licenses at the same time.
All organizations created after October 2019 have security defaults enabled by default, which requires MFA for all users. For more information, see Multifactor authentication for Microsoft 365.
To verify that security defaults is enabled in your organization, see Set up multifactor authentication for Microsoft 365.
Tip
Organizations with Microsoft Entra ID P1 (for example, Microsoft 365 Business Premium or an add-on subscription) also have access to Conditional Access to enforce MFA and other security requirements. For more information, see Multifactor authentication for Microsoft 365. If you don't have any licenses available, you can still add a user and buy additional licenses. For more information about adding users, see Add users and assign licenses at the same time.