VerdictIQ vs PassiveTotal (Microsoft Defender TI).
PassiveTotal, now part of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, gives investigators historical DNS, WHOIS and SSL pivots. VerdictIQ delivers deterministic, signal-level domain risk scoring through an API.
Last updated 2026-05-23. Based on publicly available documentation; verify current behavior with each vendor.
PassiveTotal vs VerdictIQ, capability by capability.
Read this if you read nothing else. Cells reflect publicly documented behavior; no marketing adjectives.
| Feature | VerdictIQDeterministic decision engine | PassiveTotalPassive DNS & infrastructure history |
|---|---|---|
| Primary strength | Per-call behavioral scoring | Historical infrastructure pivots |
| Best-fit scenarios | SOAR gates on fresh domains, automated decisions | Incident timelines, host graphing |
| IOC coverage | Domains, IPs, CIDR, ASN, file hash | Domains, IPs, hosts, SSL certs SSL cert / host pivoting |
| Scoring method | Deterministic 0–100 Fixed signal set with versioned weights | No native score Analyst pivots historical records to infer risk |
| Reproducible score | Yes | N/A (no score) |
| Explainability | Named signals + evidence | Raw records to interpret |
| Newly-activated detection | Signals fire on first DNS response | Visible only after the record lands |
| Pre-hoc verdict | Pre-hoc verdict | Post-hoc / historical |
| Live-data scoring | Recomputed live | Historical corpus |
| Behavioral analysis | DNS, crawl, relational | Passive DNS data |
| Campaign mapping | Relational clustering | Manual pivoting |
| AI analyst narrative | VerdictIQ AI | No |
| Decision verification | Bulk replay | No |
| Response shape | Single decision-grade JSON | Records and pivots |
| Bulk API | /enrich_bulk | Limited, tier-dependent |
| SOAR JSON | Native recommended_action | Custom mapping required |
| MSSP / multi-tenant | Tenant-scoped API keys | Microsoft licensing model |
| Headless API | Yes | No, UI-led |
| Data retention | No IOC retention Cache TTL only | Long-tail historical corpus |
| Pricing | Free tier, usage-based | Microsoft licensing |
| Ecosystem | Vendor-agnostic API + MCP | Microsoft Defender XDR |
| Bottom line | The decision-grade verdict for the machine that acts first. | The historical pivot graph for a human investigation. |
Common questions.
Is VerdictIQ a replacement for Defender TI?
No. Defender TI is investigation-led with deep historical data. VerdictIQ is automation-led with deterministic scoring. Most teams run both.
Does VerdictIQ store passive DNS history?
VerdictIQ consumes passive DNS and other behavioral inputs to compute signals at query time; it does not expose a separate passive DNS pivot UI.
Can I use both inside the same SOAR playbook?
Yes. A common pattern uses VerdictIQ for the gate and Defender TI for evidence enrichment when the score is mid-range.
Does VerdictIQ require a Microsoft tenant?
No. VerdictIQ is vendor-agnostic; no Microsoft licensing is required.
Which is better for newly-registered domains?
VerdictIQ. Behavioral signals fire on first DNS response; passive DNS history is sparse on brand-new domains.
Run VerdictIQ on the IOCs you already check with PassiveTotal.
Free tier, no credit card. Compare the output against the tool you already trust.
All company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Comparisons are based on publicly available documentation as of 2026-05-23; verify current behavior with each vendor. VerdictIQ makes no endorsement or claim regarding third-party services.