Cross-platform protection
Microsoft has released a public preview of Defender ATP on Android.
The development offers technology that gives Android devices protection from phishing, alongside scanning of malicious applications, files, and potentially unwanted applications.
Defender ATP on Android integrates with Microsoft’s enterprise security tools and dashboards.
Although Redmond’s Defender security technology started off as a baseline security protection for Windows PCs, it has expanded over the years to offer protection for Windows servers and (more recently) Macs and Linux servers.
Industry analyst Clive Longbottom, the founder of Quocirca, described the technology as potentially promising.
“Providing defense against known, curated phishing attacks/sites goes so far,” Longbottom told The Daily Swig. “Zero-hour defence is also required, which is where advanced heuristics come in.
“Sandboxing corporate data away from the main device is a good thing too,” he added.
Longbottom added that the technology offered a “reasonable start to bolster (or patch) Google’s poor base security”.
“There’s a pressing need, that has been ill-met by Google, to ensure that corporate information does not leak out via malicious apps with ‘wrong’ permissions,” he explained.
Defender for Linux
In addition to the Android announcement, Microsoft this week also announced the general availability of Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux.
“Customers have asked us to broaden our selection of platforms natively supported by Microsoft Defender ATP, and today we’re excited to officially start our journey with Linux,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
“This release marks an important moment for all Microsoft Defender ATP customers when Microsoft Defender ATP becomes a truly unified solution to secure the full spectrum of desktop and server platforms that are common across enterprise environments: Windows, macOS, and Linux.”
“In the coming months we will be releasing additional capabilities on Android and you will hear more from us about our investments in mobile threat defense for iOS devices as well,” it added.
Microsoft Defender ATP for macOS launched just over a year ago.
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