Microsoft Defender is Ready to Defend Your Android Phone: Here is How

As more business now being done on mobile devices in the social distancing times while hacking attempts increase multi-fold on smartphones, Microsoft has announced the public preview of Microsoft Defender ATP for Android. Microsoft Defender ATP for Android will help protect customers and users by delivering protection from phishing and access to risky domains and URLs through web protection capabilities that will block unsafe sites accessed through SMS/text, WhatsApp, email, browsers, and other apps.

"We're using the same Microsoft Defender SmartScreen services that are on Windows to quickly detect malicious sites which means that a decision to block a suspicious site will apply across all devices in the enterprise," informed Rob Lefferts, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft 365 Security. The tech giant last year launched Microsoft Defender ATP for Mac.

Microsoft Defender ATP for Android will proactively scan malicious applications, files, and potentially unwanted applications (PUA) that users may download to their mobile devices. Microsoft will release additional security capabilities on Android and iOS devices as well.

"Our capabilities and investments in cloud-powered protection and intelligence on application reputation allow us to quickly detect sophisticated malware and apps that that may display undesirable behaviour," Lefferts said in a statement on Tuesday. By leveraging tight integration with Microsoft Endpoint Manager and Conditional Access, mobile devices that have been compromised with malicious apps or malware are considered high risk and are blocked from accessing corporate resources.

Microsoft also announced the initial release of Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux. "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," said Microsoft.