Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection joins Windows 10’s security arsenal

In light of Windows 10’s recent security and privacy criticism, Microsoft has been working hard to right these wrongs, and its latest measure is aimed at enterprises.

Executive VP of Windows Terry Myerson took to the Windows Blog to announce Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection for Windows 10 enterprise, which is “a new service that will help enterprises to detect, investigate, and respond to advanced attacks on their networks.”

“Building on the existing security defenses Windows 10 offers today, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection provides a new post-breach layer of protection to the Windows 10 security stack,” Myerson explains.

“With a combination of client technology built into Windows 10 and a robust cloud service, it will help detect threats that have made it past other defenses, provide enterprises with information to investigate the breach across endpoints, and offer response recommendations.”

The system uses a number of Windows behavioral sensors, including “cloud based security analytics, threat intelligence, and by tapping into Microsoft’s intelligent security graph.” This allows Windows Defender to report deeper information on the nature of the attack, from the culprit to the root cause.

The system will also regularly make recommendations on how to improve the network’s armour, as well as provide historical data to system admins looking to find key weak points in a network’s security history.

Myerson reassured users that Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection will be built into Windows 10 (like its consumer level Windows Defender counterpart), complement existing security features within the Windows ecosystem, and will be completely cloud-based, giving admins the freedom of mobility should they so desire, and a reduction in overall deployment costs. This also means that the product will update alongside Windows 10.

The system is already live, and according to Microsoft, is currently protecting around 500 000 endpoints. Windows 10 itself currently enjoys around 11.6% of the total PC market share as of 1 February.

You can have a look at Myerson’s entire blog post here.