On Tuesday, June 23, 2020, Microsoft announced the release of Microsoft ATP Defender, a security program for Linux. Also, Microsoft announced a public preview of Microsoft Defender ATP for Android devices as well.
What is Microsoft Defender ATP?
It is an end to end security platform that protects against cyber threats, defends against advanced attacks, data breaches, and automates security.
Microsoft Defender ATP now available for Linux
Initially launched to support only Windows devices, its protection was later extended to macOS in mid-2019. As quoted by Helen Allas, the principal program manager at Microsoft, the addition of Linux and an Android preview, has converted Microsoft Defender ATP into a unified platform for monitoring the security of numerous desktop and server platforms, across enterprise environments (Windows, Windows Server, macOS, and Linux).
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Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux
Microsoft Defender ATP will now support the following Linux Server distros:
- RHEL 7.2+
- CentOS Linux 7.2+
- Ubuntu 16 LTS, or higher LTS
- SLES 12+
- Debian 9+
- Oracle Linux 7.2
It can be deployed and configured using the Puppet or Ansible configuration management tool, or the existing configuration management tool. This release is expected to deliver strong preventive capabilities, a complete command-line experience for clients, to configure and manage agents, initiate scans, and manage threats.
As one of the key points, Microsoft also mentioned in the announcement that the availability of Microsoft Defender ATP for Server license will be required to deploy it on Linux.
Microsoft Defender ATP for Android
Microsoft also announced a public preview of Defender ATP for Android. The Defender ATP for Android will block access to phishing websites from SMS/text, Whatsapp, email browsers, and any other app. Also, it will block unsafe connections that apps might make on the user’s behalf.
As per Kaniska Srivastava, senior program manager at Microsoft, additional layers of protection against unprotected access to sensitive corporate information will be available through Microsoft Defender ATP. Enterprise admins will be able to see the alerts and threats in the Microsoft Defender Security Center and follow-up with necessary actions.
Kaniska Srivastava also added that more capabilities for Android will be released in the coming months and Microsoft Defender ATP for iOS will be released later this year.
With business getting done more on mobile devices, Microsoft is focused on enhancing security across a range of platforms beyond Windows.