Microsoft Has Finally Brought Its ‘Defender’ Antivirus Solution to Android and Linux

• Microsoft’s premium antivirus now supports Android and Linux, ready to be utilized starting today.
• 'Defender' is capable of protecting against phishing, identifying malicious files, and preventing infections from spreading within a network.
• Microsoft is also planning to support iOS by the end of the year, without a specific release date.

As promised last year, Microsoft has been busy expanding its premium antivirus solution beyond Windows. More precisely, we're talking about the company's commercial product, Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). After being released on macOS last year, Microsoft has now announced that Defender is available on Android (as a preview) and Linux (general availability). The only major platform not covered at this moment is iOS, which is bound to change by the year's end.

On Android, Microsoft Defender ATP is capable of protecting against phishing and unsafe network connections from apps, websites, and malicious apps. In a corporate environment, it can also block devices deemed "risky." More precisely, this antivirus solution is focused on four distinctive roles:

• Protection from phishing (which is a big problem for corporate networks) and preventing access to risky domains through text messages, WhatsApp, email, Web browsers, and other apps. The system used for scanning malicious links is the same Microsoft Defender SmartScreen system used on other devices.
• Protection from malicious files, including app (APK) files. This mechanism aims to prevent individual users from downloading a potentially malicious file on their Android device that exhibits undesirable behavior.
• Corporate environments will also get additional layers of protection that prevent malware from spreading within a network. If a device is identified as being infected, it gets blocked from accessing corporate resources.
• And finally, there's a unified security experience through Microsoft Defender Security Center that contains alerts and additional context that allows network owners and IT staff to respond to threats promptly.

Image Courtesy of Microsoft.

It’s also worth mentioning that Microsoft Defender ATP is available on Android as a preview. This means that customers of this antivirus solution will need to enable preview features by visiting their dashboard (Microsoft Defender Security Center). Then, individual Android apps can be deployed. On the other hand, Microsoft Defender ATP is also available on Linux but has reached general availability (being available for testing since February).

The news about Microsoft Defender ATP on Android and Linux comes only a week after the company announced firmware protection on Windows. This means that users of premium Microsoft Defender on Windows can scan Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, eliminating threats during the boot process. Sadly, there are no announcements regarding the availability of this useful feature for all users of Defender (available free of charge).