Thanks to the new Defender Advanced Threat Protection tool, Windows 10 defends users against the most powerful ransomware attacks in recent months
Ransomware has become enemy number one for many companies that fear it like the plague. And so Microsoft bets on security to promote Windows 10, which now, according to the Redmond giant, would be able to block the spread of an epidemic thanks to new defense features.
The tool in question is Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) that Microsoft has integrated into the Windows 10 Enterprise version. And it brings as proof of its infallibility new research on the Cerber ransomware family that infested many companies in the period from December 16 to January 15 and that ATP successfully countered. Tommy Blizard of the Windows Defender ATP research team argues that it's a company's speed of reaction that counts when dealing with this type of virus: quickly detecting early cases of infection, or even better, "patient zero," often allows a ransomware outbreak to be nipped in the bud.
Infection shield
Another argument Microsoft makes to convince companies to switch from Windows 7 to Windows 10 is that many ransomwares share common traits with Cerber. If Windows Defender ATP was able to stop that threat, it can stop others as well. Microsoft's "defender," by the way, will be further enhanced with the arrival of Creators Update - a meaty Windows 10 update - due in April. It will be added, for example, new sensors capable of detecting malware at the "kernel" level - that is, at a very deep level of the operating system - as well as new intelligence, quarantine and forensic analysis tools. All tools that nominate it as a key ally for corporate IT security officers.