Microsoft had initially revealed that its Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) antivirus application will be making way to both iOS and Android platforms earlier this year. In its Tech Community forum today, company senior program manager Kanishka Srivastava revealed that a preview build of the software has been rolled out to the latter, starting with the US region.
Srivastava explained that Defender ATP aims to provide Android users with added malware protection, especially against threats such as phishing attacks. The antivirus’ scans are performed instantly to detect malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUA). It will also conduct scans on recently downloaded applications and will notify users once it determines that the app is clean.
Defender’s anti-phishing protection is designed to instantly block unsafe websites that are provided via SMS, WhatsApp, emails, or by applications. In addition, it will also use Microsoft’s SmartScreen technology to also block unsafe network connections that malicious apps will try to establish without the user’s consent.
Microsoft stated that it will be releasing additional capabilities to its mobile Defender ATP software in the coming months, and noted that an iOS version will be released somewhere down the line. Aside from the similar protection approach provided in the Android release, the company did not detail any platform-specific security enhancements for Apple’s mobile devices.
