Microsoft Announces Windows Defender ATP Antivirus for Mac

Brace yourself guys.

Microsoft is going to release its Windows Defender ATP antivirus
software for Mac computers.

Sounds crazy, right? But it’s true.

Microsoft Thursday announced that the company is bringing its
anti-malware software to Apple’s macOS operating system as well—and
to more platforms soon, like Linux.

As a result, the technology giant renamed its Windows Defender
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to Microsoft Defender Advanced
Threat Protection (ATP) in an attempt to minimize name-confusion
and reflect the cross-platform nature of the software
suite.

But wait, does your Macbook need antivirus protection? Of course!

For all those wondering if Mac even gets viruses—macOS is
generally more secure than Windows, but in recent years
cybercriminals have started paying attention to the Mac platform,
making it a new target for viruses, Trojans, spyware, adware,
ransomware, backdoors, and other nefarious applications.

Moreover, hackers have been successful many times. Remember the
dangerous FruitFly
malware^[1] that infected thousands
of Mac computers, the recently discovered cryptocurrency-stealing
malware CookieMiner^[2]
and DarthMiner, and .EXE
malware^[3] discovered last
month?

Microsoft Defender ATP Antivirus for Mac

Microsoft has now come up with a dedicated Defender ATP client for
Mac, offering full anti-virus and threat protection with the
ability to perform full, quick, and custom scans, giving macOS
users “next-generation protection and endpoint detection and
response coverage” as its Windows counterpart.

Microsoft also promised to add Endpoint Detection and Response, and
Defender ATP’s new Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM)
capabilities in public preview next month.
TVM uses a risk-based approach to help security teams discovery,
prioritize, and remediate known vulnerabilities and
misconfigurations using a mixture of real-time insights, added
context during incident investigations and built-in remediation
processes through Microsoft’s Intune and System Center
Configuration Manager.

For now, the tech giant has released Microsoft Defender ATP for
Mac (compatible with macOS Mojave, macOS High Sierra, or macOS
Sierra) in limited preview for businesses that have both Windows
and Mac computer systems.

Like MS Office for Mac, Defender for Mac will also use Microsoft
AutoUpdate software to get the latest features and fixes on time.

While Microsoft has announced its plans to launch Defender ATP
for more platforms in the future, the company has not explicitly
named those platforms.

Also, it is not clear if Microsoft is also planning to launch a
consumer version of Microsoft Defender for Mac users in the
future.

Microsoft’s business customers can sign up
here^[5] for the limited
preview.

In the attempt to make its security software available to more
people, Microsoft just last week released
Windows Defender extensions for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome
as well.
^[6]