Microsoft has introduced a new tamper protection feature to its Microsoft Defender ATP security service. The new feature arrives just a week after the tool was rebranded from Windows Defender ATP. Microsoft says the new tamper protection tool prevents infections from making changes to security settings on a device.
You may be thinking you have heard of tamper protection before. Well, Microsoft launched the feature for Microsoft Defender ATP back in December as part of a Windows Insider preview. That's why tamper proof will not officially be available until next month when Windows 10 version 1903 drops.
Microsoft says tamper protection is a default setting, so it will be on automatically for all new Windows 10 installations. The same is true for existing Windows users upgrading from a preview build.
The nuts and bolts of tamper protection allow Microsoft Defender ATP to ensure real-time antivirus scanning has not been turned off. It also provides protection for the cloud-based IOAV and engine, which is what Defender uses to detect suspicious content online.
“For enterprise customers (such as those with a Microsoft Defender ATP license), this feature will be opt-in and can only be managed from the Intune management console. Local device admin users will not be able to change the setting. This ensures that even malicious apps – or malicious actors – can't locally override the setting,” the company explains.
Microsoft Defender ATP
As mentioned, Windows Defender ATP was last week rebranded as Microsoft Defender ATP. The renaming coincided with the launch of the service on MacOS.
Microsoft says changed the name because the service is no longer a Windows services and moved to other platforms. Microsoft says it moved to Mac because it wants non-Windows customers to protect their devices.