14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft used its April 5 event to announce a new security feature for Windows 11, as the company is now ready to offer phishing protection at the operating system level.
The phishing detection and protection will be offered via Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which already protects Windows 11 devices against malicious apps.
“Windows 11 is introducing two powerful new features that strike against the most common cyberattack techniques: phishing and targeted malware. New in Windows 11 is enhanced phishing detection and protection built into Windows with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen,” Microsoft announced today.
“This new feature will help protect users from phishing attacks by identifying and alerting users when they are entering their Microsoft credentials into a malicious application or hacked website. Smart App Control uses code signing alongside Microsoft’s powerful artificial intelligence models to ensure that only trusted applications are run, blocking one of the largest attack vectors on Windows by-default. We’re also looking ahead to bring the power of the cloud to hardware with the flexible, updatable Microsoft Pluton security processor. We’re thrilled with the ecosystem progress to date.”
Out-of-the-box protection for Windows 11 users
Thanks to this new update, Windows becomes the first operating system in the world to offer native phishing protection, Microsoft explains.
And if you believe this isn’t much, the company’s official figures claim otherwise.
The Redmond-based software giant claims its security software managed to block no more, no less than 25.6 billion Microsoft Azure Active Directory brute force authentication attacks in 2021 alone. What’s more, it detected and blocked 35.7 billion phishing emails using Microsoft Defender for Office 365, so it’s pretty clear users are constantly under attack.
Windows 11 therefore becomes a much safer operating system that can protect users out-of-the-box, therefore making sure their data is always secure no matter what.