14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft improved security features in Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and this helped the company achieve what it describes as “the most secure Windows ever,” as it not only fights against malware but it can also prevent, detect, and remove ransomware.
In a blog post today, the company explains that it focused specifically on these steps in order to bolster security in the case of ransomware, so Windows 10 Anniversary Update fights against threats even before they reach your computer.
For example, Adobe Flash Player, which is one of the software solutions that are most often attacked by cybercriminals, runs in Microsoft Edge in an isolated container, which means that any successful exploit using one of its vulnerabilities cannot be expanded to system level. Furthermore, Microsoft locked the browser, so an exploit running in Edge cannot execute another program on your system.
Additionally, Windows 10 Anniversary Update fights ransomware with email protection using machine learning models and heuristics to detect links and email file attachments distributing infected files.
And last but not least, machine learning is obviously playing a key role in prevention, with Microsoft saying that it’s investing massively in identifying and blocking malware more quickly.
Windows Defender comes built-in
As far as the detection phase is concerned, it all comes down to Windows Defender, which itself integrates improved features, such as cloud protection and automatic sample submission.
If a system is infected, Microsoft says that Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) will come to the rescue by alerting security teams about breaches, providing security events information and cloud analytics.
Microsoft says that users who want to benefit from this improved security need to update to Windows 10 Anniversary Update “and accept the default security settings,” but also to keep machines up to date with the latest updates. And last but not least, backups are super important, just in case something goes wrong and you need to restore your files or settings.