Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Gets Jailbreak Protections and More -- Redmondmag.com

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Gets Jailbreak Protections and More

By Kurt Mackie
06/15/2021

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint got several improvements at the "general availability" commercial-release stage, according to a Monday announcement by Microsoft.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a threat detection and post-breach analysis solution, rebranded last year from the "Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection" name. It works with mobile devices (Android and iOS) via a "client app" that gets installed on them.

New App Interface and iOS Jailbreak Detection
The Microsoft Defender for Endpoint client app for Android and iOS devices now has an enhanced user interface that shows threats and device status. It scans for malware and blocks unsafe connections, plus it has phishing protections.

New for iOS devices, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint will detect hardware tampering, known as "jailbreaking," which might be done to bypass security and install malicious apps. A notice gets sent to the IT team using Microsoft 365 Defender when jailbreaking is detected. The jailbreak detection feature, released at the general availability stage for iOS devices, supports both managed and unmanaged devices.

App Protections Without Requiring Intune
Microsoft removed a requirement to use Microsoft Intune for mobile device management purposes in order to get mobile app management protections from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Now, it's possible to use Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to protect Android and iOS mobile apps when using a non-Microsoft mobile device management solution, such as "AirWatch, MobileIron, MaaS360 and others," the announcement indicated. Organizations can get the app protections, too, without using any mobile device management solution.

Android Device Microsoft Tunnel Support
In a related announcement, Microsoft indicated this week that the Microsoft Tunnel service was commercially released for supporting Android devices with the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint service. Microsoft Tunnel is an Intune virtual private network (VPN) gateway solution that supports split tunneling and the use of Microsoft's Conditional Access service.

Still not yet ready for production environments is Microsoft Tunnel support for iOS devices using the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint service. The iOS capability exists, but just at the preview stage.

VPN Profiles for iOS Devices
IT pros can now push VPN profile configurations out to iOS devices. It simplifies things for end users.

"Until now, end users needed to provide VPN permissions to allow the iOS app to provide anti-phishing protection," the announcement explained. "With this update, admins will be able to setup configuration and push the VPN profile to enrolled devices so that VPN related permissions will not have to be provided by end users, thus simplifying their onboarding experience."

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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