Microsoft Introduces New Enterprise Security Capabilities With Windows 10 Creators Update
Microsoft announced on Tuesday that the Windows 10 Creators Update, which it plans on releasing free of charge next spring, will include several new security capabilities designed to help IT teams protect their networks and devices.
In its initial announcement on the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft focused on the creativity aspect, including productivity and gaming. However, the tech giant revealed on Tuesday that the update will also include significant security enhancements.
One of these improvements will make it easier for IT teams to monitor and act on security events by centralizing them in the Windows Security Center, a portal first released in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. By linking the Security Center to Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), administrators will be able to track a threat across endpoints and email (e.g. determine which users received a malicious email).
In Creators Update, the Windows Defender ATP will also provide enhanced detection, intelligence and remediation capabilities. ATP sensors will be expanded to detect kernel-level exploits and threats that persist only in memory. Once a threat has been identified, defenders will be able to select from a wider range of remediation actions, such as isolating machines, collecting forensics, quarantining files, and killing processes.
As for intelligence, FireEye recently announced that iSIGHT has become available to Microsoft enterprise users through Windows Defender ATP. Starting with Creators Update, users will be able to feed their own intel into the Security Center.
Microsoft said the new Windows 10 release will also provide an enhanced Windows Analytics dashboard that will help administrators manage their devices better, and a mobile application management feature designed to protect data on personal devices without the need to enroll them in an MDM solution.
Up until now, users who installed Windows 7 using a legacy BIOS and wanted to take advantage of new Windows 10 security features that required UEFI (e.g. Device Guard) had to manually configure the firmware. Creators Update will include a simple conversion tool that will automate the task.
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