Microsoft's Windows 10 antivirus now available for Linux
Microsoft is increasingly showing love to Linux, with the most obvious example of this being the inclusion of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10.
Today, the software giant announces the general availability of Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for Linux systems.
SEE ALSO:
- Windows 7 returns with the stunning 2020 Edition
- Windows 10 Insider Build 20150 arrives in the Dev Channel, with three new Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) features
In a new post, Microsoft’s Helen Allas says:
Adding Linux into the existing selection of natively supported platforms by Microsoft Defender ATP marks an important moment for all our customers. It makes Microsoft Defender Security Center a truly unified surface for monitoring and managing security of the full spectrum of desktop and server platforms that are common across enterprise environments (Windows, Windows Server, macOS, and Linux).
Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux supports recent versions of the following Linux Server distributions:
- RHEL 7.2+
- CentOS Linux 7.2+
- Ubuntu 16 LTS, or higher LTS
- SLES 12+
- Debian 9+
- Oracle Linux 7.2
Microsoft says it can be deployed and configured using Puppet, Ansible, or any existing Linux configuration management tool. Defender ATP for Linux requires the Microsoft Defender ATP for Servers license. You’ll find all the necessary documentation for getting started here.
There’s more to come from Microsoft in the future too, as Allas says:
We are just at the beginning of our Linux journey and we are not stopping here! We are committed to continuous expansion of our capabilities for Linux and will be bringing you enhancements in the coming months. We can’t wait for you to become part of our Linux journey and try out new capabilities as they become available. Make sure to turn on preview features in Microsoft Defender Security Center to get the latest updates before anyone else and stay tuned to our blog and Twitter channel for the latest announcements.