Microsoft Defender gets anti-ransomware protection powered by artificial intelligence

Microsoft has added a new layer of protection to its Defender, which with the help of artificial intelligence manages to prevent ransomware attacks. Praiseworthy, in any case, especially since it is the method of attack that has had the most success in recent years and is quite destructive in every sense.

While more knowledgeable will raise an eyebrow at this news, it should be noted that Ruofan Wang and Kelly Kang of the Microsoft 365 Defender research team found that ransomware attacks can be characterized through a specific set of methods and behaviors. Therefore, it is possible to anticipate them and, of course, stop them afterward.

Based on this assumption, Microsoft eventually achieved successful results because it developed a cloud-based machine learning system that intelligently predicts if it is in danger when "in contact" with a device, and if so, blocks every attacker's next step.

Indeed, it is interesting that many experts have not been able to conclude before that ransomware still has a certain pattern, which in turn means that it is predictable. And, ultimately, prevention is possible. But something better like that happened sooner rather than later.

"Taking into account indicators that would otherwise be considered a low priority of the need for 'remediation', adaptive protection has stopped the potential attack chain at an early stage so that the overall impact of the attack is significantly reduced," Microsoft explained.

Of course, for something like that, the American company had to "reach out" for a whole series of data, "pulled" through the whole range of products and services it offers. And it turned out to be a win-win, Windows users were given a tool that should protect them in the true sense of the word ...

Not so long ago, something like this seemed impossible, at least when Microsoft was placed in the context of someone who should offer customers so much protection that they don't have to resort to "third-party" solutions. But times are changing ...