What the FOSS: In recent years, Microsoft has transformed its “modest” anti-malware tool Defender into a comprehensive security solution for Windows computers and cloud environments. The Redmond-based company is now expanding Defender support to Linux desktops and servers.
Microsoft believes that Linux systems also need an enterprise-focused security solution like Defender. Redmond’s anti-malware solution, notorious for its arguably excessive false positives, now offers expanded support for major Linux distributions. This allows organizations to use the same security platform to protect heterogeneous enterprise environments where Windows and Linux machines coexist.
Redmond introduced Microsoft Defender for Linux, emphasizing the growing attractiveness of Linux systems for cybercriminals. Software developers using Linux as their primary platform must contend with multiple components of the software stack, including remote code repositories, integration pipelines, and cloud infrastructure.
According to Microsoft, Defender can provide effective endpoint protection against threats that target developers working on Linux. In particular, the anti-malware solution can “protect and detect” threats on Linux through its next-generation antivirus engine, while also offering additional business-oriented features such as vulnerability management, device inventory and security settings management.
Defender for Linux is designed to respond to threats by providing additional threat hunting capabilities, isolating infected devices, and more. According to Microsoft, these are the same tools that corporate security teams already rely on to protect Windows environments. The idea is to enable security teams to manage Linux systems with familiar tools and workflows.
By offering dedicated Defender protection for Linux, Microsoft believes enterprise customers can better integrate Linux systems into their existing infrastructure. The endpoint security solution is designed to be easily deployed on both desktops and servers, while reducing operational complexity and improving security in developer-heavy environments.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint already supports a long list of major Linux distributions, including RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora and Oracle Linux. Support extends to both desktop and server editions of these operating systems, allowing organizations to manage protection across their entire Linux environments.
The new security solution is available to customers with a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 subscription or a Microsoft 365 E5 or E7 subscription. Microsoft says Defender customers can manage threat response and analysis through a central portal, even if their Linux systems are running in external cloud environments or remote data centers.
