Microsoft has announced that it is retiring Defender Application Guard (including Windows Isolated App Launcher interfaces) for Edge for business users.
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Microsoft Defender Application Guard (MDAG) blocks potential threats by exposing them to a secure sandbox using hardware-based virtualization.
“ Using our unique hardware isolation approach, our goal is to destroy the scenario used by attackers by rendering current attack methods obsolete ,” Microsoft explains
Application Guard for Edge protects enterprise customers by automatically opening all untrusted websites in Hyper-V.
Business administrators define trusted websites and cloud to protect the company from potential infections from malicious websites when users visit them.
“Microsoft announced that Microsoft Defender Application Guard, including the Windows Isolated App Launcher interfaces, is being retired for Microsoft Edge for Business and will no longer be updated.“
The company recommends that customers review the Microsoft Edge for Business security guidance for more details about the security features that remain available in the Microsoft Edge for Business browser.
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The company introduced MDAG support in the Edge browser in April 2019 on systems running Windows 10.Last month, the company announced that it would be removing Defender Application Guard for Office, including Windows Security Isolation Interfaces.
The announcement comes two years after Microsoft introduced Application Guard for Office to all Microsoft 365 with appropriate licenses and four years after it was introduced as part of a limited preview in November 2019.
It also recommends that users switch to Defender for Endpoint attack mitigation rules, Protected View, and Windows Defender Application Control as an alternative.
The company is also going to phase out the use of VBScript in future versions of Windows (30 years after its introduction), providing it as an on-demand feature before completely removing it.
Earlier this year, Microsoft also reminded users that it would soon disable the insecure Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 and 1.1 protocols in Windows. However, it postponed the removal of Exchange Online client access rules (CARs) for one year until September 2024.
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Defender Application Guard is a tool provided by Microsoft that creates a safe environment for browsing the web and running applications. Its main function is to isolate web content and applications from the main operating system, in order to protect against malware.
When a user opens a website or application through Defender Application Guard, the data resulting from this action does not have access to the main operating system or the user's personal data. In addition, Defender Application Guard has strong threat detection capabilities, as it can detect and isolate malware before it affects the main operating system.
Finally, Defender Application Guard also provides features that allow users to control security settings, such as enabling or disabling isolation for specific websites or applications.
Source: bleepingcomputer
