Windows Built-in Antivirus Gets Secure Sandbox Mode – Turn It ON!
Microsoft’s very own Windows Defender tool has become the first ever Antivirus and Anti-malware software to come in with a sandboxed environment. Sandboxing is a process that runs an application in a safe environment isolated from the rest of the operating system and applications on a computer. So that if a sandboxed application gets compromised, the technique prevents its damage from spreading outside the closed area.
Since antivirus and anti-malware tools run with the highest level of privileges to scan all parts of a computer for malicious code, it has become a desired target for attackers. But, now using this technique even if the attackers will try to exploit any breach inside the antivirus, it won’t spread out to other parts of the system.
The need for sandboxing an antivirus tool has become necessary after multiple critical vulnerabilities were discovered in such powerful applications, including Windows Defender. In past years that could have allowed attackers to gain full control of a targeted system.
According to Microsoft, implementing sandboxing in Windows Defender was a challenge for its engineers because the process had the potential to cause performance degradation and required a number of fundamental changes in the core program. Microsoft is gradually rolling out a Windows Insider preview supporting the sandboxing feature in Defender Antivirus, and the feature will soon become widely available for everyone out there, though it is not sure when this will happen.
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