If you're not a Microsoft Defender user with a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription, you can also protect yourself by enabling multi-factor authentication on as many of your accounts as possible and turning off automatic Wi-Fi connections to ensure your device doesn't connect to potentially malicious wireless networks. It's important to note that while Microsoft says Defender VPN does not collect your browsing data, history, personal details, or your device's physical location, it does send some anonymized service data to the company's servers. Microsoft Defender now automatically detects and notifies users with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription when they're connected to unsecured Wi-Fi networks. The Defender privacy protection feature (also known as Defender VPN) protects your privacy and security when connected to public Wi-Fi or an untrusted network, where your data and identity could be exposed or stolen. This anonymized service data contains details like the duration of the VPN's use, the amount of VPN bandwidth used, and the Wi-Fi hotspot names detected as potentially malicious for threat research purposes (the company says the latter is only sent to its servers after user consent is provided). First introduced one year ago in September 2023 on Android devices in the United States, privacy protection is a feature included with Microsoft Defender for individuals. These detections are possible using Defender heuristics that examine multiple characteristics of a Wi-Fi hotspot to determine if it is suspicious," Microsoft said. Microsoft announced today that Defender VPN has been upgraded to automatically alert users they're exposed to attacks and can now be configured to enable automatically for better safety. The unsafe Wi-Fi alerts are now only available in Defender for Android, iOS, and Windows, with macOS support also to roll out soon.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Mon, 30 Sep 2024 20:50:07 +0000