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Microsoft’s Hexadite acquisition means Windows Defender is going to get a lot more secure

It looks like Microsoft is looking to beef up its Windows Defender security system, following a new deal to acquire cybersecurity firm Hexadite. Once the deal is finalised, Hexadite's anti-virus technology will be rolled in with Windows Defender, paving the way for AI-powered automatic system scans and virus cleaning.

Microsoft says that this new AI-based tech will help make Windows Defender more effective, especially in the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape. Here's how Terry Myerson explains it:

“Our vision is to deliver a new generation of security capabilities that helps our customers protect, detect and respond to the constantly evolving and ever-changing cyber threat landscape. Hexadite’s technology and talent will augment our existing capabilities and enable our ability to add new tools and services to Microsoft’s robust enterprise security offerings.”

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Hexadite currently offers a service known as Automated Incident Response Solution, or AIRS for short. This system can apparently reduce the time it takes to resolve a cybersecurity incident by up to 95 percent. We don't know how much Microsoft is spending on acquiring Hexadite but current rumours put the figure around the $100 million mark.

All of this comes during the same week Kaspersky Lab launched its own anti-competition accusations at Microsoft, claiming Windows Defender actively forces competing anti-virus solutions out. Since then, Microsoft has responded, denying that Windows Defender harms competition while adding that the company actually offered to meet with Kaspersky executives to work out the issues outside of the courtroom.

KitGuru Says: Given that Windows Defender is the default anti-virus for Windows, anything Microsoft can do to make it more robust and capable is great in my book.

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9 comments

  1. This is interesting, I look forward to seeing Defender become more secure as I use it as my default anti-virus. Also love the end regarding Kaspersky being salty over them not fixing issues with later Windows 10 versions.

  2. I am good with it as long as it don’t need to collect to much data. I also feel that Kaspersky and others feeling like they are being squeezed out either need to make better products or at least cheaper. MS defender is far from perfect but it does give you basic protection for free when you buy the Windows lic. MS does not force you to use defender if you install a anti virus it pretty much steps aside and lets the other security program take over which is the way it should be.

    I won’t mention names but how does that other company get away with including what ever they want in their OS and nobody even makes a peep about it.

  3. Because some people believe that because Windows has vast dominance in the PC space it is much worse for them to do the exact same thing. Hpwever, I think that is nonsense.

  4. Yeah they are unable to compete dur to their own abilities and are salty as a result. Chrome faces the same challenges from IE/Edge being the default Windows browser yet has market dominance in the browser space, thus proving MS’ acrions do not stop competition.

    EDIT: And at one point before Chrome got much market share Firefox was close to IE’s user percentage, thus proving it does not take a massive company like Google to be able to compete.

  5. This!
    You hit the nail on the head right there. It don’t take a big company to compete with the bigger company.

    They don’t want to try to compete that would take some skills and some hard work. So it is easier to lay blame else where for them and sue or just complain about it.

  6. With a browser it is obvious, what is better, but AV is another story, it runs in background and most people have no way of telling, whenever it is any good or not. It took me weeks to figure out, that WD was killing my PCs. A simple disabling will not do, because its services are still running and causing a havoc. WD and Avira are simply black sheep.

  7. Disabling WD is not easy, it keeps interfering, that is the reason why Kaspersky is suing them.
    I have managed to disable it by disabling all its 6 services, but I doubt anyone does it like that.

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  9. Killing your PCs? Causing havoc??? What exactly have been the problem?
    I’ve been using Defender in all my family’s PCs with no issues. I don’t doubt you might be having issues with Defender, it’s just that it’s been working so well here.