Coming Soon: Your Android Phone And Apple iPhone Will Be Protected By Microsoft Antivirus

Joseph Baker - 2020-07-06T21:00:00.000Z

Great news for the techies. Microsoft has recently divulged that it is going to make a new Microsoft Defender Antivirus compatible with all Android and iOS phones. Though the detailed features haven’t yet been unveiled by the teams responsible, they have hinted that this antivirus is going to offer comprehensive protection for mobile devices.

It has been a great challenge for them to develop an antivirus that works for both the platforms through a single and streamlined solution. In the coming days, the company will describe all the difficulties and investments, and the work efforts going into providing this comprehensive solution.

This announcement comes almost a year after the event when they released its Defender antivirus for Apple Mac devices, though it is still under preview mode for larger businesses. They renamed the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) so that more features can be revealed from the name itself.

All About Microsoft’s Advanced Threat Protection

Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection is already used by organizations and businesses. From the different reviews made publicly available, we uncovered the following pros and cons of this antivirus solution.

Pros:

The best feature of course is, it is free of cost. It comes in a package with Windows. So, you don't need to pay extra or download it for using this exceptional security software.
The service offered by this antivirus is very light. As a result, a user doesn't need to check the scans and threats manually. These processes operate in the background automatically.

Cons:

The software is not that good for the latest viruses and malware.
The antivirus comes with a pre-packaged list of features. However, if a user prefers to select specific features instead of the factory settings, they may be disappointed by the weaker performance. However, these two drawbacks can be readily improved in future iterations.

Malware On Android And iPhone

There is no doubt Android operated devices are more prone to malware attacks than Apple devices. According to a study, Android devices are 47.15% more prone to infiltration by malware attacks whereas Windows PCs are 35.82% more susceptible compared to 16.17% for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. By comparison, iPhones are prone to 1% or less of malware attacks in every respect.

The reasons behind such drastic variation are rather unsurprising. They include:

Apple doesn't offer the source code of its operating system to its users. As a result, hackers find it difficult to crack whereas Android devices share the source code of its operating systems. Too much tinkering and expanded flexibility results in many more vulnerabilities than iOS.
Due to the massive use of Android operating systems, it is easy for cybercriminals to crack them and make them unsafe. However, the restricted use of Apple phones makes it less prone to cybercrimes.

Competing Software

There are several competitors already available in the market for Android and iOS phones including the following:

McAfee Mobile Security - This antivirus is quite effective at protecting Android devices from malware and theft. Still, the solution is priced much higher than the competition, making this a more expensive choice.
AVG Antivirus 2020 - This is the strongest contender for Defender Antivirus given this software comes free of cost and protects against all basic malware and threats. You can also pay for more advanced features depending on needs.
ESET- Another contender for Defender Antivirus, this solution provides a complete package of protection against all manner of threats of malware.
Avast For Android & iPhone- The best part of this antivirus is that it's totally free even though it has all the necessary features to prevent malware intrusions and identity theft on any device.