The 2022 version of Windows 11 it’s here. After a year of waiting, the new Microsoft operating system has received a large number of long-awaited improvements, features and news that will allow users to improve their user experience. But not only do we find the improvements that we all talk about (such as the tabs in the browser or the news in the start menu and the taskbar), but Microsoft has also included many new features directly related to security, being one of the most interesting, and unknown, the Enhanced Phishing Protection.
Microsoft keeps improving its antivirus, Windows Defender, constantly. And not only improving the engine and the database to deal with threats, but also in terms of the protection shields it offers us. In this way, although Microsoft has not spoken publicly about it, the new Windows 11 22H2 includes, within Windows Update, a shield that helps us protect our passwords from possible scams. That’s how it works.
What is Enhanced Phishing Protection Like?
Usernames and passwords are one of the most attacked elements by hackers. Getting hold of them implies taking full and absolute control of user accounts. There are many ways to save passwords on your computer. Some of them, for example, are usually secure by default, while others may be putting the keys at risk without our knowledge. But, the most common is that we are the ones who put these keys in danger.
Thanks to this new Windows antivirus shield we will be able to be a little more protected against this type of attack. By activating it (which is deactivated by default) we can find a series of notifications that will notify us when enter passwords in insecure programs or websites. For example, Windows Defender will show us a danger message when we copy a password into a notepad, word processor or spreadsheet, among others.
We will also see a warning when we try to reuse a password on a web page when registering to try to put an end to this ugly, and frequent, practice.
How to turn on Windows Defender Enhanced Protection
Although phishing protection is enabled by default in Windows Defender, the two shields we are interested in are not. Therefore, we must activate them by hand. To do this, we open the Windows Defender configuration window, and go to the Application and browser control section> Configure reputation-based protection> Protection against phishing.
Once here, we must activate those two options. By doing so, and after accepting a UAC window to confirm administrator permissions, Windows Defender will begin to control the indiscriminate use of our passwordsalerting us when we are going to reuse them or when we copy them to non-secure storage, such as a text document.
The idea is good, and it is very well carried out so that users avoid compromising their passwords. But Microsoft has to improve it a bit more, since it tries to rely so much on Edge that it leaves Chrome, Firefox and other browsers out of its protection. And, with it, to the vast majority of users.
