ASR at the network layer

In this section, you’ll learn about Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, the closely related network protection (which is the last of our ASR features to discuss), and web protection.

SmartScreen

Available to both consumers and MDE customers, SmartScreen protects risky websites and applications before Microsoft Defender Antivirus needs to step in. Using a combination of suspicious indicators, user reports, and popularity telemetry, SmartScreen can either warn or block access to websites and applications it identifies as potentially malicious. For example, SmartScreen can identify unsafe advertising frames in websites and prevent them from loading. Or, if a user downloads an application with a low or poor reputation, it can prevent it from executing.

SmartScreen’s scope is limited to content that originates from the internet. For example, it can block the execution of a rarely seen application from a download website, but if this file was copied...