Understanding SmartScreen and Network Protection

The vast majority of cyberthreats arrive via one of two related sources: That means that by combining network-level sensors and throttles with threat intelligence (about attacker sites), security software can block a huge percentage of threats. Protection Implementation On Windows systems, that source of network threat information is commonly called SmartScreen, and support for queryingContinue reading “Understanding SmartScreen and Network Protection”

Fiddler – My Mistakes

On a flight back from Redmond last week, I finally read Linus Torvalds’ 2002 memoir “Just For Fun.” I really enjoyed its picture of Linux (and Torvalds) early in its success, with different chapters varyingly swooning that Linux had 12 or 25 million users. But more than that, I enjoyed some of the “behind theContinue reading “Fiddler – My Mistakes”

Capturing Logs for Debugging SmartScreen

The Microsoft Edge browser makes use of a service called Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to help protect users from phishing websites and malicious downloads. The SmartScreen service integrates with a Microsoft threat intelligence service running in the cloud to quickly block discovered threats. As I explained last year, the SmartScreen service also helps reduce spurious securityContinue reading “Capturing Logs for Debugging SmartScreen”

Edge’s Super-Res Image Enhancement

One interesting feature that the Edge team is experimenting with this summer is called “SuperRes” or “Enhance Images.” This feature allows Microsoft Edge to use a Microsoft-built AI/ML service to enhance the quality of images shown within the browser. You can learn more about how the images are enhanced (and see some examples) in theContinue reading “Edge’s Super-Res Image Enhancement”