vs. Defender
Defender is great at blocking known malware.
It's terrible at explaining behaviour.
Microsoft Defender for Business is the right floor for SMB endpoint protection. It blocks the known. It quarantines obvious malware. It's bundled with Microsoft 365 Business Premium so it's effectively free.
What it doesn't do is explain unusual behaviour. When a privileged account tries to log in from Bulgaria at 2 a.m., Defender's view of the world is "did the binary match a known-bad hash? No? Move on." Behavioural EDR isn't its job.
ABTDS isn't a Defender replacement — keep Defender for known-malware blocking. ABTDS reads the same Windows event logs Defender writes and produces the explainable behavioural layer Defender doesn't. Together they cover both halves: known-bad files (Defender) and unknown-bad behaviour (ABTDS).
Read the difference
Same threat.
Three very different answers.
A brute-force attempt against a real Windows endpoint. Here's what each tool says when it fires.
"Medium risk."
That's it. That's the whole alert.
"Score: 87."
From what? Threshold for what? On a curve calibrated when?
"Failed login from Bulgaria, off-hours, new ASN. 4 of 9 factors above baseline. Likely brute force."
Block the IP. Force MFA reset on j.morton. Review the next 4 Sysmon 4624s.
We're not better at detecting brute force. We're better at explaining the one you're already detecting.
The right decision
If you're tired of alerts you can't explain,
starting an ABTDS pilot is the right decision.
30 days. Up to 50 endpoints. No card. No call required to start. Real data, your VPS, your decision at the end.
Or email founders@abtds.io — we read every one