Network protection demonstrations

Network Protection helps reduce the attack surface of your devices from Internet-based events. It prevents employees from using any application to access dangerous domains that might host phishing scams, exploits, and other malicious content on the Internet.

Prerequisites

• Client devices must be running Windows 11, Windows 10 version 1709 build 16273 or newer, or macOS
• Server devices must be running Windows Server 2012 R2 (with the new unified client) and later, Linux, or Azure Stack HCI OS, version 23H2 and later.
• Microsoft Defender Antivirus

Windows

Run the following PowerShell command:

Set-MpPreference -EnableNetworkProtection Enabled

Following are the Rule states:

Verify the configuration using the following PowerShell command:

Get-MpPreference

Consider the following scenario:

1. Turn on Network Protection using PowerShell command:

   Set-MpPreference -EnableNetworkProtection Enabled
   

2. Using the browser of your choice (not Microsoft Edge*), navigate to the Network Protection website test. Microsoft Edge has other security measures in place to protect from this vulnerability (SmartScreen).

Following are the expected results:

Navigation to the website should be blocked and you should see a Connection blocked notification.

Run the following command to Clean-up:

Set-MpPreference -EnableNetworkProtection Disabled

macOS/Linux

To configure the Network Protection enforcement level, run the following command from the Terminal:

mdatp config network-protection enforcement-level --value [enforcement-level]

For example, to configure network protection to run in blocking mode, execute the following command:

mdatp config network-protection enforcement-level --value block

To confirm that network protection has started successfully, run the following command from the Terminal, and verify that it prints "started":

mdatp health --field network_protection_status

To test Network Protection on macOS/Linux:

1. Using the browser of your choice (not Microsoft Edge), navigate to the Network Protection website test. Microsoft Edge has other security measures in place to protect from this vulnerability (SmartScreen).

2. Or run the following command from the terminal:

   curl -o ~/Downloads/smartscreentestratings2.net https://smartscreentestratings2.net/ 
   

Following are the expected results:

Navigation to the website should be blocked and you should see a Connection blocked notification.

Run the following command to Clean-up:

mdatp config network-protection enforcement-level --value audit

See also

Network Protection

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint - demonstration scenarios