Protection policy settings in Nebula – ThreatDown, powered by Malwarebytes, Support Site

The Protection policy settings in Nebula determine which defensive measures are enabled on your endpoints.

Protection settings

To locate the Protection settings tab in your policy:

On the left navigation menu, go to Configure > Policies.
Click New or select an existing policy.
Select the Protection settings tab to see the specific settings available for each operating system.

Real-time protection

Real-time protection features are part of your Endpoint Protection or Endpoint Detection and Response subscription. We recommend using all Endpoint Protection features for the best protection.

Options in this section are as follows:

Web protection: Blocks access to and from known or suspicious Internet addresses. Disabling this feature can affect the safety of your endpoints.
Exploit Protection: Guards against vulnerability exploits for installed applications. When applications launch, Exploit Protection shields them. It can stop attacks that other security applications miss.
- Block potentially malicious email attachments: Prevents opening or saving email attachments that contain malicious file extensions in Microsoft Outlook's desktop client. Microsoft Outlook must be enabled in the Anti-exploit protected applications list.
- Manage protected Applications: Popular applications are automatically supported, and can be seen here. You can also add your own applications following this article here: Add an application to Exploit Protection in Nebula.
- Anti-exploit settings: Allows configuration of some anti-exploit measures. The default settings balance endpoint performance and anti-exploit protection. To keep you secure, some of these settings may not be changed.
  IMPORTANT: We recommend not changing these settings unless instructed to by Support. For more information, see Anti-Exploit settings in Nebula.
Malware Protection: Protects against malicious content that tries to execute on your endpoints. Malware comes from many sources, such as downloads, external drives, and email attachments. We recommend leaving Malware Protection on. Malware Protection is always enabled on Macs using Real-time protection.
Behavior protection: Safeguards against both known and unknown ransomware. Ransomware often remains undetected until it activates. We recommend keeping Behavior Protection enabled.
Block untrusted applications: Aims to completely block applications from known bad developers, preventing them from running on the endpoint. In this case, the app is not quarantined, but is not capable of running. Enable this feature to prevent potentially malicious apps from executing on your Mac endpoints.
Ad block: Prevents ads and ad trackers from loading on Safari browser for iOS devices.

Additional Protection

These options control if the endpoint agent protects itself from tampering and access to USB drives. These features require Real-time protection to be enabled.

Options in this section are as follows:

Self-Protection: Lets the endpoint agent create a "safe zone" to prevent malicious control of the application. The self-protection module has a brief startup period.
- Boot Process: Makes Self-Protection start earlier when the endpoint is booting. This affects the startup order of services and software drivers.
Device Control: Control access when storage drives are connected via USB.
Note: Devices utilizing Media Transfer Protocol and Picture Transfer Protocol are not currently supported.
- Automatically scan and quarantine threats when a USB device is inserted: Checks for and removes threats found on USB devices when inserted.
- Allow full access to the device: Allow copying and modifying files to the device.
  - Block device until a scan has been done: Prevent USB device activity until the scan is complete.
- Read-only access to the device: Allow copying files from the device and block modifying or copying files to the device. Customize a message to display for your users when a USB device is blocked.
  - Block device until a scan has been done: Prevent USB device activity until the scan is complete.
- Block access to the device: Block modifying and copying files to the device. Customize a message to display for your users when a USB device is blocked.
Aggressive protection settings: Advanced security measures that can be enabled to provide enhanced protection against cyber attacks. These settings may result in more false positives and are ideal for devices that are often compromised. They are disabled by default and should only be enabled after careful consideration of the impact on your devices.
- Block penetration testing attacks: Aggressive exploit protection settings to detect penetration attacks. Ideal to be enabled during security audits.
- Enable hardening of MS Office applications: Disables macro execution from within MS Office applications. Recommended to be used on devices that require more robust security.
- Enhance anomaly detections: Enables aggressive configuration for the anomaly detection technology.
- Enhance heuristic detections: Enables aggressive heuristic rules.
- Enhance sandbox detections: Enables aggressive configuration for our sandbox emulator.

Windows protection updates

Protection updates are endpoint database updates, sometimes called protection rules updates, used by scans and Real-time protection features.

Endpoints check for Protection Updates at the following intervals:

System startup - At a random time during the first five minutes after boot up.
Once per hour - Throughout the day. This is the default. You may adjust this schedule for Windows endpoint agents.
Prior to running a scan - Before every scan, endpoint agents check to ensure they have the latest Protection Updates.

The following options are available for Windows endpoints:

Check for protection software updates: How often the Windows endpoint checks Nebula servers for updates. Choose a period from 15 minutes to 7 days. Mac endpoints use the default setting of once an hour.
Protection updates delay: Postpones the latest Protection Updates by 1, 3, or 12 hours. Choose a delay period or set No delay, which is recommended. For more information, see Protection Updates Delay overview.

Important: Delays between Protection updates may reduce the risk of encountering a false positive but increase vulnerability to zero-day threats.

Additional Windows protection settings (Requires Real-time protection to be enabled)

These options affect when Real-time protection loads and how the endpoint agent registers in the Windows Action Center.

Delay real-time protection when Malwarebytes starts for: How long the Real-Time Protection service is delayed. Adjust this option based on which services conflict with Real-Time Protection. The delay can range from 15 to 180 seconds.
Windows Action Center: The Windows Action Center alerts you when there is an issue needing attention. Choose to register the endpoint agent as the primary Windows security solution on non-server endpoints. This allows the Windows Action Center to show notifications from the endpoint agent.
Note: To verify which application is set as the primary protection service provider, run the following command in Command Prompt on the endpoint and look for the first or only application listed:
```
wmic /Node:localhost /Namespace:\\root\SecurityCenter2 Path AntiVirusProduct Get * /Format:List
```
- Let Malwarebytes apply the best Windows Action Center settings: The endpoint agent determines if it should be registered as the primary protection service provider in the Windows Action Center. When the endpoint agent is registered in the Windows Action Center, Windows Defender is disabled. If the endpoint agent is temporarily disabled, Windows Defender re-enables itself. Use Microsoft GPO to keep Defender disabled if required.
- Never register Malwarebytes in the Windows Action Center: The endpoint agent is set as the secondary antivirus and never appears in Windows Action Center. Windows Defender remains as the primary antivirus.
- Always register Malwarebytes in the Windows Action Center: The endpoint agent is set as the primary antivirus and always appears in Windows Action Center. Windows Defender is disabled as a result.

Mobile protection updates

Mobile protection updates are endpoint database updates used by scans, ad blocking, and Real-time protection features. The database updates every hour when available. Options in this section are as follows:

Allow protection updates over expensive networks: Allow protection updates to occur over cellular data.