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Internet security and domain name system (DNS) services specialist OpenDNS announced the latest release of its Umbrella Web security platform, which is designed to identify, prevent, contain and inform on advanced cyber-attacks without the need for a malware sample or attack data.
The latest version of the platform has been enhanced with predictive detection capabilities provided by the Umbrella Security Graph, which combines big data-based analytics and predictive classifiers to extract security intelligence from more than 50 million users in 160 countries. Umbrella with the integrated Security Graph is available currently from the company and its business partners worldwide.
The Umbrella security categories supply context to IT security teams on the type or behavior of the threat blocked. Visibility into the user, device and network identity potentially impacted by threats enables IT to prioritize and remediate risks, with information on blocked botnet requests, blocked malware or fishing requests and blocked suspicious or high-risk site requests centralized across all networks and devices, whether they are on or off the network.
“We were facing an uphill battle to secure both company- and employee-owned smartphones, laptops, tablets and other devices as part of our bring-your-own-device program. Given the geographically distributed nature of our business, the Umbrella by OpenDNS service was the best model for us to fight malware,” Gabe DiSarro, IT director for Coldwell Banker Prime Properties, said in a statement. “Since deploying OpenDNS the number of malware-related help desk tickets has been reduced by at least 90 percent or more, and reports of malware activity on our network are essentially a thing of the past.”
OpenDNS created new security intelligence categories, such as high-risk sites and locations, to supplement known malware and botnets classifications. Meanwhile, drive-by downloads hosting exploits (often used by malvertising and watering hole attacks), Dynamic DNS (often used as an evasion technique against IP blacklisting) and Mobile Threats are new individual categories that the company added to enhance protection and improve reporting granularity.
The platform combines indexed and cross-referenced data with real-time cyber intelligence scoring and threat classification, with an enterprise package that starts at $20 per user per year and is aimed at centralized or distributed networks. The everywhere plan, available for $30 per year per user, also covers Window and Mac notebooks, iOS mobile devices, and Active Directory-managed networks.
“The volume and sophistication of attacks has continually driven down the efficacy of today’s security. It’s time for change,” Dan Hubbard, CTO of OpenDNS, said in a statement.” By using the big data analytics tools, machine learning, graph theory and related algorithms of the Umbrella Security Graph we can predict where new threats are coming from and block them before they can reach users of the Umbrella Security service.”