Barracuda Intros Real-Time Protection

CAMPBELL, Calif. -- Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading provider of network security appliances, today announced Barracuda Real-Time Protection, a set of technologies that enable the Barracuda Spam Firewall to immediately block the latest virus, spyware, and other malware attacks as they emerge. Barracuda Real-Time Protection provides customers with industry-leading response times to email-borne threats by adding a third layer of antivirus protection to the Barracuda Spam Firewall.

“With the world’s largest installed base of more than 40,000 Barracuda Spam Firewalls in more than 80 countries, Barracuda Networks is uniquely positioned to detect early trends in email-borne threats” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. “By combining this early detection capability with real-time response, the Barracuda Spam Firewall delivers industry-leading virus and malware protection to organizations of all sizes.”

Unique Message Fingerprints Lead to Zero-Hour Identification and Blocking

Unlike traditional antivirus solutions which perform analysis against data stored on a single system, Barracuda Real-Time Protection is based on data collected from thousands of global honeypots and Barracuda Spam Firewalls across the Internet. This data consists of binary signatures, or ‘fingerprints,’ for message components such as message bodies, email attachments and inline images. When unknown fingerprints are detected, the Barracuda Spam Firewall submits these fingerprints in real-time to Barracuda Central, an advanced technology center where engineers monitor the Internet for the latest threats and deploy solutions 24x7 to stop them.

Once Barracuda Central engineers identify a potential virus or malware outbreak based on the frequency, diversity of sources and the metadata about the message itself, Barracuda Central validates the hypothesis by collecting samples of suspect emails from Barracuda Spam Firewalls around the world that have opted-in to data collection. Immediately upon virus or malware classification, Barracuda Central responds to any Barracuda Spam Firewalls submitting the corresponding fingerprints with an instruction to immediately block the message, thus stopping the attack in real time.

“While automatic Energize Updates have always kept the Barracuda Spam Firewall ahead of massive threat proliferation, Barracuda Real-Time Protection adds an additional level of security during the earliest stages of a new outbreak,” said Pao.

Barracuda Networks Inc.