Bitdefender Announces Hypervisor Introspection to Defend Against Advanced Attacks

PRESS RELEASE

BITDEFENDER HQ, May 23^rd, 2017 – Bitdefender, a leading Internet security technology company protecting 500 million users worldwide, announces the general availability – starting May 23^rd 2017 - of its Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection solution to protect datacenters and organizations from advanced attacks.

With Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection, Bitdefender becomes the first, and currently the only, security vendor to offer a commercial hypervisor-based security solution. This new security layer is complementary to existing security tools, and offers organizations unparalleled visibility and resilience when facing sophisticated attacks. As describded in a recent IDC Perspective report “Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection bridges the security capability gap between context-aware endpoint security solutions and context-unaware network security solutions.”**

While previously available in Controlled Availability mode, the product was deployed in customer datacenters in Europe and North America.

According to a Bitdefender survey*, companies claim the main threats that they’re not prepared for involve outsider attacks (43%) and data vulnerability (38%). Infiltrations often occur because traditional endpoint security solutions have an Achilles heel; a security agent or driver that is present within the protected virtual machine and blind to sophisticated root-level attacks running on the same machine.

Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection is the first truly agentless security solution to work entirely from outside the operating system, by leveraging the unique Citrix XenServer Direct Inspect APIs to gain access to raw memory.

Sophisticated attacks aim to hide from endpoint solutions, but still need memory to execute. Inevitably, there is activity in the memory space, even if no security alarms are triggered within the operating system. Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection is designed to monitor this memory space by leveraging XenServer, effectively raising the cost of attack.

Bitdefender Hyperviror Introspection faced a real life test with the recent EternalBlue Zero day also leveraged by the recent WannaCry ransomware. The solution detected EternalBlue regardess of the discovery of the MS 17-010 vulnerability. Had EternalBlue been in the wild prior to the March 14, 2017 date, Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection would still have protected servers.

“While the hypervisor has enabled data centers to realize major improvements in resource utilization, business continuity and workload isolation, no security vendor has ever leveraged its true security potential”, said Harish Agastya, VP of Enterprise Solutions at Bitdefender. “Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection is a technological breakthrough that delivers something unparalleled for the security industry and practioners; leverage the hypervisor and get into God mode against advanced attacks.”

"Citrix XenServer with Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection gives us this uniquely clever security edge” says Harri Ruoho, Business Manager at IT services company Sofor, an early customer of Bitdefender Hypervisor Introspection.

“Enabling unparalleled security of XenApp and XenDesktop workloads on XenServer is a top priority for Citrix,” said Calvin Hsu, VP of Product Marketing, Desktop and Apps at Citrix. “Our collaboration with Bitdefender has delivered an industry first, a new security architecture that provides unparalleled visibility into targeted threats, providing organizations and our channel partners with a security edge.”