Damballa Failsafe 5.1 Unveils Breach Confirmation And Instant Replay Capabilities

PRESS RELEASE

ATLANTA – December 5, 2012 – Damballa Inc., the recognized experts in advanced threat protection, today unveiled Damballa Failsafe 5.1, the most advanced cyber threat solution for corporate networks. Damballa Failsafe 5.1 includes features that reduce the workload of over-tasked incident response teams, while vastly improving the time it takes to confirm and remediate a breach.

Damballa Failsafe is used worldwide by enterprises for its unparalleled ability to identify stealthy command and control (C&C) communication. It also detects and analyzes zero-day and targeted malware. By monitoring network traffic for malicious behaviors and correlating all malicious activity, Damballa Failsafe rapidly identifies compromised assets. Damballa Failsafe 5.1 combines the C&C detection and malware analysis capabilities to deliver two first-of-their-kind innovations to the information security community:

· Malware Execution Confirmation (“Breach Confirmation”) Trace reports from the real-time analysis of “malware in motion,” where Damballa has detected suspicious files entering a corporate network, are automatically correlated with malicious network behavior detected on the targeted device. When network behavior from a targeted device matches the information in the trace reports from the malware analysis, Damballa Failsafe provides notifications that positively confirm that the malware was successful in compromising the device. This confirmation is accomplished without requiring any endpoint agent software.

The patent-pending Malware Execution Confirmation capability or “Breach Confirmation” is critically important for incident responders as it completely eliminates false positives and noisy alerts. Other network-based malware analysis tools may detect and analyze inbound malware, but they cannot tell responders whether the malware successfully infected the targeted device. Malware may not execute for many reasons (e.g. incompatible endpoint OS or endpoint AV/HIPS may stop the malware). If incident responders must treat each malware sighting as an alarm and chase down and investigate the targeted device, they waste valuable time and resources. Through Breach Confirmation, incident responders stop “chasing ghosts” and can focus their efforts on true infections that pose the most significant risk to the business, such as data loss or industrial espionage.

· Retroactive Analysis (“Instant Replay”) Security teams can now review up to 24 hours of history prior to the first indication of a compromise to gain a better understanding of the cause of the infection. Damballa Failsafe 5.1 buffers network activity to enable incident responders to hit the “Instant Replay” button when Damballa Failsafe convicts a device as being infected.

The network history available for the patent-pending Retroactive Analysis includes all files downloaded by the device in the 24 hours preceding the conviction. All files will be marked as ‘circumstantial’ and can then automatically undergo Dynamic Analysis. Future releases of the Instant Replay feature will also buffer all interesting network behaviors including suspicious destinations, traffic type and traffic header information.

Advanced malware can easily evade network-based malware detection systems. The Instant Replay capability can be critical for helping security teams understand how an infection occurred and improving their security posture. This new feature gives information security teams a powerful way to identify the source and origin of the attack.

Other new features in Damballa Failsafe 5.1 include:

· Automation Detection This capability automatically discovers network communication patterns indicative of automated behavior associated with malware activity. These patterns are filtered from within the apparent chaos of network traffic and are strong indicators of endpoint infection. Automation Detection is now another ‘behavior seen,’ which is automatically correlated by Damballa Failsafe with other network communication behavior to identify infected devices. · Device OS Fingerprinting This feature identifies the operating system of the infected device, providing additional context to the incident responder when reviewing an infection without have to do manual checks with other systems or tools. · Encapsulated Traffic Support Damballa Failsafe 5.1 now supports the analysis of encapsulated traffic, such as Cisco’s WCCP and GRE protocols. · Enhanced Network Diagnostics Damballa Failsafe 5.1 introduces a comprehensive set of administrator tools that enable administrators to quickly assess and diagnose a Damballa Failsafe deployment.

“Most security teams are overwhelmed with noisy alerts and false positives that prevent them from quickly identifying and acting on the riskiest infections. This not only puts the company at greater risk, but it also drives up security costs,” says Stephen Newman, vice president of product and strategy at Damballa. “By providing undeniable proof of hidden malware infections, Damballa enables enterprise security teams to focus their time and energy on true threats rather than fire drills.”