SlashNext has debuted its Internet Access Protection System, designed to protect organizations from cross-platform social engineering and phishing, malware, exploits and callback attacks.
The system goes beyond first generation signature-based and second generation sandbox-based technologies and deploys human-like intelligence and cognitive thinking to stop these Internet attacks targeting unsuspecting employees as their entry points.
Today’s automatic software updates and enhanced security offered in modern browsers prevent most software exploits, such as buffer overruns and privilege escalations, but social engineering and phishing attacks exploit human vulnerabilities by deceiving victims into taking actions that will breach their company and their connected client’s networks. Social engineering and phishing attacks are the fastest growing security threat for organizations today, representing 43% of all internet access threats, nearly double that of malware and viruses, according to the Verizon Data Breach Digest.
“Social engineering and phishing attacks are becoming the prime attack vector, since cybercriminals realize unsuspecting people create the easiest way to bypass traditional anti-virus and sandbox technologies,” said Fran Howarth, senior analyst with Bloor Research. “A new approach to Internet threat detection is needed. SlashNext answers that need, using cognitive computing technologies that mirror human learning to enable systems to stop internet threats targeting a variety of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, OSX, Android and iOS.”
In a recent review of more than 50 deployments, SlashNext identified dozens of instances of zero-day social engineering and phishing, exploits and malware attacks that had gone undetected by the customers’ existing firewalls, sandbox, data-exfiltration prevention tools and next-gen anti-virus software.
“For years, we’ve relied on a well-defined boundary to protect our assets, but things are changing. With the rapid pace of change in modern advanced threats, employees cannot be expected to evaluate a particular threat’s risk, and information security teams are hard-pressed to stay abreast of all new threat information and rethink their security approach,” said Raun Nohavitza, vice president of IT at Centrify. “To address this challenge, we deployed the SlashNext Internet Access Protection System. It allows us to apply broad threat intelligence and the cumulative expertise of seasoned security experts to automatically block malicious activity that would otherwise reach our employees.”
The SlashNext solution, available via channel partners, is deployed via a simple, 20-minute installation process that requires zero policy configuration or ongoing maintenance, the company said. Once installed, the system employs a patent-pending threat protection technology.
“The last few years have seen an explosion of social engineering and phishing attacks that don’t rely on malware or exploits to penetrate defenses. That’s left businesses urgently in need of an innovative new approach to security that goes far beyond the sandbox,” said Gaurav Garg, founding partner of Wing Venture Capital. “By harnessing the power of cognitive computing in its system, SlashNext is taking cyber-defense to a completely new level.”
