•Combining threat data results in
500,000 additional attacks being blocked for Symantec customers
every day.
•Two new attack campaigns uncovered
by unifying intelligence, including a China-based attack that many
considered dormant.
•Innovative new anti-phishing
technology powering Symantec security products has exposed 137,000
new phishing campaigns.
Symantec Corp (NASDAQ:SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security
company, today reported significant enhancements to its threat
intelligence capabilities made uniquely possible by integrating
Symantec and Blue Coat’s security telemetry and applying the brute
data-crunching force of artificial intelligence that is needed when
analyzing numbers reaching into the trillions. Symantec and Blue
Coat together have the broadest and deepest set of threat
intelligence in the industry. Combined, the companies leverage more
than nine trillion elements of security data, providing
unparalleled visibility and protection for Symantec customers
across their entire environments. Symantec now protects 175 million
consumer and enterprise endpoints, 63 million email users, 80
million web proxy users, and processes nearly eight billion
security requests across these products every day. This level of
visibility across endpoint, email, and web traffic allows Symantec
to discover and block targeted attacks that would be otherwise
undetectable from any one control point.
“Symantec research teams have unparalleled visibility into the
entire threat landscape, including the most advanced attacks, and
Blue Coat researchers have been categorizing, mapping, and
fingerprinting the Internet with a view into the darkest parts of
the web and malware trade craft,” said Greg Clark, CEO of Symantec.
“By fast-tracking the integration of the threat intelligence
capabilities from Symantec and Blue Coat, Symantec products are now
blocking 500,000 additional attacks per day for our endpoint,
email, and web security customers. Drawing out those kinds of
results from data is only possible by using artificial
intelligence, which gives our threat researchers a vastly augmented
ability to spot attacks earlier than anyone else.”
This integration provides the foundation for Symantec’s
Integrated Cyber Defense Platform, which allows Symantec products
to share threat intelligence and improve security outcomes for
customers across all control points. Symantec is the only vendor to
connect endpoint, email, and web protection across a single
integrated intelligence platform.
“The fragmentation that exists amongst threat intelligence
solutions continues to have a negative impact on organizations
across all industries,” said Jon Oltsik, Senior Principal Analyst
at the Enterprise Strategy Group. “In today’s threat landscape, an
integrated solution that combines security intelligence and
detection engines, helps organizations stay ahead of advanced
threats.”
In a short time, the combined Symantec-Blue Coat threat
telemetry has led to a series of significant protection
improvements as well as discoveries of new attack campaigns.
Examples include:
- Improved Protection from Sharing
Threat Telemetry
Symantec and Blue Coat products are now
automatically exchanging millions of malicious files and URL threat
indicators daily. For example, when a ProxySG web gateway
installation at any customer site uncovers a brand new malicious
file or URL, this telemetry is shared via the cloud with every
Symantec Endpoint Protection and Norton Security deployment,
thereby providing this same protection for all Symantec Endpoint
Protection and Norton customers. Similarly, when an installation of
Symantec Endpoint Protection or Norton Security discovers a new
malicious file or URL, this intelligence is shared with all ProxySG
installations, so that those customers can immediately benefit from
the discovery of this new threat. This telemetry-sharing system is
fully operational and has resulted in Symantec products blocking
500,000 additional attacks every day for endpoint, email, and web
security customers.
- New Cyber Espionage Campaign
Discovered
After the cyberespionage agreement between
the U.S. and China was signed in September 2015, it was believed
that the China-based cyberespionage group Buckeye had largely
stopped their attack operations. Only through the combined threat
intelligence of Symantec and Blue Coat did Symantec determine that
the Buckeye group was still highly active, and had set their sights
on a new target – Hong Kong political organizations.
Symantec’s combined teams uncovered new spear-phishing emails
targeting 13 political entities in Hong Kong leading up to the Hong
Kong elections. These discoveries have allowed Symantec to enhance
its protection capabilities against the Buckeye group’s campaigns,
while also alerting customers to the re-emergence of this attack
organization.
- Sophisticated Financial Heists
Revealed
Symantec and Blue Coat’s combined telemetry
led to the revelation that, since January 2016, a series of
campaigns involving malware called Trojan.Odinaff have
targeted roughly 100 financial institutions worldwide, including
investment brokerage houses, consumer banks, and ATM networks. The
Odinaff attack is unusual in that once attackers infiltrate a
victim’s financial institution, they spend time learning about the
exact capabilities of the target organization, e.g., trading
platforms, money wire capabilities, ATM networks, etc. Then the
attackers execute an attack plan leveraging the specific
capabilities of the compromised organization, for example,
withdrawing funds, making trades, or transferring money via the
SWIFT wire transfer system. To date, the Odinaff attack group has
stolen millions of dollars from victim institutions.
- Changing the Game on
Anti-phishing
To combat the increased threat to enterprises
and consumers from phishing emails, Symantec has developed an
innovative technology that analyzes new websites in real time by
comparing them to screenshots of known phishing sites. Leveraging
machine learning and advanced image analysis, the technology is
applied to more than 1.2 billion web requests each day and has
uncovered 137,000 new phishing campaigns since its release. New
phishing sites identified by this system are now being blocked
across Symantec’s endpoint, email, and web security product
portfolio.
In related news, Symantec today announced “Symantec Delivers on
Rapid Integration with Blue Coat to Offer Cloud Generation Data
Protection.”
About Symantec
Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world’s leading cyber
security company, helps organizations, governments and people
secure their most important data wherever it lives. Organizations
across the world look to Symantec for strategic, integrated
solutions to defend against sophisticated attacks across endpoints,
cloud and infrastructure. Likewise, a global community of more than
50 million people and families rely on Symantec’s Norton suite of
products for protection at home and across all of their devices.
Symantec operates one of the world’s largest civilian cyber
intelligence networks, allowing it to see and protect against the
most advanced threats. For additional information, please
visit www.symantec.com or connect with us on Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn.
NOTE TO U.S. EDITORS: If you would like additional
information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit
the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices
noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United
States.
Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S.
and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their
respective owners.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Any forward-looking
indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future
release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future
release of the product or planned modifications to product
capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing
evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and
should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should
not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161026005996/en/
Symantec CorporationDanielle Hamel,
650-527-1588danielle.hamel@symantec.com
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