Webroot has acquired the assets of San Diego-based CyberFlow Analytics in a move that beefs up the company’s machine learning capabilities.
CyberFlow’s FlowScape network behavioral analytics solution applies data science to network anomaly detection. Thus, the acquisition extends Webroot’s machine learning-based cybersecurity to the network layer, to address the explosion of internet-connected devices and an increasingly complex threat landscape.
SaaS-based FlowScape adversarial analytics and unsupervised machine can identify polymorphic malware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) that mask their activities within everyday network noise, the company said, identifying network anomalies in both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. Security analysts can view alerts via a SIEM solution or the automated FlowScape visualization console, which creates self-forming behavioral clusters that provide an early warning system of high-risk activity that forms over time.
"Today, one of the only things attackers can’t find out about your network is what’s normal," said Dick Williams, Webroot CEO. “This solution can identify and alert on potentially malicious activity that deviates from normal traffic in milliseconds.”
He added, “Our machine learning platform powers the most cutting-edge endpoint protection, threat intelligence services, and now network analytics, enabling us to stay ahead of evolving threats for our customers."
Webroot plans to combine its endpoint security and threat intelligence with FlowScape anomaly detection as it plots out its coming roadmap for product development.
"As the Grand Prize Winner in the 2015 Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge, CyberFlow Analytics is a trailblazer in the field of Network Behavioral Analytics. We founded the company with a vision of applying data science to help solve the most pressing cybersecurity challenges," said Tom Caldwell, co-founder of CyberFlow Analytics. "By using unsupervised machine learning for real-time detection of anomalous high risk activity, CyberFlow Analytics has solved a problem that previously required significant manpower and resources. We are very excited to join Webroot and enhance both FlowScape and Webroot next-generation security solutions."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Photo © Joseph Sohm