Both the basic Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection for Servers, as well as Malwarebytes Endpoint Detection and Response for Servers with advanced EDR capabilities, leverage the Nebula cloud platform and offer integrated support.
Akshay Bhargava, Chief Product Officer, Malwarebytes
Endpoint security vendor Malwarebytes has launched its first two offerings specifically for servers. Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection for Servers is available for both Windows and Linux servers. Malwarebytes Endpoint Detection and Response for Servers, which has more advanced EDR capabilities, is available in Windows today, and is in beta for Linux. Both are complete offerings, which include support as well as the product.
The new server offerings come on the heels of February’s introduction of Malwarebytes Nebula, the enhanced enterprise features of their cloud platform, which has an intuitive UI that provides visibility into endpoint activity across an entire organization.
“It was possible, technically, to do these server solutions before Nebula, but the cloud platform made it much more practical and easier to implement, and especially to centrally manage,” said Akshay Bhargava, Chief Product Officer, Malwarebytes. “The cloud makes it easy to seamlessly manage all endpoints.”
Bhargava said that Malwarebytes is already being used to protect servers, but it’s being done ad hoc, and that this is the first time the company has come up with full formal server packages.
“We have had a lot of champions in the community that used Malwarebytes software on servers, especially in a Windows environment,” he indicated. “This is the first time though, with these two new solutions, that we have created a solution for servers that include the technology and support all together.”
Most other endpoint security vendors already offer focused server protection, but Bhargava strongly emphasized that Malwarebytes isn’t just catching up to the market here.
“It’s not just a catch-up,” he stressed. “It takes server protection and response to a whole new level. Our uniqueness here is the ability to provide comprehensive protection against modern and traditional threats, as well as remediation and response – all from a single lightweight agent.”
Bhargava said that the new solutions were based on a survey of over 300 prospective customers. With customers typically having one server for every 25 endpoints, servers are a critical asset, and the importance of protecting them from attack is much higher.
“There’s a real point today in protecting servers, with Work-from-Home accentuating this more,” he said. “In looking how we take this to the next level, we found that customers wanted it to be easier to do ransomware rollback, to isolate and to do forensics.”
Bhargava also stressed that customers wanted the server agent to be very lightweight.
“That’s a big pain point for a lot of customers,” he said. “You can’t allow your server to be slow. We have a very lightweight agent optimized for servers, that takes these solutions to the next level.
“More and more customers want to manage this all centrally through a cloud console,” Bhargava added. “They don’t want things to be separate for servers, or for mobile. That’s what the power of Nebula and our cloud enables.”
He also stressed that these two solutions come fully integrated with support, which is key for channel partners as well as for customers.
“We are packaging these as complete solutions with technology and support,” Bhargava said. “The fact that they are integrated solutions that come with premium support that servers need will resonate strongly with the channel. Packaging it in the right way for the channel will make it easy for them to articulate the story to their customers.” Making it possible to provide all capabilities that customers need from a single place is another advantage for partners here, Bhargava stressed.
The pandemic provides an opportunity for partners to get customers to look at weaknesses which may have been revealed in the early stages of response.
“A lot of businesses were not prepared for it, and it has created vulnerabilities,” Bhargava said. “Cybercriminals are using COVID-19 as another way to spread malware and to attack with ransomware. It’s a timely reason to re-evaluate their posture.”
Bhargava said that the fact that there are two server solutions also lets partners determine whether specific customers need the full protection of the EDR offering, which includes Suspicious Activity Monitoring, Granular Server Isolation, and Ransomware Rollback.
“The fact that it’s not just one offering is important for partners,” he said. “This lets them look at where a customer is in their security maturity, especially around something like ransomware.”
