Barracuda Networks Inc. has introduced an online threat intelligence and security risk assessment service for consumers and businesses.
Available free of charge and named Barracuda Security Insight, the new offering draws on data collected from Barracuda endpoints all over the globe to provide real-time cybersecurity threat level measurements and detailed information about the latest threat campaigns.
“Organizations often become aware of vicious cyberattacks after the damage has already been done,” said Fleming Shi, senior vice president of technology at Barracuda, in prepared remarks. “By offering a free global advisory platform like Barracuda Security Insight, we can help heighten security awareness by proactively identifying the most current threats that should be on everyone’s radar. Those who use the platform can ultimately gain a better understanding of the threat landscape in real-time—an awareness that can lead to an overall improved security posture.”
Security Insight analyzes email, network perimeter, web access, and endpoint traffic streams for malware, zero-hour vulnerabilities, DDoS attacks, and other exploits.
According to Barracuda, the service identified multiple threat trends during pre-launch testing, finding for example that PDF files currently account for the highest volume of file-based attacks. Some 41 million of the PDFs scanned by Security Insight while operating behind the scenes the last three months were connected to an attack, Barracuda says.
In addition, over 75 percent of the embedded scripts Barracuda analyzed proved to be malicious. More than 4.7 million of the 70 million Microsoft Office documents Security Insight has scanned to date contained dangerous scripts.
Virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and third-party software platforms can import Security Insight data via an open API.
On Monday, Chicago-based private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC completed the $1.6 billion all-cash acquisition of Barracuda that it announced last November. Barracuda, for its part, acquired PhishLine LLC, a maker of cloud-based social engineering simulation and training software, last month.
