Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security enhances protection for Linux and delivers security management as a service

Kaspersky has unveiled updates to two of its applications in the Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security protection solution for virtualisation and cloud environments - Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux and Kaspersky Security Center management console.

The new version of Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux hardens defenses from exploits and ransomware attacks. It also extends protection for DevOps with support for new containerisation environments and more native delivery of protection mechanisms for Docker containers.

The Kaspersky Security Center Cloud Console now works with public cloud platforms to enable more convenient management of cloud workload protection.

As Kaspersky research shows, dedicated protection for Linux servers is essential, no matter if they are on-premise or in the cloud. Advanced threats for Linux can be no less severe than for other operating systems, with such servers often hosting critical applications or becoming a springboard for access to endpoints on Windows and iOS. Compromised servers can go unnoticed for a long time.

Protection from ransomware attacks is also critical to avoid disruption and financial loses. For example, in summer 2020, a large vendor of solutions for digital workspaces and the professional print industry, became a victim of one such Linux executable, RansomEXX, leading to an outage of company services.

To combat these types of threats, the updated Kaspersky product has a newly added application control for Linux workloads, helping businesses effectively prevent the launch of unauthorised or unknown (and potentially dangerous) executables. A customer can now set up application launch policies according to security requirements, for example, create a list of applications prohibited from launching. In the Default Deny scenario, only applications from the approved list can be launched in the workload. Administrators can also configure policies for separate machines or groups of machines.

The new executable software inventory feature creates a list of all used application executables by path, hash, and type, so it can be used to create and assign categories and as a preparation stage for application control set up.

Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux also improves protection for DevOps to help customers add security practices into the product development lifecycle. The product can now scan containers and images in more containerisation environments, in addition to Docker: Cri-O, Podman and runC to reveal compromised assets.

For Docker users, product deployment and configuration has become easier and faster. Customers can now run Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux as a container in the very environment they want to protect. The service of on-demand scan (ODS) is enabled via RESTful API.

This new release also provides updates for security administration now that the SaaS version of Kaspersky Security Center console is available for managing workload security in public clouds: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. It is hosted and maintained by Kaspersky, saving customers time and resources for deployment.

"Businesses use cloud environments widely, and cyber-protection should not lag behind," says Timofey Titkov, senior product manager, enterprise products, Kaspersky.

"Our solution focuses on helping organisations adopt cloud securely and meet their needs. Enhancements in security for Linux are crucial, as enterprises require an adequate level of protection for all platforms and endpoints they use," he says.

"They also want to save team resources for additional tasks, such as solution deployments, so our cloud console supports this need.

"As for DevOps, one of the main issues for businesses here is to seamlessly integrate security into automated pipelines, thats why we focused our efforts on making this process as convenient as possible."