Webroot Tuesday announced it has extended its cloud-based Web security
service, adding a way to filter outbound as well as inbound Web traffic,
monitoring for threats in order to detect and block malware such as botnets that
have infected computers.
"We already have inbound filtering and now we're adding outbound," says Brian
Czarny, vice president of solutions marketing at Webroot about the Web Security
Service that can now monitor for signs of malware-infected corporate computers
trying to "call home" for more instructions, a common practice among criminally
run botnets. If the cloud-based Webroot service detects malware such as botnet
code calling out to get instructions or otherwise perform an activity, it will
block that request, though not all traffic on the user's machine. The Webroot
service would then notify the systems administrator of the security event via
e-mail and the Web-based administrative console where reports can be obtained.
