Carbon Black buys Confer for next-gen anti-virus

Carbon Black has bought Confer to boost its protection for network endpoints using a behavioral form of antivirus combined with cloud analysis of threats rather than traditional signature-based software.

Called Cb Defense, the renamed Confer product uses behavior-based techniques to prevent attacks from getting started and blends in attack-detection and response as a way to halt ongoing attacks.

These are supported by analytics based in the cloud that help detect malwareless attacks that employ legitimate tools that are built into operating systems as a way to stay below the radar of defenses that use hashes and signatures to detect.

The platform provides forensics to map out how attacks unfolded before they were caught.

Carbon Black’s CEO Patrick Morley says this will extend the protection his company can provide. “With the acquisition of Confer, organizations of every size can now address their endpoint-security requirements through a single platform,” he says in a press release.

The company says that Cb Defense is quick to install and easy to use, making it accessible to businesses that may lack extensive security staffing.

Carbon Black is a big player in endpoint protection software, facing competition from the likes of Symantec, Cylance, Kaspersky, Intel Security, Trend Micro, Eset and a host of others.

The acquisition will augment Carbon Blacks existing application control platform, making it possible to keep down the number of endpoint applications and agents businesses deploy. The Confer software eats up minimal CPU and memory capacity, the company says.

Carbon Black, which is privately held, didn’t release how much it paid for Confer.