ESET refreshes enterprise products, embraces XDR

ESET announced a host of changes to its cybersecurity product line Wednesday. Changes include making it easier to manage risks in its ESET Protect software, rebranding its Enterprise Inspector offering as ESET Inspect Cloud, and refreshing its endpoint solutions for Windows, macOS and Android.

ESET Inspect Cloud gives the company’s flagship product ESET Protect extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities, with the cloud offering able to identify post-execution malicious code and the protect solution able to provide security teams with full visibility into the response to the code. XDR capabilities include advanced threat hunting, incident response, full network visibility, and cloud-based threat defense,

In addition, tight integration of Inspect Cloud with Protect aims to streamline deployment of the solutions and create a smoother experience with sleeker dashboards, including one in Protect for LiveGuard Advanced, which analyzes suspicious files submitted to it by endpoints for scrutiny.

More endpoint protection features

ESET has also added an auto-update feature to Protect to ensure that all endpoint agents and solutions are up to date. “It helps us keep pace with the ever-changing landscape of the underlying operating systems,” Michal Jankech, ESET’s vice president for the SMB and MSP segment, tells CSO. “We can make sure that the endpoints are always up to the latest version so they will feature all of the latest protection technologies and maintain compatibility with the latest platform updates, as well.”

Another addition to Protect is ESET’s Brute-Force Protection module for Windows. It combines reputation data from the cloud with password-guessing and honeypot systems, to block repetitive infiltration attempts. “Even though we are living in the 21st century—and 2FA and sophisticated passwords should be standard—you won’t believe how many customers are using very weak passwords subject to brute force,” says Jankech.

More administrator control for Android devices

Protect also has a new web control feature that allows administrators to control what websites Android device users may visit. It uses built-in categories and custom rules to blacklist, whitelist, or warn users about URLs that lead to sites with harmful content. “Android is a more open operating system,” Jankech explained. “It allows us to bring additional value to it. With Apple, we’re leveraging the device management framework, which only allows us to do what Apple lets us do.”

“We see a higher prevalence of misbehavior activity on Android devices,” Jankech says. “They are riskier but among our customer base. Android is much more prevalent by about ten to one.”

ESET is also releasing a new version of its endpoint antivirus software for the Mac. The release is built with a microservices architecture. The improved multi-threaded design provides faster scanning, better stability, and better security isolation. It’s also compatible with Apple’s M1 processor via Rosetta 2.

“Apple is continually changing its operating system,” Jankech says. “For us to keep pace and make sure we provide the latest and greatest protection, we decided to rewrite the application from scratch with microservices, which will allow us to build-in M1 support later in the year.”