Cloud security service looks for malware

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.

Czarny says there is no additional charge for the outbound monitoring now available through the Webroot Web Security Service, which also includes some basic URL filtering for productivity purposes. The service works by having the corporation proxy its Web traffic through Webroot’s data centers where a variety of security methods can clean malware and ward off phishing attacks.

Webroot is also announcing on Tuesday an in-the-cloud e-mail archiving service that lets customers store e-mail to be searched and retrieved whether from on-site corporate mail servers or Google Apps.

The pricing for the e-mail archiving is $6 per month per user for unlimited storage and retention; the Web Security Serivce costs $5 per user per month, with discounts based on volume.