With most organizations now working remotely, the chances your employees may unintentionally use restricted devices and infect your network has grown exponentially. With this threat in mind, we’re happy to announce the release today of device control in the VMware Carbon Black Cloud. Although the VMware Carbon Black Cloud already provides protection from external devices with a multi-layered prevention model incorporating heuristics, machine learning, cloud analysis and EDR, we added this new capability on top of our existing prevention model because we recognized the need for a distinct device control functionality for customers who must meet specific compliance requirements such as PCI DSS and HIPPA. Device control will also help customers transition from traditional AV products to the VMware Carbon Black Cloud, which offers prevention from advanced attacks, and lower administrative costs through a single light-weight agent and console.
For our initial launch, VMware Carbon Black focused on the biggest threat vector for external devices, USB storage devices. This new functionality enables customers to harden their security posture, control authorized usage and prevent malware infiltration from USB storage devices connected to Windows endpoints. The device control functionality is also complimentary to existing customers of VMware Carbon Black Cloud’s NGAV solution.
Device Control Inventory Page
VMware Carbon Black’s device control brings together all prevention functionality into one console to simplify client workflows around prevention and alert triage. This enables a more intuitive user experience and reduces the amount of time security administrators have to spend chasing alerts across different consoles, which is the case with some existing competitive offerings. Device control alerts are exactly where users expect them to be, next to other prevention alerts. This was confirmed during beta testing, when we received a lot of feedback speaking to its ease of use and customer’s ability to quickly view and manage policies. One security analyst stated, “It’s much easier to use than the technology we have now. The functionality offers much more control over what devices are being connected, and managing policies is much simpler with this product.”
Alerts Page
This is just the beginning of VMware Carbon Black Cloud device control. Next year, we will introduce another release of USB storage devices for macOS endpoints as well as additional functionality based on customer requirements and feedback in the near term.
