Is Paranoid the New Normal Security?

Traditional computer and network security tries to harden the perimeter, treating any breach of the hardened wall around the enterprise as a failure. A new endpoint security platform, Nyotron Paranoid, bases its protection on the idea that the best perimeter can be breached and the best protection comes from limiting the resulting damage.

In a written statement, Nyotron CEO and Co-Founder Nir Gaist said, "The Paranoid platform's approach to protection is opposite that of traditional antivirus and next-generation endpoint vendors. They chase the attackers' methodologies and threat types.”

Gaist continued, "Rather than acting as a gate (which attacks ultimately bypass), our unique threat-agnostic approach assumes threats will get into the network and focuses on the damage stage of an attack. We can identify threats before they're able to damage an organization's critical assets."

Other security products and services, including those from Webroot Software Inc. , SentinelOne, Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) and Invincea, use machine learning to adapt to rapidly changing threats and the damage they inflict. But Nyotron says that Paranoid is different from other technologies.

According to a statement provided by the company, Nyotron wrote, "Paranoid works by mapping normal computer behavior with a patented technology that includes a new programming language called Behavior Pattern Map (BPM) that maps operating systems. Once Paranoid is implemented, the software can monitor system calls for normal, suspicious or malicious behavior attempts. This innovation enables Paranoid to detect and prevent breaches regardless of the type of sophisticated attack or technique that the threat uses to gain entry into a targeted network." Notably, Nyotron does not use the phrase "machine learning" in the description of Paranoid, an omission that may bring comfort to customers, which noted that this phrase was shown at the peak of the "hype cycle" in Gartner's August 2016 release on the state of the hype cycle near the end of the year.

Nyotron's website is currently under construction but the company says that it already has multiple customers for the platform and its other services.

— Curtis Franklin, Security Editor, Light Reading