Light Cyber First to Detect, Protect Customers from New Bitcoin-Related Malware

RAMAT GAN, Israel, January 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Light Cyber (http://www.lightcyber.com), an emerging provider of innovative Predictive Breach Detection solutions, today announced that its customer-installed MAGNA appliances were the first to detect breaches by a previously-unknown and sophisticated Yahoo-ad based malware campaign. Despite the unrecognized nature of the malware, Light Cyber's solution detected the breaches immediately - some four days prior to its widespread reporting - enabling its clients to rapidly neutralize the threat at the earliest stages of the attack.

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Light Cyber's MAGNA appliances, deployed in multiple customer networks around the world, first detected malicious activity by the unknown malware on Monday, December 30^th at 11 AM UTC - well before the attack was reported by a Dutch-based security firm and confirmed by Yahoo on Friday, January 3^rd. As a result, Light Cyber customers were able to immediately disconnect affected computers from their networks, containing the attack and mitigating damage.

Furthermore, Light Cyber researchers were the first to discover that among other activities, the malware was attempting to use host computational resources for Bitcoin mining, and were the first to report attack-related files on Tuesday, December 31^st.

As later reported, the sophisticated malware campaign used Yahoo's advertising server to distribute malicious advertisements that included exploitations of Java vulnerabilities which installed the malware on client computers visiting ads.yahoo.com. It is estimated that tens of thousands of computers in countries around the world have been infected by the campaign in recent days.

"We are pleased to have again provided early warning to our customers regarding an advanced malware attack," said Gonen Fink, CEO at Light Cyber. "New attacks are launched on a daily basis, yet traditional perimeter and endpoint security products are not effective in detecting unknown threats. Even new technologies like sandboxing and threat emulation can capture only a small part of these advanced threats. Our MAGNA system closes the gap between the time a computer is breached and the time the breach is detected, allowing users to remediate before the damage is done," he continued.

About Light Cyber Ltd.

Light Cyber is a fast-growing provider of Predictive Breach Detection solutions that protect organizations from targeted threats and cyber-attacks inside their networks. Light Cyber's MAGNA™ appliance combines deep packet inspection with endpoint information and threat intelligence to analyze the behavior of users, devices and applications, detecting and alerting about malicious activity early on in the attack lifecycle, before damage is done. Founded in 2011 and led by world-class cyber security experts and a seasoned management team, the company's products have been successfully deployed and sold to top tier customers in the financial, telecom, government, media and technology sectors. For more information, please visit http://www.lightcyber.com, or contact Light Cyber at [email protected] or +972-73-2641876.

SOURCE Light Cyber Ltd.