Dell launches zero-day protection for thin clients and virtual desktops

Endpoint protection is still vital for enterprises of all sizes. Dell is launching new security products aimed at giving businesses advanced threat prevention for Windows Embedded thin clients and virtual desktops.

Using IP from its award-winning Dell Data Protection portfolio of security solutions, Dell is applying its endpoint security expertise beyond the PC to the thin client and virtual machines. The company claims this will give customers an industry-first approach to comprehensively securing their data.

"While other vendors depend on a 'detect and remediate' approach that alerts IT staff to an attack after the damage has been done," says Jeff McNaught, executive director and chief strategy officer of Dell Cloud Client-Computing. "Dell employs a 'prevent and protect' approach that prevents these attacks from succeeding, and has been shown to be 99 percent effective against even zero-day and polymorphic malware attacks, well above the catch rate of traditional anti-virus products based on malware signature recognition".

Dell Data Protection | Threat Defense for Windows Embedded thin clients and Dell Data Protection | Endpoint Security Suite Enterprise provide an extra layer of advanced threat protection to an already secure computing environment, ensuring that all aspects of an organization's Windows-based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment are protected.

Many organizations mistakenly believe that thin clients based on popular operating systems are a 'set and forget' solution, and that they don't require maintenance and regular software updates. While data doesn't reside on the edge with a VDI solution, that doesn't prevent malware from potentially infiltrating a network through a locally-accessed web browser, USB stick or other locally connected peripheral. With 95 percent of threats originating on an endpoint, due to employee error, spear phishing, and malware embedded in attachments or web sites, all endpoints need to have advanced threat protection.

Both products feature advanced threat protection technology based on machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze files prior to their execution, and determine what is safe and what isn’t before they run.

The new solutions will be available for Windows Embedded thin clients and Windows virtual desktops in July 2016. In the meantime, you can find out more on the Dell website.