Dr. Oren Eytan, odix: “traditional anti-malware solutions are simply not equipped to detect the ever-evolving attacks”

With cyber threats constantly evolving, traditional security measures might not make the cut when it comes to successful protection of a business.

Cybercriminals thrive on ransomware attacks because they usually get the most profit. That’s why threats as such are continuously getting more advanced and harder to shield a whole company from.

Dr. Oren Eytan, the CEO and Co-Founder of odix – a company that specializes in cybersecurity, says that it can even take months for an antivirus lab to detect new types of malware. He states that since updates take time, that gap is enough for criminals to infiltrate themselves into an organization.

For this reason, Cybernews invited Dr. Eytan to share more about cybersecurity trends, advanced anti-malware solutions, and their benefits.

How did odix come to be? What has the journey been like so far?

I'm Dr. Oren Eytan – the Co-Founder and the CEO of odix. In my career, I’ve spent over 25 years with the Israeli defense forces and was the head of the Cybersecurity Unit of the IDF, responsible for protecting all critical infrastructure of the IDF. When I retired from the military, I went to the civilian sector working for organizations, such as Motorola, which eventually led to me co-founding odix. odix is a cybersecurity company that provides innovative deep file inspection and content disarm and reconstruction-based solutions for enterprises and SMB customers. It protects against sophisticated cyberattacks. We are located in Israel, with offices in the US and Europe.

Can you introduce us to your solutions? What are the main issues they help solve?

odix focuses on providing advanced anti-malware solutions to protect companies from File-Based attacks leveraging its patented Deep File Analysis technology containing CDR (content disarm and reconstruction) algorithm.

odix flagship SaaS service, FileWall™ for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, is a native file sanitization plugin for Microsoft 365 mailboxes that is available for click deployment via the Microsoft marketplaces. The FileWall provides real-time protection against email attachment-based attacks. Complements Microsoft’s EOP & Defender and handles all attachments; both from external and internal senders.

You state that current anti-malware solutions do not cut it anymore. Why is that?

Traditional anti-malware solutions such as antivirus are simply not equipped to detect the ever-evolving zero-day attacks. Antivirus labs identify new malicious malware within days, weeks, or months, and updates are not released until the malware is identified. This gap is more than enough time for malware to wreak havoc on an organizational network. Sandbox technology cannot identify zero-day or split attacks that execute under special circumstances. Sandbox evasion is a known technique among cybercriminals that is constantly being improved upon because ransomware is a big business.

Have you noticed any new threats emerge as a result of the current global events?

In general, there is growth in cloud business application consumption as well as an increase in cyberattacks. We see lots of attack attempts via email attachments.

What are cybercriminals usually trying to achieve by deploying malware?

Most hackers look for money and therefore ransomware attacks are growing. There are also attacks from governments that try to destroy critical infrastructure.

Some experts believe that it is important to investigate malware instead of just eliminating it. What are your thoughts on this approach?

Our approach is a preventive approach and therefore our Deep File Analysis technology is all about eliminating any potential malware and not trying to detect the malware.

We deploy it with our deep file scanning process that includes the CDR (Content Disarm and Reconstruction) part that offers a detectionless approach which is very different in nature from common sandbox-based anti-malware tools in the market. To date, CDR technology is the most powerful tool for preventing file-based malware attacks in commonly used file types. CDR differs from traditional cybersecurity solutions because it was engineered to defend against new and unfamiliar threats (zero-day attacks) that traditional protective tools – antivirus, sandbox – are unable to stop.

The CDR file sanitization process is not necessarily based on discovering harmful code, or detection-based models (which are ineffective when the threat is unknown), but rather on disrupting and neutralizing all unfamiliar code hiding inside files – without the guesswork, statistical analysis of user behavior analysis.

Besides malware prevention, what other security practices do you think every organization should implement?

There are multiple security tools that should be implemented by companies to protect their network and data assets. Especially now that companies are shifting their IT systems and using cloud-based applications. It seems like when companies use SaaS and cloud applications, they feel that cybersecurity is “not their problem”. We also feel it as individuals. These are the most dangerous areas as no one thinks he is the “owner” and responsible for the security.

This is also one of the reasons why we see more hacking attempts in cloud services.

In your opinion, what are some of the most dangerous cybersecurity threats that, unfortunately, are often overlooked?

For businesses, email is the most dangerous channel as almost every attack starts with an email. We see lots of phishing and social engineering attacks.

And finally, what’s next for odix?

The FileWall launched a year back and we saw a growing demand for the service. We want to continue the success of FileWall and expand the service of our products, especially with a focus on the value of a single-click deployment ransomware prevention process for our managed service providers. I see that service providers will take FileWall and bring its dynamic value to their broader networks of users and customers. If we keep growing as we are doing right now, odix will become a significant player in the cybersecurity market.