Catbird, provider of the only comprehensive security solution for virtual and physical networks, and developer of the V-Agent™ virtual appliance, today announced the launch of HypervisorShield™, the industry’s first dedicated comprehensive security solution specifically designed to guard against unauthorized hypervisor network access and attack.

HypervisorShield, the latest service in Catbird’s V-Security product, extends best practice security protection to virtualization’s critical hypervisor layer, thwarting both inadvertent management error and malicious threats. Delivering continuous, automated 24x7 monitoring focused on the precise vulnerabilities, known attack signatures and guest machine access of the hypervisor management network, HypervisorShield is the only service to proactively secure this essential component of a virtualization deployment.

“You can’t protect what you can’t detect,” said Edmundo Costa, Catbird COO. “Most customers are surprised to learn that their existing end-point security mechanisms can’t secure the virtual infrastructure. With network vulnerabilities increasing year over year, IT chiefs who depend on virtual infrastructure for business operations should not be lulled into believing their traditional security topology is adequate for the new virtual world.”

HypervisorShield is the first virtualized security technology which can monitor and control access to the hypervisor network, detect malicious network activity directed at the hypervisor from virtual machines and validate that the hypervisor network is configured according to best practices and site security policy. Catbird's seasoned team of security experts, coupled with alliances with veteran industry leaders such as Sourcefire™ and groundbreaking proprietary technology like Emerging Threat Intelligence™ gives HypervisorShield the muscle and breadth to continuously detect and mitigate the latest threats to the Hypervisor management infrastructure.

“Customers want the same level of security for their virtual infrastructures that they require of their physical network,” continued Costa. “Catbird partners are able to close the security gap created by virtualization.”

Via the groundbreaking Catbird V-Agent virtual appliance, protection is delivered within the virtual network itself. By contrast, traditional security solutions retrofitted for virtual deployments cannot see inside the hypervisor. Monitoring from the inside yields significantly more effective coverage and eliminates the need to reroute traffic onto the physical network for validation. As an example of the benefits of running right on the virtual subnet, HypervisorShield’s exclusive network access control (NAC) will instantly quarantine unauthorized devices on the management network.

HypervisorShield is a component of Catbird’s V-Security, a fully-automated and comprehensive Security As A Service for virtual and physical networks. Unlike conventional host-based solutions, stateful appliances and proprietary hardware solutions, Catbird’s unique, stateless architecture is 100% plug-and-play for both physical and virtual environments. The V-Agent is free and may be instantly downloaded and deployed on any virtual network. Catbird’s V-Security is available from any authorized Catbird partner.

For more information about HypervisorShield and Catbird’s full line of stateless enterprise-grade in-the-cloud security solutions, visit the company’s Web site at www.catbird.com.