Untangle Partners With Malwarebytes to Bring Layered Security to SMBs

Untangle and Malwarebytes Partner to Extend Visibility Across Managed Networks and Endpoints for SMBs

San Jose, Calif-based Untangle is a firm that has always focused on providing security solutions for SMBs. This is a difficult market. SMBs frequently underestimate their need for cybersecurity. Even when aware, they often have neither the resource bandwidth nor technical expertise to give security the priority it needs. 

As a result, security products aimed at the SMB market need to be easy to use as well as affordable. But cybersecurity for SMBs has never been more important. They are the supply chain for large enterprises — and attackers are increasingly using this supply chain to access their major targets.

Untangle is approaching this problem by developing a cloud-based Command Center able to give IT administrators an holistic view of dispersed Untangle NG firewalls. It can be described as the nascent foundations of orchestration for small businesses, and is especially attractive to MSPs focused on managing security for multiple SMBs. Today, Untangle has announced a partnership with Malwarebytes designed to extend the visibility of Command Center users into their endpoints.

“Our partnership agreement with Malwarebytes begins an evolution of Command Center towards a full network security orchestration platform,” said Scott Devens, CEO at Untangle.

“Untangle’s focus,” he continued, “has always been to provide small and medium businesses enterprise-level network security through an easy-to-use and affordable solution. Command Center has been a necessity for MSPs and customers with dispersed locations to seamlessly manage their NG Firewall deployments remotely.” 

Command Center provides visibility into devices connected to these distributed networks. “Our partnership with Malwarebytes,” said Devens, “takes this one step further, giving administrators the tools they need to not only receive proactive alerts about threats detected on the endpoints, but also initiate detection and remediation scans.”

Command Center gives the IT administrator the ability to initiate Malwarebytes scan on any host, plus easy navigation between Untangle Command Center and Malwarebytes Management portal.

“SMBs have limited resources and need an integrated security solution that is centralized and takes the guess work out of network security,” commented Raj Mallempati, SVP of marketing at Malwarebytes. “By integrating Malwarebytes’ Endpoint Protection with Untangle’s Command Center, we are able to give network administrators at small and medium-sized businesses control and visibility into their environment.”

MSPs with SMB customers will also benefit. Jay Bradley, founder and MD of Prodata (a distributor that already supplies both Malwarebytes and Untangle NG firewalls), said, “This partnership will provide immediate value to our MSPs by helping them understand the security posture of their networks and connected devices at a glance.”

“Untangle has a strong channel partner program,” explained Devens, “with a focus on helping SMBs around the world tackle their network security challenges. MSPs that offer both Untangle and Malwarebytes products can now benefit from this integration for a complete network and endpoint solution that can be managed from a single pane of glass.”

In general, orchestration is an aspiration for major enterprises. Untangle’s Command Center and the partnership with Malwarebytes is the start of a drive to deliver the same concept to small businesses. While it can be of direct benefit to small companies with distributed sites — such as offices in multiple cities — it will be a major boon to SMB-centric MSPs who can begin to offer orchestration as part of their service to clients.

Related: New Cyber Readiness Program Launched for SMBs 

Related: NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Act Becomes Law 

Related: Operation Cloud Hopper: China-based Hackers Target MSPs