Microsoft Project Freta boosts cloud malware discoverability

If you’re a commercial cloud user, Microsoft’s Project Freta may be what you need to optimize the security of your enterprise computing resources and data.  The service, which is available for free, lets you perform extensive memory audits of Linux systems to capture and stop virtually undetectable malware.

Project Freta for cloud security at scale

With the cloud security solution, you can analyze Linux system memory snapshots for advanced malware activity, including OS interference or sensor sabotage.

Apart from that, Microsoft says that Freta will make it economically unviable for threat actors to build undetectable malware.

Project Freta intends to automate and democratize VM forensics to a point where every user and every enterprise can sweep volatile memory for unknown malware with the push of a button—no setup required. The goal of this democratization effort is to increase the development cost of undiscoverable cloud malware toward its theoretical maximum.

Moreover, while performing memory scans, the system can sniff out rootkits and other advanced threats without alerting the malware. That makes it a lot more difficult for threat actors to build tools capable of breaching Project Freta’s sensors.

Right now, the platform supports up to 4,000 Linux kernels. But that’s just the beginning of it all seeing as Windows support is also in the pipeline.

Microsoft project Freta may finally achieve what traditional antimalware protection couldn’t, especially in the cloud. You can access it here. Documentation for the project is also available.

Nonetheless, this is not the first time Microsoft is mulling or proposing a non-conventional or paradigm-shifting approach to the fight against cyber attacks. For example, you may have heard about the concept of hardware-backed security, which Microsoft considers vital to the detection and elimination of kernel-mode and firmware-level malware.

We’d love to know what you think about Microsoft Project Freta. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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