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* Traps: Fighting Threats W...

# Traps: Fighting Threats With Cloud-Based Malware Analysis

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By [Danny Milrad](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/danny-milrad/?ts=markdown "Posts by Danny Milrad") and [Eila Shargh](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/eila-shargh/?ts=markdown "Posts by Eila Shargh")  
Nov 19, 2018  
4 minutes  
[Endpoint](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/endpoint-2/?ts=markdown)  
[Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown)  
[Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)  
[Machine Learning](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/machine-learning/?ts=markdown)  
[threat landscape](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/threat-landscape/?ts=markdown)  
[Traps](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/traps/?ts=markdown)  
[WildFire](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/wildfire/?ts=markdown)

Today's complex threat landscape -- combined with the diversity, volume and sophistication of threats in the modern enterprise environment -- makes accurate and effective threat prevention challenging. This problem is compounded by the challenge of detecting new, never-before-seen, or zero-day malware and exploits in addition to identifying known malicious content.

To address these sophisticated, targeted and evasive threats, endpoint protection must enhance its protections by integrating shared threat intelligence and, if done right, allow it to learn and evolve its defenses. In 2017, IDC research confirmed that 39 percent of security professionals consider shared threat intelligence a high or extreme priority in order to improve the security posture. Integrating cloud-based threat intelligence into endpoint protection enables a deeper analysis to rapidly detect potentially unknown threats.

By combining multiple methods of prevention, including deep integration with the cloud-delivered WildFire malware prevention service, Traps stands apart in its ability to protect endpoints. Traps blocks security breaches and successful ransomware attacks that leverage malware and exploits, known or unknown, before they can compromise endpoints.

With Traps and WildFire working together, you get the following advantages:

* The latest, most up-to-date detection technologies available at scale.
* Automated, proactive protection, accurate zero-day detection and prevention delivered in minutes for threats found across tens of thousands of customer networks globally.
* Extensibility with virtually unlimited scale to meet the analysis needs of even the largest organizations.
* Automatically distribute up-to-the-minute threat intelligence to and from firewalls, cloud and endpoints to reprogram prevention and achieve coordinated enforcement.
* Flexibility, with no additional hardware to purchase, deploy, configure, update or maintain.

**Traps + WildFire**

Traps prevents the execution of malicious files with an approach tailored to combating both traditional and modern attacks. To increase the accuracy and coverage of prevention, Traps leverages WildFire for:

**WildFire Threat Intelligence**

Traps queries WildFire to quickly determine if an instance of malware has been previously seen or not, decreasing the time to a verdict and immediately preventing known threats.

**Machine Learning on the Endpoint**

Traps uses a machine learning engine inside the Traps agent to identify new threats. With over 7 billion samples and 5 trillion artifacts collected and processed, WildFire has trained Traps to identify both bad and good files to provide a more accurate verdict and minimize false positives. This analysis looks at hundreds of characteristics of a file in a fraction of a second without relying on signatures, scanning or behavioral analysis. Any new threats identified by Traps are sent to WildFire for additional analysis, including dynamic analysis, static analysis, machine learning and bare metal analysis.

**WildFire Malware Analysis**

For files that have never been seen before (unknown), WildFire performs static analysis to observe the behavior of the file and render a verdict of malicious or benign. The file, if still unknown, is further analyzed via dynamic analysis by our built- from-the-ground-up custom hypervisor. Threats attempting to evade analysis are subject to bare metal analysis for full hardware execution to detect and prevent even the most evasive malware.

As an integral part of Palo Alto Networks Security Operating Platform, Traps continuously exchanges threat intelligence with the WildFire malware analysis service. This two-way communication enables Traps to use intelligence from WildFire to automatically block newly identified malware, and turns all your endpoints into a network of sensors and enforcement points that can strengthen security across your entire environment. Additionally, endpoint logs stored in the Logging Service are combined with logs from other sensors, enabling products such as AutoFocus, Panorama and Magnifier to aid in incident response.

To learn more about the essential requirements for endpoint protection,[join us for a webinar](https://www.sans.org/webcasts/109540) at 3:30 p.m. EST on December 11th and learn how Traps and WildFire provide a prevention-first approach that protects endpoints at each critical stage of the attack lifecycle.

*** ** * ** ***

## Related Blogs

### [Endpoint](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/endpoint-2/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)

[#### Protecting Endpoints From Day One](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2019/01/protecting-endpoints-day-one/)

### [Endpoint](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/endpoint-2/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown), [Technical Documentation](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/technical-documentation/?ts=markdown)

[#### Tech Docs: Five New Features in the Traps Management Service](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2018/08/tech-docs-five-new-features-traps-management-service/)

### [Endpoint](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/endpoint-2/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown), [Technical Documentation](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/technical-documentation/?ts=markdown)

[#### Tech Docs: Traps 5.0.2 and the July Traps Management Service - So Hot Right Now!](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2018/07/tech-docs-traps-5-0-2-july-traps-management-service-hot-right-now/)

### [Endpoint](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/endpoint-2/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)

[#### Introducing Traps for Android](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2018/06/introducing-traps-android/)

### [Cybersecurity](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cybersecurity-2/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Enterprise](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-enterprise/?ts=markdown)

[#### When Scripts Attack, WildFire Protects](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2019/01/scripts-attack-wildfire-protects/)

### [Cybersecurity](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/cybersecurity-2/?ts=markdown), [Products and Services](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/products-and-services/?ts=markdown), [Secure the Future](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/secure-the-future/?ts=markdown)

[#### Machine Learning: Your Unfair Advantage Against Attackers](https://www2.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2018/10/machine-learning-unfair-advantage-attackers/)

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