SANTA CLARA, Calif. – August 3, 2016 – Malwarebytes™, the leading advanced malware prevention and remediation solution for consumers and businesses, today announced new anti-ransomware capabilities for the Malwarebytes Endpoint Security platform. Malwarebytes’ new advanced anti-ransomware technology is the first dedicated protection layer purpose-built to block unknown ransomware.

Over the last four years, ransomware has evolved into one of the biggest cyber security threats in the wild, with instances of ransomware in exploit kits increasing 259 percent in the last five months alone. The impact on businesses around the world has been significant.

Malwarebytes is addressing this issue head on with additions to Malwarebytes Endpoint Security, an innovative platform that delivers powerful multi-layered defense for smart endpoint protection against malware and ransomware. Current and future users of the Endpoint Security platform will have access later this month to signature-less behavioral monitoring technology that automatically detects and blocks both known and unknown ransomware, greatly reducing vulnerability to ransomware attacks.

Using a dedicated real-time detection and blocking engine, proprietary ransomware behavioral technology and signature-less protection against unknown (zero-hour) ransomware, the advanced anti-ransomware technology was engineered from scratch to stop ransomware in its tracks, before files are ever encrypted.

Malwarebytes has received an overwhelming response since it unveiled its anti-ransomware beta in January. More than 200,000 businesses and consumers have downloaded the beta in the last six months.

“Traditional security offerings rely on obsolete techniques or a collection of repurposed technologies that were not originally built to combat ransomware,” said Nathan Scott, Senior Security Researcher, Malwarebytes. “Malwarebytes Endpoint Security helps stop ransomware; even types of ransomware that have yet to be discovered. We built these new capabilities from the ground-up because we know that ransomware is one of the most dangerous cyberthreats. Before now, businesses had no purpose-built ransomware protection available to them.”

To uncover the state of ransomware and current business ramifications, Malwarebytes sponsored a survey with Osterman Research. The multi-country report, entitled “State of Ransomware,” was also released today. The survey reveals that nearly 40 percent of the 540 companies surveyed in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Germany, have experienced a ransomware incident. The attacks caused 34 percent of these businesses to lose revenue and 20 percent had to stop business immediately. In the U.S., 96% of US businesses admitted they aren’t very confident in their ability to block a ransomware attack.

“Ransomware has quickly become a clear and present danger to businesses, regardless of size, industry or geographic location,” said Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes. “It’s shocking to see how many business endpoints are now getting hit by ransomware attacks, locking companies out of user files and data. We are thrilled to now be able to equip businesses with multiple technologies to protect against malware and ransomware-based attacks, giving them the confidence to know that they won’t have to pay a ransom or worry about lingering effects of an attack.”