Security startup Bromium proposes a novel means of keeping PCs secure outside corporate firewalls-- not by keeping threats out, but by isolating suspected threats from the OS core using a "Microvisor."
The Microvisor takes security inside the system, creating what Bromium calls a "Micro-VM" in order to isolate, run and examine every individual tasks. A specially designed hypervisor, the Microvisor is late loading (not provisioned on hardware before the desktop OS) and functions unobtrusively.
In other words it creates tiny virtual quarantines for suspect malware.
According to Bromium a PC with 4GB of memory can run 100-150 Micro-VMs, which can be applied to any existing application. The software also takes advantage of the hardware-assisted virtualisation and security capabilities built into Intel CPUS.
Speaking at the GigaOM Structure 2012 conference, Bromium co-founder Simon Crosby says "the bad guys will always get in... it's about limiting what they can do."
The Bromium founders come from XenSource, a virtualisation pioneer Citrix bought for $500 million back in 2007.
The Microvisor is currently in beta testing, and Bromium gives no release date-- only saying it will be available "when it's awesome."
Go Bromium
