Hysolate Launches Free OS Isolation Offering, taking Windows Sandbox Technology to the Next Level

Hysolate, a virtual workspace innovator for security-aware enterprises, announced the general availability of Hysolate Free, an instantly deployable OS isolation solution that empowers workers to protect corporate assets by isolating risky activities in a local VM on their laptops. Hysolate is the first company to extend the isolation technology behind Microsoft’s Windows Sandbox to provide a completely persistent isolated workspace for any application and data on a user’s endpoint. 

In a global business environment where it’s generally accepted that up to 70 percent of security breaches originate at the endpoint, workers still need to access documents, applications, websites, peripherals, and cloud services beyond the security perimeter to perform routine tasks comprising their job descriptions. Using Hysolate, workers can browse the web freely, download content and install applications in a safe virtual workspace on their laptops without compromising their endpoints’ security or exposing the corporate domain to the perils of phishing and malware. Hysolate Free gives users the option of relegating these activities to an isolated virtual workspace on their laptops, making these tasks worry-free. 

“In the new world without a perimeter, employee devices have become the cornerstone of corporate IT,” said Admiral Michael Rogers, Former Head of NSA. “Hysolate has reinvented how organizations can isolate applications and data on users’ devices and, by doing so, significantly reduce the risk on the endpoint. For those companies that are adopting ZeroTrust concepts, the integrity of the endpoint is a key element alongside verifying the user’s identity. As employees continue to work from anywhere, they need a security solution that makes their day-to-day work secure yet productive.”

Deriving its endpoint security pedigree from Hysolate Enterprise, Hysolate Free is available at no cost and features near-instant installation; users can deploy and enjoy full OS isolation in under five minutes. Whereas other endpoint security solutions focus on adding more and more restrictions on the endpoint, which hamper users’ day-to-day business productivity, Hysolate Free is engineered to liberate end users, granting them the utmost IT freedom and maximum productivity without assuming more security risk.

“Endpoints continue to provide a major entry point for malware into the organization, moreso today with the demand for hybrid workforce support,” said Hysolate CEO Marc Gaffan. “To dramatically reduce that exposure, we are extending Microsoft’s virtualization-based security to cover any Windows application and user data that are not supported using existing Windows sandboxing technology. This includes downloading popular modern productivity and collaboration applications like Adobe Reader, Zoom and Slack, opening questionable files and email attachments, accessing any cloud service, using external hard drives, and other typical activities beyond just web browsing.”

VM-based isolation has received significant attention stemming from Microsoft’s recently announced enhancements to its Windows Sandbox product. While the changes represent an upgrade to the underlying virtualization technology, they do not cover all Windows applications, and don’t allow for a persistent environment where users can save their data and keep it isolated from their existing OS. While Windows Sandbox offers a volatile sandbox, mainly used by security researchers, Hysolate makes this technology available to the masses within an enterprise to seamlessly isolate zero-day attacks or malware riding on external sources like email attachments, executables, or external flash drives – without changing how users work. It also offers enterprise-grade centralized management capabilities and advanced network security capabilities. 

For several years now, Hysolate has been driving the practice of establishing a separate, virtual operating system on a user’s endpoint, preserving a pristine environment for sensitive corporate work while relegating higher-risk activities (including accessing third-party content) to the virtual environment. Today’s announcement of the general availability of Hysolate Free, providing immediate, no-cost access to enhanced sandbox technology, will encourage IT and security teams to explore and understand the merits and advantages of centrally-managed OS isolation for the distributed workers and teams they support.