What component of Palo Alto Networks public cloud security solution protects against command and control communications in an AWS environment?

The VM-Series is a key component of Palo Alto Networks' public cloud security solution that is designed specifically to secure workloads in cloud environments, including AWS. It operates as a highly scalable virtualized firewall that provides advanced threat protection by inspecting traffic and monitoring both incoming and outgoing communications.

In the context of protecting against command and control (C2) communications, the VM-Series leverages its deep packet inspection capabilities to identify and block malicious traffic patterns associated with C2 communications. This allows organizations to prevent attackers from maintaining control over compromised systems and significantly reduces the risk of data exfiltration or further compromise.

In contrast, while Prisma Public Cloud and Prisma SaaS focus on overall visibility, compliance, and security posture management in public clouds and SaaS environments, they do not specifically target network-level threats and C2 activities in the same way that the VM-Series does. Cortex XDR Prevent primarily offers endpoint protection and intrusion prevention, making it important for threat detection and response but not directly focused on network-level command and control communication protections in a cloud context.