You have undoubtedly received marketing emails and seen advertisements advising you that it’s time to ditch your legacy antivirus (AV) for Endpoint Protection (EPP).
While we all have experienced antivirus software, particularly blocking malware in emails. Endpoint Protection refers to the cyber security measures implemented to mitigate the holistic risks to those endpoint devices.
Antivirus software is designed to protect networks from cyber security threats. It does this by recognising ‘known’ malware signatures, identifying threats and flagging them accordingly.
Thus, your antivirus will warn against accessing insecure websites, reject emails you believe to be dangerous, or block you from opening documents that appear infected.
The AV is programmed with a database of malware signatures known to be malicious and will generally be updated with new threat listings as they become known.
But herein lies the major problem with traditional AV – Antivirus relies entirely on what is known. The reality is, once a malware signature becomes known, attackers will stop using it – and then that listing is effectively useless.
These programs are designed to inspect every file on your system – a time-consuming job, which is why full system virus scans can be tedious.
Unfortunately, this type of scan is no longer relevant.
More than three quarters of all modern cyber attacks are file-less.
Finally, another unpopular aspect of traditional AV software is its tendency to generate report after report after report—each of which requires the eye of a cyber security professional who could probably be using their time more effectively.
In summary, your old school AV software is looking in the wrong place for malware that is no longer in use. How exactly is it supposed to protect your system?
The sad truth is, cyber criminals have been up-skilling faster than traditional AV can handle.
The cyber attacks you read about in the news are not likely to result from some CEO opening a dodgy attachment in a spam email from some widowed billionaire. Security threats have become smarter, stealthier and deadlier than ever, so Endpoint Protection is desperately needed.
The next generation of antivirus software – sometimes called NGAV or NGEP (next generation endpoint protection) – has done away with the signatures database. It doesn’t work on the assumption that every virus coming your way has been seen somewhere before, or that every attack will be file-based...
Rather than relying on a database of signatures, Endpoint Protection identifies malicious behaviour, and looks at every cyber event in context to determine whether a behaviour should be flagged as suspicious.
In practice, this means that Endpoint Protection delivers proactive security control. It deals with threats autonomously and automatically pushes out updates, saving your entire business time and time that could be better spent on more lucrative activities.
Further reading: The difference between Endpoint Protection and Traditional Antivirus
In the past—and in many cases still today—AV gave users a feeling of total security without actually delivering on that feeling.
More than half of enterprises that suffered a ransomware attack in 2017 blamed their legacy antivirus solution for failing to protect them.
Security professionals acknowledge that no program or strategy is bulletproof. Hackers are highly motivated, don’t work a 9-to-5 and seem to have unlimited resources to find the tiniest fissures they can turn into cracks.
With nearly 1 million new types of malware released daily, it is especially important to select the smartest solution to protect your endpoints. The time saved on running scans, updates, and reading reports can be better used in developing a strong cyber security strategy.
SentinelOne’s Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) provides organisations with real-time, unified endpoint protection, unifying prevention, detection and response in one platform.
SentinelOne EPP leverages advanced machine learning and intelligent automation to prevent and detect attacks across all major vectors, with rapid elimination of threats, fully automated policy-driven response, and complete visibility into the endpoint with real-time forensics.
The independent antivirus research institute (AV-TEST) has awarded SentinelOne EPP the Approved Corporate Endpoint Protection certification for both Windows and OS X, which validates its effectiveness for detecting both advanced malware and blocking known threats - the only next-generation endpoint protection vendor to obtain this certification on both platforms.