The Blacklist Cannot Keep Up with New Ransomware Variants
In 2016, NextGov reported 1,419 ransomware variants, compared to 2,855 in 2017. These are only the confirm malicious variants. New strains are being created every minute of every day. Therefore, knowing the exact number and exact coding of all malicious variants is impossible, which is why traditional security solutions are failing. Most antivirus solutions use a blacklist approach to prevent malware from executing on a PC or server. The issue with the blacklist is, a file must be known to be bad in order for it to be blocked. With new malicious ransomware variants being created every single minute, keeping the blacklist updated is impossible.
An alternative, and far more effective approach would be implementing a security solution that uses an application whitelist, as its primary method of malware detection. Application whitelisting as a form of malware prevention is not new. In fact, it is often not considered a feasible approach because of the increased labor created for the end-user or IT professionals.
However, an automated application whitelist approach removes this burden from IT staff within the organization. Instead of leaving end-users and IT professionals with the responsibility of creating and maintaining their own whitelist, PC Matic and PC Matic Pro offers a globally automated whitelist approach. The whitelist technology found in PC Matic and PC Matic Pro is developed, tested, researched, and supported by the PC Matic team. Any unknown files are sent directly to the PC Matic malware research team, to be tested and categorized as either safe or malicious.
Is it time you upgraded your security solution?
