Application Whitelisting — The Future of Cyber Security
After the recent global attacks, WannaCry and NotPetya, application whitelisting has made its way into the news as the future of cyber security. First, CSO Online featured a piece on dynamic whitelisting capabilities. Maria Korolov, the author of the article stated,
“We are in an age of destructive and fast-spreading malware, like the recent WannaCry ransomware attack, and this is encouraging companies to give whitelisting a second look. “
Whitelisting technology has been proven to be far more effective in preventing malware attacks, such as ransomware. Therefore, companies need to begin looking at it as a viable option to meet their cyber security needs.
Another article from the Huffington Post was recently released urging small businesses to start implementing application whitelisting as well. Author, Melinda Emerson stated,
“Get your business on the whitelist bandwagon…STAT.”
Clearing up a few things…
Regardless of the malware prevention rates application whitelisting has set forth, businesses are still hesitant to implement such a method. Here’s why — both articles state it could be quite the task for an IT department to keep up with.
The issue is, with whitelisting, all unknown files are treated as bad until tested and proven their safety. This means, there could be a lag time between attempting to execute a program and when it is actually capable of running. For some security software solutions, the testing and approval tasks are left to the company’s IT department. PC Matic knows that is not an option.
PC Matic, PC Matic Pro and PC Matic MSP, all use a whitelist as its primary method of malware detection. However, when an unknown file or program attempts to execute, instead of leaving it up to the company, the PC Matic Malware Team does the testing and approval/denial process. Although, if a company has confirmed that program is safe, they have the ability to locally whitelist the program, making it available immediately. This means, only that user will have the ability to use the program or file, until the PC Matic team has the ability to test it. Once proven safe, it will be added to the global whitelist. Therefore, all PC Matic users who attempt to open that program or file have the ability to do so, since it has been tested and proven safe.
Conclusion
Current malware threats are evolving every day. Isn’t it time users begin evolving their security solutions to keep up? Application whitelisting has been proven far more effective than traditional security solution methods. It is true, some whitelisting agents leave all of the back-end work to a company’s IT department. PC Matic does not. If you want superior security protection, without all the behind-the-scenes hassle, it’s time for PC Matic.
